[TB Fla]

Originally Posted by mcdrew88

Both cities have a lot to offer and are great places to live. But...



Find me a shot of Orlando like that. You can't because the buildings are smaller and spaced out. There are some nice shots around Lake Eola, but there are ~half as many high-rises, and most of them are residential. The tallest buildings in the above photo are commercial, and 7 of them are taller than the tallest building in Orlando. Living in DT Tampa is not ideal, but the Tampa Bay area has a lot of variety and nice places to live, as does Orlando.

If you need to live downtown in the middle of the action, Orlando is better because it is compact, but it's not like you can live in Orlando without a car, the greater area is HUGE and sprawling and is growing at a very high rate. DT Orlando is more of a place to hang out than DT Tampa. There are plenty of restaurants and bars throughout DT Tampa, mostly near the St. Pete Times Forum, but DT Tampa is like the CBD. To find an area like Church St and Orange Ave, you have to take a short streetcar ride to Ybor City. And to find the really upscale venues, you have to make your way to Hyde Park. So Orlando is more walkable, which is nice, but Tampa really has a lot of options if you don't mind driving. Most people in Orlando have to drive to DT, park, and then walk, so there's not much difference.

My favorite shot of Downtown Tampa. It almost captures everything. All its missing is the twin 30 towers in Channelside.

[Pete C]

Yeah, there is no comparison at the skyline level. Orlando is hampered by the height restrictions due to a small airport nearby, so unfortunately it will never have an impressive skyline. At street level though Orlando is a beautiful downtown...especially the stretch on Central Ave from Orange over to Summerlin in Thornton Park. The area around the Grand Bohemian and City Hall is going to really be a sight once the church is finished renovating and the arts center is complete.

[mcdrew88]

Actually, Peter O Knight Airport is 1.5 miles from DT Tampa, so building height restriction is limited in Tampa too. Orlando Executive Airport is 2 miles from DT Orlando, and buildings are unofficially restricted to be no taller than the Sun Trust building (441 ft). Even though POK is closer to DT Tampa than ORL to DT Orlando, the buildings are officially restricted higher at 625 ft, although the tallest building is the Regions building at 579 ft. I suspect it may be because most flights come over the bay and out of the way of DT Tampa. Also POK probably has less traffic than ORL.

Here are a couple nice aerial shots of DT Orlando.



And another, further back with the whole skyline in view so you can see the Bank of America (stairstep looking building) and the Courthouse. You can also see the gap now filled by the magnificent Amway Center.



And another of Tampa.

[NowInGreenville]

Can we please stop saying Orlando wouldn't be anything without Disney. Where would Tampa be without the bay? Where would LA be without Hollywood? Houston without oil? Point is every city gets their start somehow.

The size of Orlando is impressive when you consider it is not on a large body of water. Over 2 million live in the metro despite the fact most comments to this post state they wouldn't choose Orlando due to the fact it's not on/near the water. Also Disney only employees about 58,000 of those over 2 million residents (2.084 million per Wikipedia in the tri-county area as of 2010), and a lot of those 58,000 employees are not counted as residents because they participating in some sort of temporary internship, and the interns are usually from out of state or overseas and live in temporary housing.

[mcdrew88]

Originally Posted by NowInGreenville

Can we please stop saying Orlando wouldn't be anything without Disney. Where would Tampa be without the bay? Where would LA be without Hollywood? Houston without oil? Point is every city gets their start somehow.

The size of Orlando is impressive when you consider it is not on a large body of water. Over 2 million live in the metro despite the fact most comments to this post state they wouldn't choose Orlando due to the fact it's not on/near the water. Also Disney only employees about 58,000 of those over 2 million residents (2.084 million per Wikipedia in the tri-county area as of 2010), and a lot of those 58,000 employees are not counted as residents because they participating in some sort of temporary internship, and the interns are usually from out of state or overseas and live in temporary housing.

