i used to live in Sarasota... is the VanWeasel Arts center still purple???
Posted on 04/15/2007 9:49:18 AM PDT by dukeman
BRADENTON -- Five years ago, Arlene Sweeting -- noted activist, radio host and unabashed free thinker -- opened a tiny cafe near McKechnie Field.
In time, Fogartyville Cafe became something more than a hole-in-the-wall joint that served tofu, organic coffee and "No War" bumper stickers.
It became a refuge for aging hippies, would-be radicals and part-time poets, a liberal landmark in a decidedly conservative city.
But now, as Sweeting and co-owner Dave Beaton prepare to sell the cafe -- to focus, in part, on a small radio station in Sarasota -- the community that Fogartyville fostered is trying to save it.
"We have to," said Billy Johnson, a stained glass maker from the Village of the Arts and candidate for mayor of Bradenton. "We cannot let this place close. It's too important."
Alas, though, the task of saving Fogartyville is bigger than it seems. For starters, Sweeting and Beaton are ready to move on, to forge ahead with WSLR 96.5 FM and a fledgling nonprofit group, the PEACE Center, that hopes to make "peace education" part of the public school curriculum.
"We're ready to move on," Sweeting said Thursday night, as she flitted from table to table with veggie wraps and bean soup. "But we're also willing to listen to everyone's ideas about what should happen to this place."
So it was on Thursday night that two dozen people gathered at the coffeehouse, in a hardscrabble neighborhood that surrounds the baseball stadium, to do what they do best: think and speak freely.
How, one woman asked, are they supposed to raise $600,000 and buy the place outright? What about the folk bands? The tofu? The folk rock?
"There is no other place for us to go," said Barbara Tomsik, a Fogartyville Cafe regular. "Not in this town anyway. I don't know many liberals in Bradenton."
The ideas came and went, some more quickly than others:
- Maybe they could host a fundraiser, though not with a $10 cover charge for bands that most people in Southwest Florida have never heard of.
- Perhaps the regulars could start a co-op. Nah, they decided, there aren't enough of them.
- Perhaps Fogartyville could be rented out. "That's an idea," said another regular, Karen Fraley.
- Maybe they could lobby an investment firm for the cash. "Only if they promise to think like us," Tomsik said.
In the end, though, as people started fidgeting and the coffee got a bit cold and the ideas got a bit dry, a tall man with a deep baritone strode confidently to the stage with an announcement.
Robert Atkins, a smooth-talking broadcaster and sometime actor, said he had arranged a group of investors to purchase Fogartyville and transform it into a playhouse, theater and restaurant.
He listed his accomplishments -- which include a failed nightclub venture in Sarasota and at least two unrelated lawsuits -- and said he had the money and the backers to keep Fogartyville alive. All he was asking "is that you guys keep coming."
"I'm not a benefactor," Atkins said. "I'm in it for the long haul, but I'd also like to pay the mortgage."
Few seemed to believe him, and Atkins' recent history is certainly checkered: He once was arrested for grand theft, got sued after a botched real estate deal and couldn't keep afloat a 24-hour jazz club in Sarasota.
But Atkins insisted that the cafe offer was legitimate, and that Fogartyville Cafe would soon be his.
"We'll see," Beaton said.
Whatever the outcome, one thing seems certain: The small cafe that was famous for tofu and folk rock is never going to be the same -- nor will the people who saw it grow.
In a way, Fogartyville was the magnet for this region's progressives, a liberal nook in a conservative city.
"It really took on a life of its own," Sweeting said.
Maybe the DUmbasses could have a fundraiser.....
If they run a fund-raiser, the first thing they should buy is a clue.
THIS is the real danger. HEADSUP people!!!!!!!!!
that's the problem, these folks don't have any funds.
What is interesting to me is how important symbols are to these people over substance. They can have their little hippie get-togethers in someone's (parents)garage just the same as they can in this building.
i used to live in Sarasota... is the VanWeasel Arts center still purple???
I lived in Sarasota for 7 years
It is a great little city. It is full of artsy fartsy types, hippies, weirdos, because of the college and the Ringling ,but also very conservative for the most part
The people in Bradenton just need to move the Fogartyville Cafe to Sarasota, there are more than enough rich liberal moonbats to keep the place alive
Stupid liberal fogeys...just open up a Starbucks and be done with it...you still get a liberal meeting place with some expensive fu-fu coffee served..... DUH!!!!!!!!
that's it... i lived near 27th and Coconut and at 13th and Coconut in 73.
Back in 1973 it must have been a sleepy little town still.
Even in 1990, during off season they pretty much rolled the sidewalks up at dusk
The grocery stores were closed on Sunday, too
it was... and you pretty much had Lido beach almost all to yourself every time we went there too... then in 74 we moved onto LongBoat on the gulf side and it was wonderful.
ping
Surprised the downtown Sarasota art hippy freaks aren't staging some sort of protest to keep this establishment. Seems like they exist for situations like this.
As someone above mentioned, yes there are plenty of liberal moonbats in Sarasota that would see this as a good cause.
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