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Guest Op/Ed: Saving Downtown Bradenton

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Why my family moved to Bradenton may be very similar to your personal story. My father was an architect. Dad already lived much of his life in Chicago, where he was good friends with Frank Lloyd Wright. He then moved to California, where he designed homes for many of the movie stars of his day. In my Bradenton home, I have renderings he hand-drew, framed, and mounted. I think they're beautiful.

On his way to Miami for a furniture convention, a friend who lived in Bradenton–this was back in the 1930s– suggested that my father stop by and see this beautiful small Florida city called Bradenton. Dad did, and really liked everything about it. He decided to stay.

What did my father like about Bradenton? Its small-town charm, its natural beauty, the gorgeous pristine mile-wide river, and the friendly warmth of the people; I'm certain that all of this lured my dad to completely change his life and move here.

Today, new communities in Florida are being planned and built that intentionally mimic old Florida charm. Several are up in Florida's Panhandle, such as Rosemary Beach. The developer even built an entire "vintage-y" small town as part of this completely brand-new community. It's really nice, and not the only one that has been recently built.

As well, there are numerous small older towns all across Florida that have intentionally preserved their small-town feel, that vintage ambiance that is often referred to by natives as old Florida. These places have become real tourist attractions where the local economy has truly thrived.

Years ago, the Bradenton Herald asked a question: "What would make our city better?" I was in high school, and reading the locals' answers, it was apparent that those who governed or worked in Bradenton at the time did not have a clear solution. The only response I can remember is one businessman suggesting that what Bradenton needed was a "tall building." Well, we've had a number of "tall buildings" built downtown since then, and I, personally, do not believe that any of them have improved the city or even built on what makes Bradenton unique and charming.

When Sarasota wished to discover how it could overcome a great many obstacles its downtown was dealing with and plan for a better future, the Sarasota Government hired various design and planning firms to study its downtown and make recommendations. Those studies took years and years to complete. I personally remember seeing staff from these firms working throughout Sarasota, studying the city, counting traffic, and taking countless images.

Numerous public meetings and hearings took place over several years. The City of Sarasota really wanted the public to know what was being discovered, and what suggestions were being offered by the companies it had engaged to study and suggest improvements to its downtown. These studies resulted in new downtown landscaping, roundabouts, types of downtown architecture to be approved (going for unique, artistic, and individualistic), and more. Sarasota, though it may seem like a foreign country for many of us who live in Bradenton, has become incredibly financially successful, due to tourists and the money they bring. Much of this, I believe, is the result of those studies and the very deliberate approach the community took to growth and change.

Florida survives off of tourism. Without it, there's not much else Florida has to offer. This brings me back to Bradenton. If Bradenton wanted to compete with other small cities and popular Florida destinations, Bradenton should focus on what would draw tourists to our downtown. Activities, events, and amenities that visitors will enjoy. Things that tourists will make social media videos about, that tourism television shows and magazines will pick up on and advertise on our behalf.

To do the opposite, to use up our downtown for private development, where only a relatively small number of people will live, and no one else can enter, is the exact opposite of what will make our charming downtown financially successful. Building a condo may offer a paycheck up front, but what will keep bringing in the money ten years from now, twenty years from now, if there is nothing for anyone to enjoy downtown?

Money as income will need to substantially increase over the years, for decades, as the cost of everything else continues to rise, the result of recessions, inflations, our national debt, or just the simple passing of time. Trust me, a "t-shirt" shop or a "flip-flop" store like the downtown garage has to offer (which, by the way, it took years to acquire even these tenants) does not create a "downtown." Even run-down Florida beaches offer more.

So, why come to Bradenton if the plan right now is to seal up our downtown with private development, making it so that there is nothing there for anyone to do? There would be no reason. And that is therefore a poor long-term strategy.

Why would our local government do something that will probably suffocate our downtown, causing it to not just dry up, but maybe even repel anyone from ever wanting to visit our downtown again?

Possibly for the same reason that some of our local citizens answered that question in the Bradenton Herald long ago. I, personally, cannot get mad at our local members of government when they make these decisions. I have to believe they are doing these things with the best of intentions. However, neither would I give a scalpel to a tax accountant and ask them to perform an appendectomy on me. They just wouldn't be trained or sufficiently educated to do it.

I am being told that our city government has some "formula" into which they can "drop numbers" that will allegedly prove that what they are doing will be financially successful for downtown.

They may have such a formula, but one can find a recipe, a graph, or test results "online" that will pretty much "prove" or say anything one might want to hear. I'm not an electrician, but I can find 100 different YouTube videos telling me how I can re-wire my home. As someone who has never re-wired anything to install all the electricity in your home, just because of something I found online, would you trust me? If so, that might be a big mistake.

Should any of this proposed downtown development go through, there might be a couple of stores, and maybe a new restaurant. But most of this new compressed and massive development will be "private" and only for those who are a bit wealthier to live there, exclusively enjoying our downtown, our river view. Meanwhile, the rest of us will have to live with their complaints about street noise, live music on Old Main Street being too loud, milling about on their property, the lack of downtown parking space, too many cars blocking their street, and us just not feeling like we are welcome any longer in our own downtown.

Finally, what I truly believe will happen is a reduction in the value of all our properties throughout Manatee County when our city becomes the place in Florida where no one wants to go. City officials are currently collecting citizen feedback on future plans for the downtown riverfront redevelopment of City Hall. If you disagree with the vision they've been communicating, you can let them know here.

Hans Carl Clausen is a Bradenton native. A self-described "child of the '60s," he attended Jessie P Miller and Manatee High School before heading off to the University of Florida and then forming Architecte Miniatura, a concierge design & media studio.


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