Can we please stop getting defensive when someone says that? No one says it's a bad thing that Disney is such a huge part of how Orlando got to be where it is today. It doesn't matter how many cast members there are, obviously the entire city isn't full of people working at Disney, and no one thinks that. The number of cast members isn't important, it's the number of people that Disney and the other attractions bring in every year that is important. It's not like Orlando would collapse if Disney disappeared, but everyone would be like "WTF where's Disney?". And then they'd have to rename the NBA team the Orlando Oranges because Lakers and Rockets are already taken. Everyone loves Disney, so why is it so bad that people link Orlando to Disney? You should want to keep it that way so you can keep pulling in 50 million economy boosting tourists every year.

[FlyMIA]

Originally Posted by NowInGreenville

Can we please stop saying Orlando wouldn't be anything without Disney. Where would Tampa be without the bay? Where would LA be without Hollywood? Houston without oil? Point is every city gets their start somehow.

The size of Orlando is impressive when you consider it is not on a large body of water. Over 2 million live in the metro despite the fact most comments to this post state they wouldn't choose Orlando due to the fact it's not on/near the water. Also Disney only employees about 58,000 of those over 2 million residents (2.084 million per Wikipedia in the tri-county area as of 2010), and a lot of those 58,000 employees are not counted as residents because they participating in some sort of temporary internship, and the interns are usually from out of state or overseas and live in temporary housing.

Your living in a fantasy world if you truely think Orlando would be the city it is today without the mouse. Orlando is a HUGE international tourist destination a city known around the world and that is because of ONE THING Walt Disney World. Yes Orlando would be a medium sized city if there was no Disney. But there would be no NBA there, NO Universal Studios, NO Sea World, NO huge hotels, NO water parks, NO huge airport, NO 51 million tourist a year! You do realize the HUGE amount of people that must work in the tourism industry to support that amount of visitors a year right? It is not just Disney that is employing people in the tourism industry. All the Hotels, the places on International Drive and what about Universal! That is only in Orlando because of Disney!!!!!!!!!! So you really need to stop and all Orlando residents need to think before they speak. If it was not for Disney Orlando would be nothing of what it is today and this is a FACT. No one, or at least I am not saying that this is a bad thing. It is not, and everyone in Florida should be happy that Orlando is the city and tourist destination it is today. Every city has its thing that made it what it is today and for Orlando that is Disney I think that is all people are trying to say.

[mcdrew88]

Thank you for the backup Senior Member MIA and sorry about the Heat.. LeBron still has a little growing up to do before he deserves a ring.

Think about this: 51 million tourists a year is an average of almost 1 million tourists a week. That's 1 million extra temporary residents lavishly spending in the Orlando area.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said on May 26, 2011, "Travel and tourism is our No. 1 economic engine by far."... "For our region to continue its recovery, we need for our travel and tourism economy to lead the way."

And someone else said, "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse."

That was Walt Disney and I'm sure he would be very upset if Orlando residents didn't appreciate the economic benefits his dream has brought to their city.

[Pete C]

I have no problem with Orlando being associated with Disney. It IS the main reason Orlando is on the map and it pours millions and millions of dollars in hotel taxes into the city for things like the new arena, new performing arts center, etc. However, I think what people get upset about are those saying that Orlando is JUST Disney. I have an issue with that as well, as downtown and other areas like Winter Park are very cool local areas. People that dislike Disney and I-drive tend to paint a picture that Orlando is nothing but neon signs, strip malls, and Olive Gardens. They make it seem like there is no pulse, no soul, and that the entire city is fiction. This happens all the time on the city vs city forum. That is just not the case, and the reason why so many are defensive when others say things like "well if you aren't 12 then you'd probably prefer Tampa", or "well Orlando has Disney but besides that what is there?" etc.

[mcdrew88]

Yeah, but on this thread, people are getting defensive just when someone says that Disney helped mold Orlando to its present day state. No one on this particular thread has said "Orlando is for 5 year olds and there's nothing to do there except go to Disney" or anything like that. People who do say that are ignorant, end of story, forget about them. But in this thread, everyone has said positive things about Orlando, so why is anyone posting defensively about the whole Orlando-Disney relationship?

[Spring Hillian]

Of course I wouldn't. 192 is enough for them I think.

Originally Posted by annerk

Shhh, don't tell the tourists about the best parts of Orlando that they'd never find on thier own...