Orlando..a nice place

[Christian11]

Originally Posted by lovelyrita81

I live in MetroWest and agree with many of the comments about it. It is nice inside the little cluster of apartments and houses but as soon as you hit Kirkman Road it's disgusting. The best indication of how bad this area is getting is the Walmart. I would be uncomfortable going in there at night. It's amazing the difference between the walmart and the Publix on Hiawasee, like night and day. I work near dowtown, close to College park, and drive up Colonial or Old Winter Garden when I-4 is backed up. This drive is disgusting. I've stopped at gas stations here only to get back into my car and leave because it was very ghetto. One Citgo station on Old Winter Garden had about five police cruisers, three news trucks, ambulances, and crime tape around the entire parking lot. This was during rush hour traffic, not late at night. My boyfriend and I are both from Connecticut and have lived here for a year and a half. As soon as he finishes his school, we are moving.

I used to live in New Haven, CT, while going to college for 6 months. It is almost as bad in Orlando as New Haven. The trend seems to show that in the next 5 years or so, Orlando will pass New Haven in violent crime. Yeah, true in New Haven they have Latin Kings, 21's and other gangs, but in Orlando we have the lovely and extremely violent illegal alien gang called MS-13 (see their markings in Orlando)



Here is a sample of an MS-13 gangbanger. They are always Spanish-looking guys (non-latinos cannot join), lots of tats. Walk in groups, usually wear jeans shorts and tank tops. They are always armed with a gun or knife, and they will kill in a heartbeat.



I grew up in the Kirkman road area (in Metro West, off the now unaffordable, Metro West blvd., payingpost pics, the area WAS nice before. It was not crowded like it is now. It was actually safe, clean, affordable.

Kirkman where NOW you describe as disgusting, used to be clean. Just like the rest of Orlando. It is urban sprwal now, ghettos being built around nice communities. I cannot think of 1 neighborhood in SW Orlando that I cannot Google and get pictures of murdered people, armed robberies, home invasions, or 80 year old laddies getting strangled by crackheads when they go to get the mail during the day, and etc. All recent stuff. Just last night, we had one kid run his car into a mall and several home invasions in Sanford. The lady strangled survived... her apt was ransacked.

There are several gas stations that you cannot pump at, unless you are a member of a certain race, or are involved in some gang or illegal activity. I am talking about the gas stations on the corner of LB McLeod road, near the First Baptist Church of Orlando on John Young parkway.

The Walmart she is refering to is on Kirkmand road. Now 2 streets up (not even a mile up the road) is the Publix on Westpoint Blvd, where I lived for 5 years. The Walmart brought out all the ghetto folk who loiter and sell drugs in the Walmart parking lot. No one seems afraid of being arrested, you often here people yelling "I give $30 for the bag" at that Walmart. Normal. The ghettos are located on Raleigh Street (east of Kirkamn road) and north on Silver Star Road. To the east, we have OBT (where the whorehouses and pimp clubs are) and to the west we have Americana Blvd and Oakridge Road.... so basically the west side of Orlando has an island where it is nice (MetroWest), but everything around it is ghetto. Crime is spilling over in Metro West, the local news flood the local news with murders, rapes, and kidnappings in the Metro West area.... it is awful. It used to be that Disney owned a lot of the local stations and did not let the crime out to keep real estate prices up, but now it's out there, in your face.

The east side of Orlando... oh man, let's not even get started, it is TRASH, I mean real trash. It is called "Little Mexico"... lots and lots of trailer parks, chicken fights, you know the drill. Crime is through the roof.... MS-13 gangs run the streets from Goldenroad to Curry Ford road, to south of Waterford Lakes.... You cannot enter a driver's license office in the East side of town without seeing a crack dealer or prostitute on a street corner. You often see drug deals going on, specially off of Colonial (SR-50).You could see everything. Unbeliavable.

Ps. for info on the MS-13 gangs, see msnbc.msn.com/id/11240718/ Mostly illegal aliens, this is an imported problem. South and Central Florida share this problem with LA... the areas are starting to look the same!

[Christian11]

I am going to my cousin's graduation at UCF this weekend. I am going to bring my camera and I will try to take some pics of East Orland for y'all's enjoyment.

I will try to get the pimp clubs too.... oh on OBT (Orange Blossom Trail), try going past Colonial (SR-50)... dude it is an inner city ghetto all the way.

Oh oh, for fun, get someone who has an old Cadilac (so people in Pine Hills will think you are a pimp or drug dealer and not try to harm you) and go for a tour of Pine Hills (aka. Crime Hills, aka. Choppy City). You will see real drug dealers holding machineguns on the streets, pit bulls on the front year od every house chained to a tree.... it looks like Loas Angeles. To get to Pine Hills, to north on Hiawassee road or take Kirkman road north and make a left on Colonial and then left on the 2nd light. Honestly, it is Los Angeles!!

Don't think these guys don't leave the ghetto to commit crimes. LOL... that would be naive of you. They got cars, they go anywhere they can victimize people.

Ok, I will get the pics of East Orlando and the gas stations I mentioned above. People need to get with the program... Orlando is very violent, very dangerous now and things will not change at all. You either deal with it or move out.

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http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/new...ome_invas.html

A man was killed during one of four robberies and home invasions across Orange County overnight, all of which might be related, law enforcement officials said this morning. The first incident was reported in Ocoee about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night when a 30-year-old man was robbed while working on his car parked on Lyman Avenue. One suspect pointed a gun in the man's face after another yelled "kill him," but the gun did not fire. The two suspects fled.

