A (sadly) changed official Bradenton attitude toward the Village of the Arts
My wife and I moved to Bradenton’s Village of the Arts in 2004. In mid-2006, after many delays, Debbie opened Debbie’s Art Garage in large part because the City of Bradenton’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) promised to put in sidewalks and “Village of the Arts” signs on major routes near us, and to generally spiff up our neighborhood. Then the DDA had a change of management, and plans to upgrade our little neighborhood were scrapped, which meant those of us who had invested in property here based on those plans were flat-out screwed.
In May, 2005, I wrote this optimistic article about the DDA and the Village of the Arts. A year later, I wrote about our depressing dealings with the city’s building department. And in 2007 I wrote an even more depressing article about the city’s change of heart toward the Village of the Arts.
Now I’m at the point where, when the Village of the Arts came up as a topic of conversation on our local newspaper’s online discussion boards, this is what I wrote:
The Village of the Arts is a great place to live if you want to be near other creative people. As a place to earn a living *selling* art, it’s a little iffy. Very few (if any) of the galleries here are profitable on their own. Most of the artists who live here and actually make a living from their work seem to get a fair percentage of their income from teaching or private commissions.
You also need to realize that “The Village of the Arts” in a retail gallery sense is now effectively limited to a few blocks centered on the corner of 12th St. West and 11th Ave. West, although it wasn’t always supposed to be this way.
My (artist) wife wanted to open a small gallery, so we bought a house at the corner of 16th Ave. W and 11th Ave. W — the south edge of the Village — in 2004 based on the City’s promise to put in sidewalks and Village “gateway” signs in this area by 2005 and generally extend the activity of 12th Street down to 17th Ave., a block south of us.
But this has not happened. In fact, the new director of the Downtown Development Agency has bluntly said that the city will not invest any money or energy in the Village area south of 13th Ave. in the foreseeable future. (If you are thinking of buying or operating a business of any kind based on city promises, you may want to rethink the idea. Bradenton may be “The Friendly City,” but it’s also a city that cannot be trusted to keep its promises.)
And don’t expect to earn a living from a gallery even if you open up on or near high-activity 12th Street, either. Except for 1st Friday Artwalks and good-weather Saturdays, what you’ll have is a sidestreet location that will get little or no walk-in or drive-by trade. If that’s how you expect to get business, you’re far better off in a strip mall on a major route.
On the other hand, if you have something unique to offer, and you’re willing to promote your business on your own as a destination, rather than hoping for sales just because you are part of the Village, you can make a go of things here — and you’ll have the convenience of working at home, which is a great benefit all by itself.
Another thing: While you’d think the city would want to encourage people to buy some of the older, run-down properties around here and improve them, if you try to do your own work you are in for a world of hurt from Bradenton’s housing inspectors and building permit people. They’re all very nice, but some of the building regs are simply crazy.
Many tasks (i.e. replacing old, cracked windows with new ones) that you or I would think were simple maintenance items require permits — and permit fees. Even paving or repaving a dirt or decrepit asphalt driveway takes a permit these days. My wife and I had hoped to do more renovation work to our place, but between the city “writing off” the area where we live, and the permit hassles, we’ve given up on any additional renovation until the city changes its ways.
But despite city officialdom, this is a decent and convenient place to live and work. Just keep your expectations low, don’t trust anything a city official tells you, expect to bring in your own business (i.e. put up a good website + spend a fair sum on advertising), and you might do fine.
You might also want to consider a non-gallery business in the Village; a music teacher or hairdresser, for example, can *legally* work from home here and could probably do very well. (I, myself, run a growing video production business.) There are also (now) three restaurants, two specialty bookstores, at least one licensed masseuse, a graphics studio, and several Yoga/Eastern healing-type people operating in the Village, and I hear that a new day spa is about to open on 13th Ave.
And as far as living here…. Hey! If you like being near art galleries and interesting eateries, and want to be part of an arts-oriented community that has plenty of great (but not necessarily publicized) parties and poetry readings and music jams, and enough community spirit that when two residents were injured severely in a car accident caused by a drunk driver a benefit concert was organized for them within a week, this is probably the coolest place to live in all of Florida — even if you’re not an artist or, if you are, you have no plans to open a retail gallery.
We are staying here for two reasons: 1) Today’s housing market makes it almost impossible to sell our house and move. 2) we have many excellent neighbors we would miss if we moved away.
We have completely lost faith in the City of Bradenton’s ability to carry out the many plans it has made — or to carry out any of the new ones they are busily commissioning from expensive out-of-town consultants instead of actually doing anything.
Oh, well.