Residents react with dismay – and repainting plans.
By Brice Claypoole
Original Air Date: August 29, 2025
Host: On Wednesday, water trucks and street cleaners rumbled down the streets of Bradenton’s secluded but iconic Village of the Arts. City crews then spent the day erasing sidewalk art. Many Bradenton residents are decrying it as an act of censorship, and some seem to be ready to resist, paintbrush and bucket in hand. The city’s action comes after the Florida Department of Transportation gave municipalities until September 4 to remove pavement art or have their funding withheld. FDOT said the order was aimed at increasing roadway safety. A study, however, shows that surface art tends to reduce crashes and injuries. WSLR News reporter Brice Claypoole spoke with Village residents, and they told him they didn’t buy FDOT’s argument.
Bria: Anyone who actually believes that it’s actually distracting to drivers—that’s insane. It’s obvious—I don’t think anyone actually believes that.
Brice Claypoole: That’s Bria. She works at Adobe Graffiti Lounge and has lived in the Village for 5 years. She, like other community members I spoke with, believes the art was removed as part of the state’s push to eliminate LBGTQ symbols from public spaces—though she notes that the art in the Village wasn’t Pride themed. It ranged from religious symbols to depictions of Alice in Wonderland to a beloved hopscotch game. Bria says it was a shock to have the art erased.
Photos courtesy Marc Masferrer/Bradenton Journal
Bria: I was off yesterday, and I came outside after it already happened, and I was just walking down the street, and I saw it, and I immediately just started crying. It was—I can’t even—I might cry talking about it now. I can’t even put into words—it’s something that—there’s people that no longer live there that have made art outside. People that I’ve known—there was one that was a memorial that was painted over. I don’t know. You see these broken sidewalks; you see these people that are on the streets that need help; you see all these things that this money could be going towards instead.
BC: The City of Bradenton said via a Facebook post that, while the art was removed to protect funding, the city remains fully committed to “working with residents, businesses, and artists to highlight our community spirit in safe and lasting ways.”
Still, Marc Masferrer, a veteran journalist who broke the story of the art removal on his Substack, The Bradenton Journal, is disappointed local officials aren’t showing more fight.
Marc Masferrer: I think it’s pretty ironic that, in Village of the Arts, which is a neighborhood that is one of the more unique neighborhoods in Bradenton because of the emphasis and the place that it gives art—and that the city actually encouraged that—for the city now to go in there and remove one of the symbols of that commitment and the symbols of the uniqueness of the neighborhood. To go in there and remove that—at the very least, it’s ironic, and at the worst, it’s kind of shows you where we are now in the United States and especially here in Florida, where there are attempts by those in power to remove from the public space certain viewpoints that they may not care for or images that might make them uncomfortable. Any time you remove arts, whether you like it or not or it offends you or not, I think we lose something.
BC: Some residents struck a more hopeful note. Douglas Holland, owner of Jerk Dog Records, is also saddened by the removal of artwork but says the community has been galvanized by the incident. He expects an effort to repaint the art wherever possible—on walls, fences and driveways—now that the sidewalks are off-limits.
Doug Holland: I think you’ll see a lot more fresh artwork coming in the next few weeks that will start popping up everywhere.
BC: The sidewalk art removal in Bradenton mirrors the ongoing sandblasting of more than 200 sidewalk paintings depicting local history in Sarasota. The Avenue of Art installation celebrated the Sarasota County centennial.
Sarasota is also removing the rainbow crosswalks celebrating LGBTQ Pride from the intersection of 2nd Street, Cocoanut Avenue and Pineapple Avenue.
For WSLR News, this is Brice Claypoole.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.