SperlingViews - Bradenton, Florida

I was born and raised here and have been here my whole life. The beaches are beautiful and there is a lot to do if you like ocean life such as boating,fishing,swimming etc.... It is very hot most of the time and it rains a lot to. It is a very expensive place to live and there are no JOBS!!! If you're gonna move here you better get the job first! The people are very snooty and think their shit don't stink and most are from up north. I hate that they come here and think they own the place when I am a native here by the 4th generation! The schools are horrible here and it's a dangerous place to live these days.It's very conservative and very much republican as far as politics go. i am thinking about moving from here because it's just to damn expensive here,but i do love the area and the beach scene here though. If I were you look somewhere else to live unless you're rich![read more...]

Bradenton is a great mid sized town. Cost of living is not real cheap, houses for rent are quite expensive if you are on a budget. Apartments are cheaper then houses. Most houses under $900 a month lately seem to be less then 900 sq ft and are very small. People are nice for the most part, not like real small towns but you if you choose you can remain anonymous easier then a small town. [read more...]

I lived in Bradenton for 12 yrs & was then transfered (due to work)to Chicago. Although Chicago is a great City, we counted the days before we could return to our beloved Bradenton! After 6 longs yrs we finally were able to return to Bradenton & even returned to the same neighborhood! No, Bradenton is not perfect, but no city is! But as far as we're concerned it's the perfect location between Sarasota & Tampa with the entire Tampa Bay area open to us offering all the Arts & Culture we could want including world class beaches & shopping!!! Taxes & housing prices are less in Bradenton than Sarasota or Tampa so the choice was easy & this was a choice that I have made "3" times, from the 1st time I decided to move to Florida in '96 to the last move in 2009. If you have complaint's about the city, get out there & work to make it better - it's a town worth fighting for![read more...]

I've been driving for 35 years, different types of trucks and cars in all sorts of weather alongside all sorts of drivers! I'm fron New England, but I have to say holy crap! I've recently started driving in south-west Florida. And the drivers here, especially in parts of Bradenton (I noticed) they are frightening! Scary people behind the wheels! You pull onto a main street and God forbid someone behind you has to brake ever ever so slightly because if they do they will blow their horn at you like you had cut them off into a ditch! What is it with drivers in parts of Bradenton?? The drivers there are worse it seems than drivers in Orlando, St. Pete, Anna Maria and Sarasota. And don't forget the tail-gators!!! OMG! I've never seen tailgators worse than those in sections of Bradenton!!! They're nuts! Some of the drivers will jump up on your bumper and honk wildly especially if you're an old fart that's not in a hurry to move over! I've noticed many senior citizens simply ignore the tailgators behind them which totally impresses the hell out of me! Either that or the senior citizens just don't realize when a tailgator is practically on top of their car! Some of the nut-case drivers around here seem to have an absolute hatred for snow birds! As for me I'm not a snow-bird. I live here year-round and I tend to drive an average of 10 m.p.h. over the speed limit. Where has common sense gone with drivers in Florida??? Are people just losing it?? I've found driving in Boston and NYC a piece of cake compared to driving in sections of Bradenton. Many of you Bradenton drivers are absolutely f____ nuts! I hope some of you someday move to New England because there you'll be guaranteed to hit speed traps one after the other. You won't be able to afford or renew your auto insurance policies after a while. New England doesn't mess around! There are more state troopers on the highways up there and local cruisers monitoring traffic in the cities and towns than you can shake a stick at! Some of the cities and towns seem to depend on the money state troopers and local police bring in from handing out speeding tickets! Good luck! I never thought I'd like to see more local and state police on the roads till I moved to south-west Florida![read more...]

Looking forward to moving to Bradenton soon! Spent many months looking up and down the SW coast and chose Bradenton as my new home. I realize there are many naysayers, but since I'm originally from NJ, I understand all that! It's proximity to Sarasota and Tampa is great, the beaches of AMI are fantastic, and the art scene is nice and hip. Seems to me like Bradenton is a 'poor cousin' to Sarasota. Like any city it has it's problems---no place is perfect. Hope to get active in local politics after settling in. I dislike people who complain but never try to take action to change the things they bitch about! See you soon![read more...]

Bradenton is a beautiful place. It's proximity to Venice, Sarasota, Tampa and Orlando make it a great location. Like any city it has some problems but it's assets far outweigh it's problems. AMI beaches are fantastic, and the arts scene is hip and current. [read more...]

