Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My opinion of Orlando, after reading the posts as well.
Pros: Many are right here. The weather, the palms, the taxes are good. Access to beach east or west of it. And, that is about all I can say and agree with.
Cons: Hugh contracts that you will sign, that protects lessors, not you. In fact, they can attach everything to personal assets- even if you are a LLC. Cheats, cons. NO TRANSPORTATION at all, and they don't even want the high speed rail. One house looks like a million bucks, and next door can be a cattle ranch. Downtown is not that great. I never go, due to lack of proper access. IT WAS DESIGNED horribly! New Arena is even UGLY! Nothing big there anyways downtown. I haven't met anyone that has done great in Orlando, except those who work for major companies in IT, Lockheed Martin, etc. Small business, teachers and more seem to suck at financial life. Tourist here are pretty crappy too. All they care about is disney. If you are wanting to target tourist, then go to Clearwater area.
People talk about Winter Park. Oh, for god's sake. Been there. It is NOT THAT GREAT! You got one strip that looks good, and the rest are all million dollar homes. NO real life there. Everyone wears about the same Gap look and that is it. I was educated to be artsy-fartsy, but please. Winter Park is NOT all that. And let me remind people here.....99% of them are real estate rich, not cash. They act it. Go and check the Clerk of Court records. Lots of these people bail out even on Capital 1 cards. Winter park...some people?!?!?
If you come to Orlando...make sure your JOB IS LOCKED. MAKE SURE you have a safe with some money in it. Best place to live is St. Cloud for kids I have found. Neighborhood needs some work & I'm thinking of buying there. It is a bit out, but worth the transport. More small town feel, with good old fashion football, swim, local people, etc. I commute from that area to Orlando for work, and believe me...I do appreaciate my neighborhood. It has probably been the best since I've moved from up North. If I'm stuck here, I will stay here. Good mix of people, and they are open and nice. (Weird, they were painted so differently when I moved here).
There is a lot of spanish that blend in from Kissimmee to St. Cloud, but all in all, these types of Spanish are hard working class that want their kids a normal life. It is a nice blend.
My kids can run the entire area freely. I many times leave my door unlocked like in Cleveland, OH. And just 6 months ago, there was some black truck (obviously a drug dealer)...the entire neighborhood came and busted him with the cops. Just right out my back door. No one sees these types here. I have 1 neighbor that on major Catholic holidays throws huge parties for the area. Yes, he is spanish, but I love it. Fireworks, and more.
HOAs are going bankrupt. So, let say you move into a development, and pay fees. FIND OUT IF THEY ARE in BANKRUPT proceedings. You'll pay money for no services and more. AND, IF YOU DON"T PAY those fees, I want you to know that....they will file a 3,000 dollar lein on your home and auction it at that price. SO, PAY THOSE FEES NO MATTER WHAT! Clue: Find a good HOA if you want one.
Well, that is my OWN 2-cents.
From what I've heard, in the 90's Orlando was great. TODAY, be very prepared. And just because there is spanish here....learn to speak the language. YOU decided to move here. We speak Arabic and English in our home. And we have started to pick up Spanish. For god sake....your saying the same thing, just in different words. Extend your vocab.
[quote=rogercobb;18311156]What gulf coast beach is one hour away? I drove to Clearwater Beach on the gulf going 75mph and it took me three hours. As far as I know Clearwater is the closest beach on the gulf.
Pros: relatively affordable city, attractive downtown, young demographics overall, well paved roads, very good library system, winter weather
Cons: takes forever to get anywhere (SO SPREAD OUT), hot as hell from mid April-late Sept., dangerously rude+ stupid drivers, no sense of community, more likely to see a foreign flag flying than the USA flag.[/quote]
Those 3 things bug the crap out of me about Orlando.
Cr*phole! DO NOT MOVE HERE! Look at my other posts for clarification. It's hotter than Holy H*ll here, you sweat like a freaking pig. You cant earn a good wage here, the unemployment is really high, NOTHING has ever been done to improve the city, they have a good old boy network in place, utilities and taxes get raised all the time, people are annoying (they think they are all that, but they are not) ie Casey Anthony. People are annoying and prejudice and think that their sh*t doesnt stink, and in any field you will be earning less than any other state. It is not a workers right state. There is no customer service anywhere, it is Disney Run, and they elected NUT CASES and Crooks into office for the state. The traffic lights are never timed. You will be sitting at a light in the middle of the night with no traffic, but you can't run it since there is a camera on it. The roads s*ck, they have jury duty for crap case that comes along, any middle class wages will be devoured by anythign that the state comes up with, the trees s*ck, they fall because their roots are not that great, and the leaves on them will never be picked up completely, piece of cr*p Laurel Oaks. Remember this is the state that got the 2000 election cr*p wrong. Now, aside from this, come on down. Orlando is a great little tourist no industry, Republican NUT CASE town!
