Have you noticed the cooler breezes filling the streets and lanes over the past few weeks? Here we go... all together now… let’s give a long sigh of relief… for Summer seems to be almost over and Autumn’s here.

Those breezes have brought with them the opening of windows at night here in Laurel Park. And with that come the sounds of the Blue Jays and the Mockingbirds in the mornings, the calls of the evening screech owls, and the all-too- frequent reminders that it’s really a jungle out there! Now at night we can hear the sounds of marauding raccoons and the occasional possum foraging through our back gardens and compost heaps. In my own yard, I see the evidence in the mornings o ...

Within the borders of Laurel Park reside many talented artists. Numerous sculptors, painters, musicians, architects and textile designers have moved into the area over the last few years, and the neighborhood is becoming more attractive to new artists all the time.

Actually, Laurel Park has always been home to people in the arts. One Laurel Park artist who long-time Sarasota residents will surely remember is Arlie Gray. Arlie, his wife Gladys, and their two children moved to &l ...

Imagine an urban neighborhood where cows roam in open field, school children dash barefoot through grass taller than themselves, and the sweet smell of guava jelly floats in the air.  You would be creating a picture of our neighborhood in the early 1920’s, a picture that is vivid in Charles Early’s memory.

Early, now a Sarasota taxation and estate planning attorney, lived first in a house on