ZIP Code 34236

Sarasota is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Its official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The city limits expanded significantly with the real estate rush of the early twentieth century, reaching almost 70 square miles (180 km²) The wild speculation boom began to crash in 1926 and the city limits began to contract, shrinking to less than a quarter of that area. Sarasota has a tropical climate with hot, humid summers and warm, drier winters. It is located in the southern end of the Greater Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. According to the 2020 U.S. census, Sarasota had a population of 54,842. The Sarasota city limits contain several keys, including Lido Key, St. Armands Key, Otter Key, Casey Key, Coon Key, Bird Key, and portions of Siesta Key. The origins of the name is disputed, with some claiming that it is based on conquistador Hernando de Sotos daughter Sara, and others claiming it comes from sara-de-cota, meaning an area of land easily observed in the language of the Calusa indigenous tribe. The municipal government of Sarasota was established when it was incorporated as a town in 1902.

History

Sarasota is the primary city name, but also Lakewood Ranch, Lakewood Rch are acceptable city names or spellings. Sarasota appeared on a sheepskin Spanish map from 1763 with the word Zarazote over present-day Sarasota and Bradenton. The origins of the name is disputed, with some claiming that it is based on conquistador Hernando de Sotos daughter Sara. Around 1883 to 1885, The Florida Mortgage And Investment Company Of Edinburgh bought 60,000 acres for development in what is now the City of Sarasota. Many Scottish people began to arrive in Sarasota in December 1885. The municipal government was established when it was incorporated as a town in 1902. John Gillespie was the first Mayor. When reincorporated with a city form of government, A. B. Edwards became the first mayor of the city. The name Sarasota is believed to have come from sara-de-cota, meaning an area of land easily observed in the language of the Calusa indigenous tribe. It is also believed that the word Sarasota comes from the word sara, which means 'home' or 'place' in the Spanish language. The city is now home to the University of Florida, which was founded in 1883. The university is located on the banks of the Sarasota River, which runs through the heart of the City. It was founded by the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company of Edinburgh in 1885 to help finance development of the area. The company also helped fund the construction of the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee in 1884.

Geography and climate

Sarasota has a tropical climate with hot, humid summers and warm, drier winters. The high temperatures and high humidity in the summer regularly push the heat index over 100 °F (38 °C) There are distinct rainy and dry seasons, with the rainy season lasting from March to November and the dry season from December to February. The city has a total area of 24.08 square miles (62.4 km²), of which 14.70 sq mi (38.07 km²) is land and 9.39sq mi (24.3 km²] is water. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the city's population at 1,856,000. The population of Sarasota in 2010 was 1,732,000, with 1,938,000 residents living in or near the city. The majority of the population lives in or around the city of Sarasota, which has a population of 1,962,000 (1,936,000 people in 2010). The city is located on the Gulf of Mexico, which is an important source of fresh water for the area. It also has a large amount of freshwater resources, which are used for agriculture and other purposes. It is the only city in the state to have a large percentage of its population living in the form of fish and shellfish. The number of people living in Sarasota has grown from 1,800,000 to 1,900,000 in the past decade.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census, Sarasota city had a population of 54,842 with 25,209 households. The median household income was $56,093 with a per capita income of $43,387. 4,056 veterans lived in the city and 16.7% of the population were Foreign born persons. 92.5% of households had a computer and 84.2% had a broadband internet subscription. 15.6% of residents lived below the poverty threshold. The city is located on Florida's panhandle. It is one of the largest cities in the state, along with Tampa, Orlando, Tampa Bay and Fort Lauderdale. The population of Sarasota has grown to more than 54,000 people in the last 20 years. The average age of the city's residents is 65 years and older. It has the highest percentage of high school graduates in the U.S. and the lowest percentage of college grads in the country. It also has the lowest unemployment rate in the United States, at 2.7%. The city has a high school graduation rate of 90.0%. It is the second-largest city in Florida, after Tallahassee, with a rate of 80.9%. It has a population growth rate of 3.9% in the past 10 years, the highest rate of any Florida city in that time period. It had the highest proportion of college graduates, at 37.2%. It also had the lowest rate of home ownership, at 1.6%.

Government

Sarasota County was carved out of Manatee County in 1921. It is governed by a five-person commission elected by popular vote. Two at-large commissioners are elected by all voters. The city is divided into three districts for which the residents of each elect one district representative to the five member commission. The county government is responsible for the schools, the libraries, the bay, major waterways, the airport, the health department, the courts, the police and the fire department. It also has responsibility for the city's public parks, which are open to the public. It was the first city in the U.S. to be named after a city, not a county, in the 19th century. The name of the city is Sarasota, which means "City of Sarasota" in Spanish. The town's name means "city" or "town" in English, and it means "home" in Italian. It has been named after the town where it was first established in 17th century, when it was called Sarasota. It became a city after the city was given the name "Sarasarota" by the Spanish-speaking inhabitants. The word "sar" means "land" in Latin. It means "place" and "sustained" in the Spanish language. It refers to the area where it is located, which is called the "city of the same name" by many residents. It's also known as the "county" because of its location in the middle of the state of Florida.