Contractors have more rights than the owners of a household. There is no good companies that will help out around your house in case of emergency. Gas prices are gouged near the airport to the highest in the nation, as based on ABC News. The tourist traps will take your dollar for over a 1000% overpriced tickets and Cr*p sold there, and your neighbors have no respect for other neighbors. Your opinion doesnt matter here. If you do not have a job lined up the minimum to get into your field here is about 2 years time, and the minimum to get into anything else is about 6 months. If you do score at least a minimmum wage job here, you will work like a slave there and get treated like one. They are cutting back on teachers like every other state runned Republican 101 theory on cutbacks. Scott is Republican, but will not take any money for the high speed rail. He ran and pocketed tons of money as a crook and was still elected. So, yeah come on down to his H*llhole of the states. There is mor, but I don' have enough space on this page to list everything!
Pros:
Diversity - ethnic, cultural, generational. Almost anywhere in Orlando you will find a great mix of people.
Abundant shopping opportunities - everywhere you turn there are some pretty big malls/shopping centers...and, of course, all the big box stores.
People with a real sense of pride in their neighborhood - and (at least in ours) we have a great group of residents who watch out for one another.
Pleasant weather when the rest of the country is having blizzards!
Abundant flora....endless varieties of plants, flowers and trees that keep things green year round.
A top notch airport (OIA).
Proximity to beaches - on both coasts.
Educational institutions - UCF and several community colleges.
Hospitals and medical research facilities that provide quality health care.
Great job opportunities in the IT community.
(I could continue, but it's getting late....ha!)
Cons:
The heat in the summer...and the high humidity (this doesn't bother everyone...some love it).
The toll roads....I wish we could find a way to make most of our major arteries toll free.
Urban sprawl....this is really subjective - and I know you'll find it in any major city.
I lived in Florida for over 10 years places included Jax, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Melbourne, Orlando, and Tampa. I'd only consider moving back to Tampa (b/c I have inlaws), but otherwise I'd wouldn't move to Florida unless, you are from NY and other areas of the east coast that are looking to escape the cold weather.
Pros
I had to pause to think of something, if you don't like cold, this is a huge positive. Nice looking imported palms (when they are newly imported), oh no state income taxes (but the lack of pay for most jobs balances this one out), a good mix of diveristy in most areas, housing market back to "normal", great outlets in the area for shopping, Downtown Disney a couple of other "cool" experiences (but compared to most metros of the same size really lacking)
Cons
1) Glorified swampland - natural area is not as pretty as people make it out to be
2) Tolls
3) Heat that is hard to believe unless you experience it and I now live where the temp rises above 100, but it feels sooooo much better - bugs
4) Traffic - drivers (infrastructrure or lack)
5) NYC south - (I'd rather live in NYC than Orlando, I just wish Orlando wasn't so NYC centered) try meeting someone anyone from Orlando - you can't!!
6) Humidty even late at night (yes I mentioned heat) one long hot day
7) Economy isn't very diverse
8) Lack of diversity in certain areas makes you feel as if you need to learn spanish
9) OTB -Enough said
10) Finding a good place to raise a family (neighbors, schools, commute, housing price, community feel) requires planning, research, hope, and a prayer as it is a very disjointed metro
Basically, it is a great place for certain people, but I suspect that most people that aren't running from snow will find it lackluster in the long term if you don't love driving over to the beach or learning spanish there are a lot of places in the U.S that are far more satisfying
Good place to visit or retire, not very good for raising a family unless you love heat
Last edited by Daville74; 03-18-2011 at 11:18 AM..
Every city (and I use that word loosely regarding Orlando which feels more like a big town) has it's pros and cons. And all those pros and cons mean different things to different people depending on where their own priorities are.
Orlando isn't my home, but it IS where I happen to have a good job, great affordable housing / living cost and annual theme park tickets. Doesn't make it paradise....but it is far from a crazy crappy crime-ridden place to live. It has a lot of great qualities and really nice people...but I'll admit there are many of them who do drive like maniacs and can't speak a spot of English.
It isn't the place for everyone, but I personally prefer it over a long list of other cities around America. And if a whole lot of people didn't agree with me, there wouldn't be so many people around the whole world migrating here every single day.
I've been in Orlando a few times as a tourist from England. I know that living in a place and visiting it are two different things. When I go to Florida I normally stay in Orlando because of its location. As other people mentioned - you can go to a lot of places for a day trip. I dont know why people complain about drivers and road rage and narrow roads. Compared to uk the roads are huge and thr drivers are much friendlier than in the UK. I think that a lot of Americans dont appreciate how good their country is and what amazing infrastructure they have.
Ok, toll roads are annoying but I never used them out of principle and still managed to get round Orlando ok. People say Orlando is one of the most dangerous cities in USA. Again as a tourist I did not experience crime and Orlando seemed safer than the UK or a paradase compared to Estonia where I am from originally. And even if you compare Orlando to Miami you will see that Orlando is much better in every sence including crime and road rage. Ive experienced both of these things on my visits to Miami. And rudness? People in Orlando are like saints compared to Miami's average population.
I have to admit Orlando lacks public transport, but with the price of gas who needs a bus?
Orlando is a "big small town", with all the problems that most cities have in America. I think UCF is the big plus for Orlando but the condition of the roads is a big negative. There is a huge number of homes/condo's on the market with a large variety, location, price, size, age, etc... I think the only thing that really bugs me is the non-stop funding drives by the local NPR station. It is like listening to a teacher drag her nails across a chalk board.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
