More info on Avalon Park and Waterford Lakes (Orlando, Sanford: violent crime, cheap home)

[theoldnorthstate]

Originally Posted by Consigliere

If
this is what appeals to you then go for it:

being torn down and business center moved to Mitchell Hammock Rd.

434 straightened and widened.

your snap will look entirely different soon enough.

[StreetSmarts]

its old, so what? there are some great restuarants in some of those old buildings. consingliere must think that new = better. as seen in Avalon Pk and Waterford, its certainly not always true.

PS- i hate theyre tearing down old buildings and widening roads... more retail, more traffic, tearing down trees! yipee! lookin like the rest of FL in no time! Yay! (sarcasm). Places like Avalon and have turned much less attractive, places like Lake Nona turning into Kissimmee. I'll take older Oviedo over newer Orlando anyday. I'm all about the people, morals, low crime and good schools.

[Stress-Relief]

So having the same question as the OP, but not wishing to turn the thread into a war zone , what exactly are the issues with each?... It'd be appreciated if you posted the positives and negatives of your area as opposed to the negatives from someone else . I will likely be working close to the airport but traffic isn't as big of an issue for since I am moving from a big city with major traffic, and I work unusual hours... School competency (learning and college prep skills opposed to simple state scores) is #1... Along with neighborhood safety. My kids are in elementary school and my wife is a proud stay at home woman. A long time ago a teacher told me a good way to test the direction of a neighborhood school is to see which way paid-school lunches are trending, but I'm not sure if that's true? Any information would be appreciated - both Oviedo and Avalon PArk were recommended to me but it seems like a love hate, hate love relationship... Thanks in advance....

[MrKnight]

Originally Posted by Stress-Relief

So having the same question as the OP, but not wishing to turn the thread into a war zone , what exactly are the issues with each?... It'd be appreciated if you posted the positives and negatives of your area as opposed to the negatives from someone else . I will likely be working close to the airport but traffic isn't as big of an issue for since I am moving from a big city with major traffic, and I work unusual hours... School competency (learning and college prep skills opposed to simple state scores) is #1... Along with neighborhood safety. My kids are in elementary school and my wife is a proud stay at home woman. A long time ago a teacher told me a good way to test the direction of a neighborhood school is to see which way paid-school lunches are trending, but I'm not sure if that's true? Any information would be appreciated - both Oviedo and Avalon PArk were recommended to me but it seems like a love hate, hate love relationship... Thanks in advance....

Here is a break down, hope this helps:

Oviedo/Winter Springs:
I grew up in the Oviedo area and can hence personally attest that it is a great area for middle class families looking for good schools and family friendly neighborhoods. Oviedo is very interesting as it feels like a small town but is still large enough and close enough to Orlando to be considered a major suburb and reap the benefits of being part of the metro area, it is also close to UCF and has become somewhat of an extension of the UCF area with a lot of alumni and boosters living in the area. I always recommend Oviedo as it really has far more pros than cons, I don't know anyone that has not enjoyed living in Oviedo, in fact, there are many long-term residents in the area who call Oviedo their home town.

Waterford Lakes
As mentioned previously, Waterford Lakes is also a nice middle class neighborhood but it is also extremely congested and really defines urban sprawl to the brim. One of the reasons that has led to this is not so much the neighborhood itself but more so it's proximity to UCF which is immediately adjacent to Waterford Lakes and happens to be the 2nd largest university in the country by enrollment, with this comes the obvious traffic and a heavy presence of college students in the area that share the area with the families of Waterford Lakes. There is also a major shopping center in the heart of Waterford Lakes with major department stores, a movie theater, a bowling alley, and lots of restaurants. If you do not mind the congestion, overall, Waterford Lakes is a very active but nice neighborhood, it is well situated with convenient access to 417 and 408 which are both major highways that provide direct access to Downtown Orlando, Interstate 4, and other parts of the region.

Avalon Park
Avalon Park is truly a self-contained cookie-cutter master planned neighborhood, there is nothing wrong with this if this is something you are looking for, in fact, many residents enjoy the uniformity and neighborhood feel. I would say the biggest con about Avalon Park that really stands out is the proximity to a major regional power plant (click link for more info) that can be seen from most parts of the neighborhood smoke stacks and all, public officials claim that the power plant poses no harm to public safety, however, seeing smoke stacks in the distance is not really my definition of an ideal neighborhood setting. If you can get over the power plant, everything else with this neighborhood is fine and many residents seem to enjoy living there.

