Sarasota Livin'

Robin 'Roblimo' Miller at Roblimo.com in Bradenton has a great blog entry about Bradenton's Downtown Development Authority and what they are doing to help the urban core of Bradenton. He also wonders if it will go too far:

"The signs at Bradenton's city limits call it "The Friendly City." It's not a big-name Florida tourist destination; tell most people you live in Bradenton, and they ask, "Where?" But the place is starting to shake its reputation as a nowhere town with a decaying skid row at its heart, and its Downtown Development Authority [DDA] is one of the biggest reasons for the change.

One potential problem with this change is that a whole lot of people moved to Bradenton because it was an inexpensive, sleepy little town that didn't have the typical Florida high-rise condominium blight along its waterfront. The condoms are coming to Bradenton now, in a big way, busily stealing large amounts of the area's natural beauty. But if the DDA does its job right -- which it looks like it will -- the condomites and other despoilers won't totally take over the town the way they've overwhelmed other once-pleasant Florida communities. "

Seems they also have a very successful public low income housing "project" Bradenton Village

For those of you that are big time geeks Roblimo is the Editor in Chief at OSTG which runs slashdot.org and NewsForge.com which are some of the top news portals for the geek set. He covers the world geek beat from his home in downtown Bradenton's Village of the Arts ..