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Good public transit with SunRail, decent bus system, Maglev and AAF incoming. Affordable housing. Great downtown with awesome nightlife. Good neighborhoods surrounding downtown. Historical neighborhoods such as Winter Park. A city that is growing. Plenty of outdoor activities. Only an hour to Cocoa Beach.
There's no way I could ever move back to Tampa. Orlando has everything it doesn't.
Outside of the rail aspect which Orlando isn't excelling at (4000 riders a day, billion dollar system that doesn't run nights or weekends), Tampa has everything else going for it that you list for Orlando including arguably more nicer neighborhoods near downtown, growing at the same clip as Orlando, has arguably more outdoor activities and is much closer to nicer beaches. As an FYI also, Winter Park is a separate city and not part of Orlando. Utilizing that framework, Tampa has St Petersburg which on it's own blows Orlando out of the water in my opinion in terms of it's downtown, cultural/arts offerings, food scene, setting and growth taking place.
Outside of the rail aspect which Orlando isn't excelling at (4000 riders a day, billion dollar system that doesn't run nights or weekends), Tampa has everything else going for it that you list for Orlando including arguably more nicer neighborhoods near downtown, growing at the same clip as Orlando, has arguably more outdoor activities and is much closer to nicer beaches. As an FYI also, Winter Park is a separate city and not part of Orlando. Utilizing that framework, Tampa has St Petersburg which on it's own blows Orlando out of the water in my opinion in terms of it's downtown, cultural/arts offerings, food scene, setting and growth taking place.
Hmmmm...well.....DT SP has just started to evolve a bit around Central, 2nd, around the Vinoy, Beach Av, etc...This is fairly much a "new" movement in the last 4-5 years ! they had/have a huge problem with homeless around DT and old North St Pete, and the junk around the trop
Orlando laid the groundwork years ago for a successful Downtown, and it's happened.
I think Downtown St. Pete is more recent to the party, but there certainly is a lot of buzz lately. I'll be seeing it first hand in October for the first time in years, and am looking forward to it.
One of the major things in Orlando's favor is that Downtown is surrounded on 3 sides by healthy and desirable neighborhoods, and the Westside is being worked on very heavily.
St. Pete has some issues directly adjacent to Downtown that Orlando doesn't really have.
At this point in time, I would say that the Downtowns of Orlando, Sarasota and West Palm Beach are the best in Florida. Miami Beach also deserves a mention, but that's a different situation.
The insane boom happening in Downtown & Brickell in Miami could change all of this shortly, though.
Again, Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater combined with just south (also on the bay) Manatee-SRQ is destined to be a southern hub at a far faster pace than most listed, save Nashville MSA perhaps - but counting the region between TampaBay-Lakeland-Winter Park-Orlando anyone can see the possibility or likelihood for it to become a mega-region - just check out any night-time satellite shot depicting the massive growth of "lighted areas", over the past few years, the convergence is quite dramatic and very real.
Very true. Flying into Orlando at night, you can see all of it if it's clear.
Flying from Atlanta to Miami/Ft. Lauderdale or Cancun you sometimes get an amazing view of the entire Gulf Coast of Florida. The amount of population and sprawl from Crystal River to Naples is mind-boggling when seen from 35,000 feet.
Well the growth in Sarasota-Manatee in their downtowns around the Bay and the River respectively is booming. The move however in SRQ is a bit decentralized from downtown however with the massive growth of satellite communities such as Lakewood Ranch and other developments just south of Tampa in north Manatee near the I75 corridor.
Just for grins, check out the University Parkway corridor in Sarasota-Manatee. The growth is expansive. The new mall at University Town Center is clearly upscale indeed. You can Goggle it for yourself. The University corridor is slamming even the significant boom directly Downtown Sarasota or Downtown Bradenton - but both are attracting transplants of all ages with a lot of resources - even moreso than St Pete.
It really is impressive considering all the retail that is either planned or under construction in the Sarasota area. The mall/University Parkway corridor has been a major catalyst for the growth. A second Whole Foods store will be a part of the area also. There are very high incomes to support the retail and commercial development for sure from what I saw. Sarasota is a beautiful place. I've been down there twice in the past few years.
Didn't know subjective opinions had proofs of incorrect and correct points. Wow learn something new everyday. FOH
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