Response to arsons shows community spirit still alive in Bayshore Gardens

Their neighborhood is showing its age in some disturbing ways, but the community spirit is still alive in many residents of Bayshore Gardens in Bradenton.

Thursday night, neighborhood residents met with Manatee County officials to share their concerns, and at the top of their list was a rash of apparent arson fires over the past 18 months and the effect they are having in Bayshore Gardens.

Life wasn't always so tough in Bayshore Gardens, as Herald staff writer Vin Mannix learned last year when he profiled the neighborhood:

Ray Omlor looked on as his wife, Roberta, made lemonade the old fashioned way, a homemaker’s ritual she’s performed in that cozy kitchen for a long, long time.

Try 50 years.

She used a juicer for their children and their friends.

Now she uses one for their grandchildren and guests who keep coming back for more.

Her secret?

“Sugar, water and lots of lemons,” said Omlor, 72.

Homegrown lemons, that is.

Grown in her backyard along with grapefruit, peaches and pineapples, as well as celery, lettuce and tomatoes.
“It’s fun to go out and pick your own,” Omlor said. “You know where they came from.”

Right there in Bayshore Gardens, where most of the streets were named by the developers after colleges and universities — i.e., Auburn, Dartmouth, Emory, Harvard, Rollins, Tulane, Wellesley. It is part of the old neighborhood charm that surrounds the Omlors, one of 1,400-plus families who live in the working-class community south of 60th Avenue West between U.S. 41 and Sarasota Bay.

Lying on their dining room table nearby was a brochure, yellowed with age, that offered a fascinating glimpse back into another time:

“Bayshore Gardens. On Sarasota Bay. The Utmost in Florida Living.”

It was from the late 1950s and depicted scenes of families boating, golfing and fishing — like something straight out of the old “Ozzie and Harriet Show.”

Especially the price of a ranch-style home back then.

There were several models offered, and the Bird of Paradise was the priciest at $15,490.

The Omlors’ three-bedroom home, the Century, cost $11,590.

“We splurged and paid another $250 for terrazzo floors,” she said with a laugh.

After life in Philadelphia, Bayshore Gardens was paradise.

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