Good bars or bad bars? That was the discussion on last nights Sarasota’s City planning leaders meeting. Officials are trying to work through the challenges of controlling Main Street’s growing bar and nightlife scene.

Planning Board has concerns the downtown has or could soon become too saturated with bars.Board Chairman Robert Lindsay said. “There’s a point where we can only do so much social engineering on this, but I think there is a problem when you get too many bars in an area.”
Some downtown residents are fear Main Street is becoming an entertainment district. The board said Thursday that it’s difficult to thrust City Hall into deciding which establishments could be viewed as “good bars” and which might cause problems.