There are two great schools in the Bradenton area. Pinnacle Academy is a private school for children with autism and related disabilities. The other is a public charter school called Manatee School for the Arts. Both provide incredible opportunities for our children to grow emotionally and educationally. I couldn't think of better schools for them![read more...]

I need salary and pay info for this area[read more...]

Everyone is loosing there house[read more...]

Hot Humid Summers Temps usually above 90 Short sometimes cool winters (Dec,Jan, Feb)[read more...]

It's beautiful down here, but the crime is awful, and it costs an arm and a leg to rent a roach infested apartment! The weathers great though![read more...]

How do retirees from the North find east bradenton[read more...]

We have lived here for 20 years and even with the current growth factor, we still feel comfortable in Bradenton's small town atmosphere.[read more...]

My wife and I moved to Bradenton several years ago to be in the sun-belt. we chose Bradenton to it"s proximity to Sarisota and St.Petersburg ,unfortunately we didn"t check out the surronding areas .only later to find that the area from SR 301 south on 9th street( east) and other areas look just like a Texas border town. Unkept properties front yard filth and junk everywhere. Evidently the city of Bradenton is only able to cope with the high crime rate and can"t spare the time to send inspectors for zoneing violations , that is of corse if the city has any zoneing regulations to begin with,and or inspectors at all ?. [read more...]

I moved hee 15 years ago based on a great first impression of the area. It is natural to assume that services, (libraries, utilities, etc.) will be the same as the area you are leaving. You might also assume that the people arethe same as well. In Bradenton they are not. The city is filled with selfish, Bible-thumping bigots that are only concerned about what they get. There is no thought given to the common good. Government is underfunded and under staffed making it useless. The infrastructure cannot handle the exploding un-controlled growth. Bottomline: If you are rich, play golf, go to church and beat your wife, you will love it here. Normal folk: Beware...[read more...]

My husband and I relocated here approximately 16 monhts ago and it was the worse mistake in my life! Unfortunately due to job transfers of my husband and I (both at the same time) we took a risk, although had visited Sarasota County a few times for vacationing. Well, there is a major difference in Bradenton and Sarasota, and to live "comfortably" in Sarasota, a family needs to be financially comfortable, since taxes, hurricane insurance, flood insurance and these annual increases are rediculous! Not worth it to us, from moving where we did, where we were in an upper middle class area, gated community, had low taxes and no hurriacanes or tornadoe warnings to worry about! This city needs to be CLEANED UP, the ZONING is MESSED UP (no consistency), you can have a shack on top of a half a million dollar home! Now, what to do, to get out of this MESS!!!! Trying to figure it out, one thing at a time!!![read more...]

Housing in Bradenton is a bit on the high side. We're not close to the beach (about a 1/2 hour away) and we don't live on a golf course. Plus, Bradenton lacks that community feel that we look for. Knowing what I know now, I'm sure my husband and I would live in a different town.[read more...]

Is a good school that I would recommend to anyone in the area.[read more...]

This crummy little town is ugly, but still the prices of these "shacks"(and I am been generous calling them that)made of bad mediocre and construction(intentionally) that fall down incredibly with a 60MPH wind is increasing ridiculously!!! Why is that?? There are no sidewalks, Children don't have many parks close by to where to play, only this dying all falks have all the land for their precious golf. The dirty olf men in this town should be at home playing with their grandchildren not taking spaces in the land that should be use by our children. Eventually only the rich are going to be able to live in these little and ugly huts since they can afford to built every year if anything happens. And forget about insurance. The prices are going up to the point that most home owners can afford it. Florida will eventually will have a tsunami that will sink this crummy little town and the hold state from coast to coast and will clean the garbage out to the sea. For now I am stuck, but there are other 49 states with better paying jobs and homes that are far less expensive than this state and I can't wait to get out of this oven. Yeah! 90o in october!!! Shiiiiiiiiiiish!!! If you move here you will regret it. Most streets are broken, and when it rains certain areas got flooded. The freaking mayor of this town doesn't do anything for this crummy little town. Actually, none does. It is a shame that a place with such a high cost of living looks worst than most gettos in NYC, California or Illinois. Do not... I beg you, DO NOT MOVE HERE! THERE ARE ALSO GANGS. [read more...]

Unfortunately the paradise this entire area once was has given way to the grifter, crack addict, trouble makers, and worst of all more snow birds. They seem not to care about the area, littering, racing, always in a hurry to go where? Work a bit then get some money and lay on the beach until you need more, drinking beer of course....... The other side of the tracks has the most diverse group of snobs I have seen, people with no right to place themselves above others seem to gravitate here..... Anyway I am GONE ASAP>>>[read more...]