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Erik Jhoan Arroyo is an American lawyer and Republican politician. He became the youngest and first Hispanic Mayor in the history of Sarasota, Florida. [1] He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. [2]
Erik J. Arroyo | |
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| Mayor of Sarasota | |
| Personal details | |
| Education | University of Florida (BA) Florida A&M University College of Law (JD) |
Arroyo graduated from Riverview High School and attended the University of Florida, where he earned a degree in political science. He got his Juris Doctor from Florida A&M University College of Law. [3]
Mayor of Sarasota
Arroyo became the youngest and first Hispanic Mayor in the history of Sarasota, Florida. [1] As Mayor, he suggested prioritizing cuts over drawing down reserves to balance the city's $252.18 million budget. [4] Arroyo led an initiative for annexation of the barrier island of Siesta Key into the city of Sarasota, which the city commission approved for further consideration. [5] [6] Arroyo has been an advocate for a regional alley beautification program. [7] In 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Mayor Arroyo to the CareerSource Florida Board of Directors. [8]
Mayor Arroyo expressed support for Ukraine during the 2022 Russia Invasion of Ukraine. [9] In 2021, Mayor Arroyo gave the key to the city to sports celebrity Royce Gracie and declared December 12 as "Royce Gracie Day." [10] He was also a member of the Sarasota chess team in an international chess match against Tel Mond, Israel, which was published by the United States Chess Federation. [11]
City Commissioner & Vice Mayor
During his first day in elected office, Arroyo initiated a discussion on the future of the city manager's employment. [12] Arroyo was voted unanimously by the Sarasota city commission as the city's Vice Mayor. [13] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Arroyo proposed a city-wide moratorium on utility suspensions for unpaid accounts during the winter months, which was ultimately approved by the city commission. [14] He also advocated for a ban on animal kill shelters in Sarasota. [15]
Candidacy for Florida House of Representatives
Erik Arroyo ran for election to the Florida House of Representatives to represent District 72. [16] Arroyo withdrew from the Florida house race and ran for the Sarasota city commission. [17]
Sarasota County is a county located in Southwest Florida. At the 2020 US census, the population was 434,006. Its county seat is Sarasota and its largest city is North Port. Sarasota County is part of the North Port–Sarasota–Bradenton, FL metropolitan statistical area.
Palmetto is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was listed as 13,323. It is part of the North Port–Sarasota–Bradenton metropolitan statistical area.
Opa-locka is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,463, up from 15,219 in 2010.
North Port is a city located in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. The population was 74,793 at the 2020 US Census. It is part of the North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was originally developed by General Development Corporation as the northern / Sarasota County portion of its Port Charlotte development, the other portion located in the adjacent Charlotte County. GDC dubbed the city North Port Charlotte, and it was incorporated under that name through a special act of the Florida Legislature in 1959. By referendum in 1974, the city's residents approved a change to its name as North Port, dropping Charlotte from its name to proclaim the city as a separate identity. It is home to the Little Salt Spring, an archaeological and paleontological site owned by the University of Miami.
Sarasota is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Greater Tampa Bay Area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Sarasota is a principal city of the Sarasota metropolitan area. According to the 2020 U.S. census, Sarasota had a population of 54,842.
State Road 758 is an 5.4-mile-long (8.7 km) state road in Sarasota, Florida, United States. State Road 758 is locally known as Bee Ridge Road from Tamiami Trail east to its eastern terminus at Interstate 75 where it continues east as a county road.
Breeze Transit provides public transportation for Sarasota County, Florida and is operated by the county. Breeze maintains 14 fixed-line bus routes, four curb-to-curb service zones, and a dial-a-ride paratransit service. The majority of the routes operate from Monday through Saturday, with select service on Sundays.
Walter N. "Wally" Sheil was an American academic administrator and politician from Jersey City, New Jersey, who served in the New Jersey Senate as a Democrat from 1978 to 1982, and ran as Republican candidate for Sarasota County Commission in 1996.
The Siesta Key Observer is an American weekly free newspaper serving Siesta Key, Florida. Founded in 1971 by John and Elizabeth Davidson, it is now a part of a family of twelve community and business newspapers published by Observer Media Group.