Arts and culture

Sarasota has many musical, dance, theatre, circus and other performing arts venues. Theatrical venues include Florida Studio Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, The Players Theatre, Urbanite Theatre, and the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe. In 1925, A. B. Edwards built a theater that could be adapted for either vaudeville performances or movie screenings. Tommy Dorsey, Will Rogers and Elvis Presley each performed at the Edward Theatre. In the early 1950s, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art purchased a historic Italian theater, the "Asolo" (now called the Historic Asolo Theater). This theatre was originally built for Queen Caterina of Cyprus palace in Asolo, Italy in 1798 but was dismantled in 1931. The complex provides venues and facilities for students of Florida State University's MFA Acting program, the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. The theatre was renamed the Keating Theatre in honor of Ed and Elaine Keating, and in 2004, additional lobby space was built in the theatre - the Bea Friedman Room. In 2003, FST purchased the Gomz Theatre. The building was originally originally the Park-Seventh Movie House in the 1920s. Due to the Depression, the movie house shut its doors in the 1940s and became an empty venue. It was subsequently sold to Anita Katzman and reoccupied by Key Actors Theatre in 1980s.

Festivals

The Sarasota Film Festival attracts independent films from around the world. In 2009 the annual Ringling International Arts Festival, held its premier and held its closing event in the historic Asolo theater, which had been moved and rebuilt again. In 2010, the Sarasota Chalk Festival became the first international street painting festival in the United States of America. The festival has a different theme each year and has introduced new techniques in street art. It is also home to the Harvey Milk Festival, an independent music festival in support of civil rights, focusing on the LGBTQ community. It has been celebrated in May annually since 2010 on the weekend closest to Harvey Milk's birthday, and is currently the largest independent music Festival in Sarasota, with thousands of attendees throughout the free, public, multi-day event. The annual Sarasota Improv Festival brings together the best improvisers from across the country and around the country for a whirlwind weekend of spontaneous creativity. The Festival has become a destination event, drawing thousands of people fromAcross the state of Florida and beyond. Past performers have come from as far as Mexico, Canada, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom to perform on Florida's Gulf Coast. As of 2014 the SarasOTA Chalk festival has relocated to Venice, FL, a small town just South of Sarasota. Except for a few commissioned on public property in the Palm Avenue Parking Garage, the murals are on private property and they are in many sections of SarasOTA and in Manatee County as well.

Architecture

The Sarasota School of Architecture developed as a variant of mid-century modernist architecture. A large number of homes and buildings are designed in the Italian style, especially Venetian as influenced by Ringling's Cà d'Zan. Many of the luxurious historic residences from the 1920s boom period along the northern shore of Sarasota Bay also have survived. The city boasts that 100,000 people use it every year and it is a boon to the community for recreation, lawn sports, as well as being heavily attended for auctions, concerts, conventions, flea markets, galas, graduations, lectures, orchid and flower shows. The World Monuments Fund included the school on its 2008 Watch List of 100 Most endangered Main Street Sites in the Main Street category in the category of Main Street on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2006, the Sarasota County School Board slated one of Paul Rudolph's Sarasota High School projects, for demolition. The board arrived at the decision despite protests from many historic preservationists, including architects, and urban planners. Others supported the demolition as they believed the structure was no longer functional. The school board decided to allow a renovation of Rudolph's buildings and preserve and preserve the school for a new school. In 2007, two historic buildings, the Crocker Church and the Bidwell-Wood House (the oldest remaining structure in the city), first restored by Veronica Morgan, became city property. These structures were relocated to this park, despite protests by residents who objected to the loss of park area.

Education

Sarasota is home to New College of Florida, a public liberal arts college and the honors college for the State University System of Florida. Other colleges in the city include East West College of Natural Medicine, an accredited college of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Public education is provided and managed by the Sarasota County Public Schools school district. Private education includes the Classical Academy of Sarasota and Sarasota Christian School. The city was also home to the Flint School, a type of boating school. It is located in Florida's Gulf Coast region, and is located on the Florida Turnpike, which runs into the state's eastern end of the Florida Panhandle and into the Florida Gulf Coast. It has a population of about 2.5 million people, making it one of the largest cities in Florida, along with Tampa and Fort Lauderdale. It also has a reputation for being a good place to raise children, with more than 50% of children attending public schools by the age of 12. The average high school student in Sarasota is expected to graduate in the mid- to high-teens. The school district has a budget of about $1.2 billion, with the majority of the money going to public schools. The district also has an enrollment of about 1,500 students, with most of the students attending private schools. It was founded in the early 1900s, when the city was part of the state of Florida and was known as Sarasota. The state's largest city, Sarasota, is now home to more than 2,000 people.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Sarasota, Manatee County, Florida = 60.1. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 33. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 98. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Sarasota = 6.7 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 54,842 individuals with a median age of 42.4 age the population grows by 1.78% in Sarasota, Manatee County, Florida population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 3,731.51 residents per square mile of area (1,440.74/km²). There are average 2.06 people per household in the 24,518 households with an average household income of $40,072 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 12.40% of the available work force and has dropped -7.71% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 12.98%. The number of physicians in Sarasota per 100,000 population = 289.9.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Sarasota = 51.8 inches and the annual snowfall = 0 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 107. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 251. 91 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 51.3 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 28, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Sarasota, Manatee County, Florida which are owned by the occupant = 49.36%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 36 years with median home cost = $162,950 and home appreciation of -18.76%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $11.31 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $5,549 per student. There are 17.3 students for each teacher in the school, 727 students for each Librarian and 444 students for each Counselor. 5.69% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 16.31% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 9.12% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).