I just saw (Jacob Ogles') article regarding the roofing company. We relocated here without any special incentives program and I fail to see why some roofing company would receive any incentive. Totally unnecessary. There are enough positive economic factors here already that make this a waste of taxpayer money. The main problem in sustained and smart building and development is the county bureaucracy in Sarasota County. Impact fees are too high and there are too many unnecessary inspections especially for non-critical infrastructure items like the slope of a berm on a septic tank. Bureaucratic red tape needs to be streamlined and approvals have to be expedited for core housing development. On the commercial side, Sarasota has to lure young entrepreneurs with offers to take over abandoned industrial space and convert it to up value manufacturing in the city core. The city needs to cultivate a hip urban environment with more separated bicycle paths leading to downtown to reduce vehicle traffic. It needs to promote and reward green development like we are doing with Eco Houses and inner Sarasota development. Sun and photovoltaic energy and smaller electric cars need to be incentivized like we do with our business here with 15KW solar and an electric car and bike. We use only one all-electric car that uses a photovoltaic charger and a Smart Max mower with no power. Popular Science Green product of the year. Sarasota still is stuck on pick-ups, guns and big SUV's. Not very progressive and this is what Millenials want—innovative approaches like in Santa Cruz, California or Boulder, not red neck lag hardness. We need to get hip and green. We have Sun, Biomass, culture beaches and a vibrant urban core. But it has to be built on like even Chi-Raq or Chicago has done or SF for that matter!

Jim Donovan, CEO of NuTru in Sarasota, responding to the "Failed Incentives a First" column in the May 28 edition of SRQ Daily.