Ego Leonard is a Dutch painter and sculptor, and possibly an anonymous guerrilla artist, whose works prominently feature outsized Lego figures. Sometimes the name also is applied to sculptures, apparently made by Leonard, which have been found on beaches at various locations in the world since the late 2000s. The sculptures are in the form of "minifigures", but are constructed from fibreglass enlarged to two and a half metres in height, and have the message “No Real Than You Are” in capital letters written on their torsos. The appearance of an "Ego Leonard" giant figure on Siesta Beach, Florida, became number two on the Time list of the "Top 10 Oddball-News Stories of 2011." It is unclear whether Ego Leonard is the name of a person or merely a fictional character as the figure, but it is most likely a fictional name, as Ego Leonard can be reworked to read L, Ego or LEGO. The letters can also be rearranged to spell "A LEGO drone".
Florida Studio Theatre (FST) is a professional, non-profit theater company located in Sarasota, Florida and represents one of the major cultural institutions in the Gulf Coast region. Founded in 1973 as a touring troupe, FST is currently a regional theatre specializing in contemporary work and a member theatre of LORT. According to the Theatre Communications Group, it is the third largest subscription theatre in the country. Each year, more than 225,000 attendees are served by the theatre's diverse programs including the Mainstage Series, Cabaret Series, Stage III, Children's Theatre, The FST School, New Play Development, and FST Improv.
Crossings at Siesta Key is a shopping mall in Sarasota, Florida that opened in 1956. The mall is anchored by Macy's, LA Fitness, and Cinebistro
Ralph Spencer Twitchell was one of the founding members of the Sarasota School of Architecture. He is considered the father of the group of modernist architecture practitioners, that includes Paul Rudolph and Jack West, and other modernist architects who were active in the Sarasota area in the 1950s and 1960s like Ralph and William Zimmerman, Gene Leedy, Mark Hampton, Edward “Tim” Seibert, Victor Lundy, William Rupp, Bert Brosmith, Frank Folsom Smith, James Holiday, Joseph Farrell and Carl Abbott. He bridged the more traditional architecture of his early work in Florida during the 1920s with his modernist designs that began in the 1940s.
The 2018 Florida Commissioner of Agriculture election occurred on November 6, 2018, to elect the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture. Incumbent Republican Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam was term-limited and could not seek a third consecutive term. Democrat Nikki Fried narrowly defeated Republican Matt Caldwell. Fried became the only statewide elected Democrat in Florida, as U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, who had held Florida's Class I U.S. Senate seat since 2000, lost reelection. As of 2023, this remains the last time that a Democrat has won a statewide election in Florida, and the only time since 2012.
CoolToday Park is a ballpark in North Port, Florida, located in the southern portion of Sarasota County, 35 miles (56 km) south of Sarasota, Florida. It is the spring training home of the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball. The ballpark opened on March 24, 2019, with the Braves' 4–2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Observer Media Group, Inc. is a media company that publishes local newspapers and magazines in the U.S. state of Florida. The company publishes twelve newspapers, three quarterly magazines and maintains six news websites.
Joe Gruters was the Chairman of the Florida Republican Party from 2018 to 2022, and is a member of the Florida Senate representing the 22nd District, which consists of Sarasota County and part of Charlotte County. He was previously a member of the Florida House of Representatives. Earlier in his career, Gruters worked on the campaign of U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan as campaign manager and was vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota.
The 2022 Florida gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Florida, alongside other state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Party governor Ron DeSantis won re-election in a landslide and defeated the Democratic Party nominee, former U.S. representative Charlie Crist, who previously served as governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 as a Republican. He was seeking to become the first Democrat elected governor of Florida since 1994.
Fredd Atkins, born June 19, 1952, is a former mayor and the first African American mayor of Sarasota, Florida. He served as a city commissioner of Sarasota for 18 years and also ran for Sarasota County Commissioner. Atkins ran for the Sarasota County Commission in 2022 and lost with 49.5% of the vote to Mark Smith, who won with 50.5%.
The 2022 Florida Commissioner of Agriculture election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture. Incumbent Democratic Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried was eligible to run for a second term, but she instead ran for governor of Florida in 2022. Republican Wilton Simpson won the election with over 59% of the vote. Simpson’s victory gave Republicans complete control of state government for the first time since Reconstruction.