Just for fun, I decided to take pictures of several rundown properties in the “new” section of Bradenton’s Village of the Arts (where I live), then look up the slumlords’ addresses and grab some photos of their homes. Quite a contrast! The city is investing big bucks in new sidewalks and streetlights here and is generally working to upgrade this neighborhood, but some of the people who own rentals around here don’t seem to be jumping on the fixup bandwagon even though they sure as hell live in plenty nice places themselves. Update Feb 2006: I’ve removed the photos because, after many months of inspections, notices, and hearings, Bradenton housing officials have managed to badger some of the worst housing code offenders into doing some exterior fixup. But there are plenty of other junkers in the neighborhood, many of which look okay on the outside but are horrible inside. Check out this “Inside Look” at a slum apartment down the street from us and you’ll see what I mean.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 22nd, 2005 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.