Though Saunders is now known for her elegant presence, she grew up as a tomboy on the north end of Longboat Key, swimming, sailing and running free ("I throw a cast net better than I dance"). Over the years, she's watched Sarasota property values skyrocket, women ascend to positions of power, and a wealthier, more cosmopolitan generation of buyers settle into the luxurious waterfront homes she markets. Also, "agencies are working together as they've never worked before and we're doing a better job of attracting and keeping our youth. I couldn't be more optimistic about the next 25 years."

Twenty-five years ago, Sarasota was in the grips of a conflict immortalized in the novels the late John D. Macdonald was writing then: environmentalists vs. greedy developers (and the politicians who were often in their pockets). In those days, business held the upper hand, and it would have been inconceivable for an environmentalist to be elected chair of the county commission. Jon Thaxton is living proof that times have changed. Thaxton, 46, grew up exploring the then-wild prairies of South Sarasota. After high school, he started selling real estate, but also taught himself biology, studied endangered scrub jays and helped bring more Sarasota land into public ownership.

When he ventured into politics, initially serving on the planning board, his reputation for environmental activism put some leaders off, but he soon won respect for his intelligence, integrity and ability to work with competing groups. Meanwhile, businesses, recognizing that Sarasota's environment is key to its economy, were turning greener themselves. Today, Thaxton has a broad-based constituency, and though he spends most spare time reading land-use law, he still gets outside to kayak and run 25 miles a week. In his office hangs a satellite map of Sarasota with a silver-dollar-sized green splatter. "That's 100,000 acres of open space that's preserved forever," he beams. "You can see that blob from the space shuttle, and we own it."

In an age that adulates pop stars and quarterbacks, our city has a real hero. In his Saturday column in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Rich Brooks, 51, writes with quiet courage and buoyant good humor about living with his wife, two teen-age sons, and an inexorable disease called ALS (or Lou Gehrig's disease).

In 1979, Brooks was forging a career in photography and social journalism. Since 1995, his condition has robbed him of his legs, arms, and much of his voice. While many victims succumb within five years of respiratory failure, a recent tracheotomy and ventilator that enable Brooks to breathe have bought him more time.

The disease hasn't stolen his sense of humor, or the thoughts that wait until his wife or sons can type the columns he dictates (a process that can take days.) "I'll work until they pry my cold, dead fingers off the keyboard," jokes Brooks, who started at the paper in 1987.

He writes about serious topics, including the ban on stem cell research, which could abate ALS. But mainly, he weaves the daily battle of living with his disability into stories of family life-getting teens to do chores, holiday shopping in a mall. He accepts occasional speaking (or "slurring," as he calls it) engagements, and while he misses the newsroom, he maintains, "Not many people are as lucky as I am."

In 1979, when Nick Bollettieri was coaching some of the brightest future stars of tennis at his year-old, obscure little Bradenton academy, Martina Navratilova had probably never heard of the school or the city. Having escaped a fascist regime in her native Czechoslovakia just four years earlier, she was reigning over the world of women's tennis as its No. 1-ranked player.

Today Navratilova is one of the many tennis stars who, thanks both to the fame of Bollettieri's school, now IMG Academies, and the city's increasing international cachet, have discovered Sarasota. While most are young players who train and live here briefly, in 2003, Navratilova bought a home on Casey Key. Her candid, down-to-earth personality and joy in her sport have made her one of the game's most beloved legends. With her remarkable physicality and powerful serve, she racked up 167 tournament singles wins and more than $20 million in prize money during her career, becoming the all-time singles champion at Wimbledon. To the delight of fans, in 1999, she stormed out of retirement, playing-and winning-women's doubles at major tournaments. When she's not slugging it out at Grand Slams, Navratilova occasionally surfaces, with a friendly smile, at local hang-outs from Bath & Racquet to the Evalyn Sadlier YMCA.