Why Bradenton City Government Must Support the Village of the Arts
Last night Bradenton city officials met with Village of the Arts residents and gallery owners for the first time in three years. The local paper ran a story about that meeting this morning that got the gist of it right, but didn’t come to grips with the main issue: that the Village of the Arts is one of few attractions that gives Bradenton a unique identity, and deserves the city’s support for that reason alone.
In the back of the room, where the newspaper reporter couldn’t hear, several city employees scorned Village residents who wanted more city money spent on improvements (street lighting, sidewalks, and signage) in their neighborhood but, at the same time, complained about rising property taxes.
“How can they want it both ways?” one opined sotto voce.
What those city employees may not realize is that many Village of the Arts residents bought houses and opened businesses based on published City plans for the area. I know my decision to buy here, and my wife’s decision to open a small gallery here, were spurred in large part by my reading of the city’s 2003 plan for Village of the Arts improvements.
When I read the city’s 2003 plan for the Village of the Arts, back in 2004, I didn’t see any footnotes that said, “Hah hah - just kidding,” or, “If we actually do all of this (or even if we don’t), expect your property taxes to double or triple over the next couple of years.”
Basically, what most Village of the Arts residents and business owners want from the city is to see that 2003 Village of the Arts plan carried out. We want the improvements that were promised in 2004, promised again in 2005, but never quite happened despite major tax increases since then.
Funny how that happens, isn’t it? 
Great Civic Branding at a Great Price
The Village of the Arts is a tourist attraction and civic identifier. Let’s face it: Bradenton is a nice little place with basically decent inhabitants, but when it comes to civic amenities it is nothing special, especially compared to neighboring Sarasota. The Village of the Arts, while not entirely unique, is one of the few things Bradenton has that other cities and towns in Florida lack. It brings in both tourists and potential residents, and may even help a few businesses decide to relocate here because the Village shows that Bradenton is a forward-looking, place where creativity is prized.
Village merchants hold a good number of special events that draw people into the city. More often than not, these events draw people who treat Village galleries and shops as places to gawk — “Gee, ma, lookit them funky artists” — instead of seeing them as places to actually buy paintings and other items to beautify their homes and lives, so Village events don’t necessarily have any direct financial benefit for the artists and gallery owners.
Still, even if they don’t make money for the people who put them on, these events — which are organized and paid for entirely by Village merchants and private sponsors — are great publicity for Bradenton, and cost the city nothing aside from a slight reordering of police patrol priorities and perhaps a bit of extra trash pickup.
“Wow! This is sooooo cool. We didn’t even know this was here. We thought Bradenton was nothing but a slum full of rednecks and illegal immigrants!” is a common comment from people who discover the Village of the Arts for the first time, often during Village events.
Like it or not, a lot of people think of Bradenton as a slumlord-dominated nowhere. While we have our share of slumlords (and then some), the Village of the Arts shows that Bradenton has some hipness, too, and that an imaginative person can buy a fairly cheap house within walking distance of downtown and fix it up into a truly interesting place to live, in a neighborhood where people know each other and take care of each other. (Or buy a fixed-up one for a non-cheap price that’s still pretty reasonable when you consider that a Village of the Arts house can be both home and business.)
Even people too white-bread to actually live in the Village like to know it’s nearby, and that they have someplace they can go and absorb artsiness and maybe (one hopes) buy a genuine handmade trinket or two and get a warm feeling because they are supporting the arts, just like the New York socialites who go to charity balls at MoMA.
The Village of the Arts is one of maybe a dozen — if that many — ways visitors can tell they’re in Bradenton rather than in Plant City or Melbourne or Nebbish Flats. It is a reason someone who has a little money and (at least thinks he or she has) a little class might pony up big buck$ for an overpriced condominium here in The Friendly City instead of choosing one in Palmetto or Sarasota or Tampa or any one of a dozen other Florida burgs.
Do it For the City, Not For the Artists
None of the artists who live in the Village of the Arts are getting rich. I doubt that more than three or four of them are covering their basic housing costs from their art, let alone making an actual living from it.
If the City of Bradenton puts a little money into making the Village a better place to live and shop by completing long-promised sidewalk, signage, and streetlight projects, the city as a whole will benefit far more than the artists themselves.
Before artists started renovating Village of the Arts houses in 1999, this neighborhood was a crime haven that dragged down everything near it, including downtown Bradenton and the once-vital Tamiami Trail (AKA 14th Street). There’s still a lot of cleanup to be done, especially in the less-developed section of the Village South of 13th Avenue, but it’s happening.
The artists here are doing their part to make the Village of the Arts — and surrounding neighborhoods and nearby commercial properties — more valuable. Asking the city to do a little work, too, in the spirit of general civic improvement, is not the same as asking for a handout.
Asking the city to keep tax assessments on houses within the Village of the Arts low enough that artists can still afford to live and work here isn’t exactly begging, either, because without the artists there is no Village of the Arts.
If the city wants to have a healthy Village of the Arts, it needs to keep working to make the Village a clean and decent place not only for artists who are already here, but also for artists who may move into the Village if they see that the area is steadily improving.
But — and this is the flip side of the rising property values so tongue-hangingly desired by our local real estate investment crowd — those artists won’t be able to come here if property taxes in our neighborhood get so high that new artists can’t afford to move into the Village and help Bradenton become a more interesting, more attractive place to live or visit for everyone.