Best of luck!

[Consigliere]

More Oviedo love:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-60agDDRGo

[MrKnight]

Originally Posted by Consigliere

More Oviedo love:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-60agDDRGo

Don't be a TROLL.. You keep posting videos of this ONE street of Oviedo which is not reflective in any way or form of the rest of the city, not to mention the fact that this entire block is being redeveloped and most of the buildings shown in this video are being demolished and redeveloped into major commercial development.

[StreetSmarts]

I wish Oviedo would stay the way it is, and not get rid of the older downtown. Consigliere thinks new strip malls and CVS's are what is best. Move to any other city in FL to get that and keep Oviedo the way it is.

I'd much rather live close to downtown Oviedo than a 500-800 home community in Waterford or Avalon.

[Consigliere]

Even more Oviedo love:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuPu4jAC-P0

[sergiodurante]

Mr. Knight made some excellent points with his insightful post. While I agree with most of what he said, as a former resident of the whole Alafaya corridor from Waterford to Avalon, I'd like to make a few additions. Although some of my information may be dated due to the fact that I moved out of East Orlando over 3 years ago. Please feel free to rectify any misinformation.

-Waterford Lakes-
IMO the best selling point of this area is its thriving retail center. But beyond the conveniences of being close to Waterford Lakes Towne Center, I think Mr. Knight summed it up well with Waterford Lakes being the epitome of urban sprawl. Although it sits most conveniently to the 408, if you happen to live deep in Lake Underhill, good luck with your commute during rush hour traffic. I would imagine the congestion has only worsened in the last few years as more and more communities have been built in the area. Property crime in the area was rising all throughout the Alafaya Corridor when I lived there and I imagine it has only been exacerbated by its rising population.

-Avalon Park-
Although some would describe AP's ambiance as cookie cutter, it is about as nice as cookie cutter gets. I'm still a fan of it's neo-traditional design and town center concept. Some might call AP a low rent version of Celebration or Baldwin Park. When I lived there, it was still relatively well maintained. However, don't be fooled by its polished facade. A lot of residents may brush off its proximity to the Stanton Energy Plant, not many people are aware that the Stanton Energy Plant was once rated as the dirtiest coal plant in the entire nation. Coal ash production/storage and its effects on the environment most certainly have a correlation with adverse health effects which was one of the reasons why we moved. Another reason was the rising property crime, my family and I were victimized multiple times and so were our neighbors. Violent crime was rare, however, car break ins and residential burglaries were a regular occurrence. The congestion coming and going from AP was quite bad when I lived there. I would hope that the widening of Alafaya has relieved this complaint. Other ways to exit the community were not any better, going through Waterford Lakes or East Colonial near Bithlo was just as bad.

I moved to Avalon Park right before the real estate boom and absolutely loved it there. But when the market crashed, AP was the microcosm of everything that went wrong in real estate at the time. And along with the crash came a change in demographics. Investors snapped up cheap homes/townhomes that made the area much more transient among other problems.

Another issue that contributed to Avalon Park's decline that I still find confusing is the decision to extend the street name "Avalon Park Blvd" all the way to the intersection of Colonial/Hwy 50. This is an issue that non AP residents will find difficult to grasp. Maybe it was beyond the developer's control, but what occurred was that AP became synonymous with every single community from where AP ends near Timber Creek High School all the way down to Colonial/Hwy 50. AP was once positioned as a slightly upscale community in the mid 2000s, but the little bit of affluence that was built up was quickly erased by the real estate crash and the accelerated decline that was even more evident in the communities closer to Hwy 50/Colonial. I think if you truly want to get a sense of what Avalon Park is evolving into, then you must take a close look at the adjacent communities and subdivisions.

[Consigliere]

Originally Posted by Consigliere

Even more Oviedo love:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuPu4jAC-P0

I may have missed them due to the height of the camera, but I didn't see a single human being walking the streets, sidewalks, or anywhere else in Oviedo during this entire video (aside from the two children in the first couple seconds). Did I not see them, or does the video accurately depict downtown Oviedo as an eerie, rundown ghost town with only the cars driving through trying to get somewhere else?