High-end squawkers News flash! Some of Sarasota’s new high-rises are being nibbled and pecked to death by.parrots? Among Sarasota’s charming features are the flocks of wild green parrots that have invaded the town during the last decade. Noisy and colorful, the birds lend a tropical air to our community. But as usual, the law of [...]

If there’s anything that Don Hermey, safety officer for Sarasota Memorial Hospital, would like people here to know, it’s that Sarasota has been planning for bioterrorism long before the nation suffered its first anthrax attacks. "There’s a naivete that we’re starting from the ground up," says Hermey, a certified safety and health manager who has [...]

Mary Pierce and her fiancé Roberto Alomar recently bought a beautiful bayfront home with vast views of the Sarasota skyline and John Ringling Causeway but just couldn’t find the time to decorate. The couple often talked about how to furnish their new place. They envisioned a clean, open feel with a sophisticated monochromatic color scheme. [...]

Next month, Sarasota will hold a special election to decide whether property owners should pay more taxes to raise funds for county schools. The proposed increase of one mil ($100 per $100,000 of your home’s value) means most Sarasotans would pay around $150 a year for the next four years. That works out to about [...]

In an effort to get a handle on the national crisis we are all going through, I find myself thinking more and more about our Founding Fathers. They were truly a remarkable group of men. The Declaration of Independence and Constitution seem to have an answer for almost any problem that comes up, with the [...]

If you want to know what the lobby of the new Ritz-Carlton looks like, take a stroll through the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. That’s what interior designer Pamela Hughes and her team did when they were planning the inside of Sarasota’s newest Mediterranean Revival hotel. "We studied the rich fabric on the [...]

Restaurants with staying power are owned by pros who are constantly gauging culinary trends, refining menus and changing with their patrons’ changing tastes. Maureen’s, a four-year old gourmet restaurant on Longboat Key, is owned and operated by two professionals who know how to keep things fresh. Steve (the chef) and Maureen (front of the house) [...]

Adrienne Frank of Sarasota likes to telI a story about her grandfather, Alois Traxler. In 1912, the young Traxler left Austria for a new life in America. He had planned to set sail on a brand-new vessel called Titanic. Advised by relatives never to take the maiden voyage of any ship, however, he settled instead [...]