The next incident turned deadly, officials said.

A man, Shawn Mulkin, 44, was shot and killed in the Hawthorne Groves Apartments after he chased two men who invaded his apartment about 11 p.m., the Orange Sheriff's Office said. Two other similar incidents -- with similar decriptions of the suspects -- were reported, one in Winter Garden and another on East Welch Road.

Officials are not sure the incidents are related but are working to figure that out. They did say it is NOT related to the home invasion in west Orange early Tuesday morning that involved a 74-year-old woman, which you can read online here.

The sheriff's office says it is hoping to have composite drawings of the suspects, and if they do, we'll put them online. For now, here is the description from a news release from Ocoee, which is the most detailed:

"Young black male, 5’8, slim build, black hooded sweatshirt, dark blue jean shorts and dark shoes. Black male, 5’10, slim build, gray-black-white camouflage pants, dark navy hooded sweatshirt and dark shoes. Unknown information on the driver. Suspect vehicle was a newer model Nissan or Toyota, 4-door, dark gray or silver, with tinted windows and in mint condition. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Ocoee Police at 407-905-3160 or Crimeline at 407-423-TIPS."

[Eastbank]

WOW, lots of exaggeration, fear mongering, and hyperbole in this thread. As with anything, note the source. Most of the aggressively negative hype seems to come from the same 2 or 3 posters, over and over.

[Nomoresubways]

What I want to know is how much free time these guys have?? I mean honestly.

[poxonyou]

I used to live in East Orlando. We were on the border or the OK part of East Orlando and little PR. Little PR is East Orlando closer to downtown, where everything is in Spanish and almost everyone you see is Hispanic. Not sure what the other person means about it succeeding to Mexico because there aren't many Mexicans there, mainly PR and some Cuban.

East of that, what used to be the rural areas, is the new housing complexes. They sprang up during the housing bubble and a boom in interest in Orlando. However, these homes are all cookie-cutter standard middle-class homes and likely won't retain their clean image for long. It's most likely little PR will continue spreading eastward as those homes become cheaper and middle/upper middle class outsiders will lose interest in the area or Orlando as a whole. Of course this is good news if you're PR and considering moving here, otherwise, well, honestly, as open minded as you want to be, unless you're obsessed with PR culture, you'll likely feel increasingly out of place.

There are some wealthy parts, like Heathrow, but as another pointed out, they're just pockets. All these wealthy pockets are surrounded by poor areas, some incredibly poor. Even the touristy areas are surrounded by poor areas. And yes, it often seems those praising Orlando have an ulterior motive, like being a real estate agent in the area. Anyone considering it, please take a week vacation, stay in an area you're considering moving to, rent a car, and really pretend like you're living here. It seems the real estate agents and tourism industry are doing an incredible job marketing and hyping the city, so be wary.

[beckycat]

Originally Posted by stargazer

I just moved away and just wanted to say that I was miserable in the Oviedo area. I agree with many things that the prior poster did say. I think she is referring to the downtown Oviedo area right? I used to avoid that like the wind, I don't recall it taking an hour to get through there but that light was really bad by the child resale shop. The traffic was bad in the area for us due to our location too. My husband worked in on 1-4 over near the Maitland so it was all boulvards there. For those reading this, remember it is not by miles to judge distance but by lights and how many boulevards to take. Our home was 17 miles from my husbands job and it took him 45 minutes to get there. Just coming on here and reading some of the statements has made me glad to have moved. It was very stressful living there and I did not realize how much till I moved to another state and even if many who are from there don't see it in the local attitudes, I never felt welcome by many there, old Oviedo was very townie and as my pastor there put it, people there will go within their legal rights to find out who you are. It is part of the vivicous cycle that surrounds that area due the transients coming in and the locals not knowing who they were . Now as I said this in genral, not everyone is like this. As far as schools go in Seminole, they are the best in the state and imo better than the some of the privates around Oviedo. Yes we tried a couple of private schools for our child however where we are at, the education is much better now and the attitudes of people are greatly better. I will say that I did meet some great people but at the same time I never met in my life so many people who wanted to start conflicts, try to pry like they did into our lives and be overly suspicious, ect ect. If any one has lived long enough in Oviedo, remember the bomb scare behind the Winn Dixie? That was a hoax and the police chief had to come out and apologize to the family. I remember it so well and was scared to death we had moved to the wrong part of town when we moved in then to find out it was all a rumor started by grown women in that neighborhood just by gossipping. One was a pastors wife which mortifies me. They ruined a youngs mans reputation and trashed his family. They only did this because he was simple and felt he was wierd. You can't survive that area unless you are in some sort of group however the only we survived was by being in church and doing things as a family and getting involved with some social clubs. It helped tremedously.... I just wish that our experience could have better but it wasn't. I appreciate all those that were kind, there kindness will be remembered tremendously and shined tremendously into our lives. Sorry if it turned into a vent but this is true.... I just wasn't cut out for living there.

Just out of curiosity, where did you move to? Do you like it better?

[pianogal]

Originally Posted by beckycat

Just out of curiosity, where did you move to? Do you like it better?

If memory serves me it was Colorado. We communicated through private message a time or two...but I think he was banned. Oops....just realized you were speaking to someone else. I thought you were referring to the OP....christian.

[compelled to reply]

At least there was no "rude people" complaints in this malcontent festival. Sure were a lot of rude people in this thread though.