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Pretty funny guys! Seriously though there is some merit to the article... I've noticed a downward swing since I moved here 3 yrs ago. I don't think there is anyplace in this country the way it aways was. Things continually change, it's just the way life goes. Hopefully Orlando's public officials will take this survey and use it as a wake up call.
I do have to politely disagree that Orando is a crap hole or cesspool as King portrays. It needs work obviously but it's hardly how he describes. Maybe King lives in a bad part of town but where I live it's beautifully landscaped with a golf course and new shopping everywhere. It's pretty darn nice compared to a lot of places that I've seen in my lifetime. I thank my lucky stars for where I live, yep right here in Orlando. There are people in this world who are suffering from starvation and sickness and have absolutely nothing. I think I'll take life here in Orlando... any day.
Pretty funny guys! Seriously though there is some merit to the article... I've noticed a downward swing since I moved here 3 yrs ago. I don't think there is anyplace in this country the way it aways was. Things continually change, it's just the way life goes. Hopefully Orlando's public officials will take this survey and use it as a wake up call.
I do have to politely disagree that Orando is a crap hole or cesspool as King portrays. It needs work obviously but it's hardly how he describes. Maybe King lives in a bad part of town but where I live it's beautifully landscaped with a golf course and new shopping everywhere. It's pretty darn nice compared to a lot of places that I've seen in my lifetime. I thank my lucky stars for where I live, yep right here in Orlando. There are people in this world who are suffering from starvation and sickness and have absolutely nothing. I think I'll take life here in Orlando... any day.
Of course there are some really nice communities here, but for many they are unattainable. Isleworth and Bay Hill are nice but most people can not afford a place there. I think you are biased because you live on a golf course. I would be happy here if I were you too. But for the rest of us its gone downhill quick.
I also live in a very nice community and far enough outside Orlando to avoid some of the problems such as the crime which does worry me.
I have been watching this and seeing that many people are leaving the state. I am hoping this will bring things into line when the state realizes they can't raise our taxes through the roof and someone needs to muzzle the insurance companies.
I purchased my house long enough ago that if the price goes down, it won't hurt me at all. I love it here enough that I will stay no matter what and hope in the long run, the cost to live closer to the ocean will go down as a result of so many leaving the state.
Pretty funny guys! Seriously though there is some merit to the article... I've noticed a downward swing since I moved here 3 yrs ago. I don't think there is anyplace in this country the way it aways was. Things continually change, it's just the way life goes. Hopefully Orlando's public officials will take this survey and use it as a wake up call.
I do have to politely disagree that Orando is a crap hole or cesspool as King portrays. It needs work obviously but it's hardly how he describes. Maybe King lives in a bad part of town but where I live it's beautifully landscaped with a golf course and new shopping everywhere. It's pretty darn nice compared to a lot of places that I've seen in my lifetime. I thank my lucky stars for where I live, yep right here in Orlando. There are people in this world who are suffering from starvation and sickness and have absolutely nothing. I think I'll take life here in Orlando... any day.
I was actually going to defend Orlando from King's irrational negativity, but your post kind of hit on something that I think King probably would agree is bad about this place. It's funny how people communicate with crossed wires. Here you are offering up what you mean to be good points, but they ultimately just confirm his "woe is me" worldview.
In particular, what is the deal with all the "landscaping" everywhere? I have never been in a place where so many people consider living next to a manmade golf course to be some kind of major draw. But around here it seems everyone wants to mow down all the natural beauty and replace it with "landscape," which seems to be usually some stubby-looking out-of-place palm trees, absurd tracts of grass, and a lot of parking spaces.
The truth is the landscaping is terrible around here. There is indeed beauty in Florida, but it's where there isn't landscaping. As soon as you drive outside Orlando, it's shocking how pretty this place could have been.
There is something strangely sterile in the tastes of satisfied Orlando residents. A pretty landscape is a golf course? "Shopping" is a strip mall? "Good restaurants" mean a chain? I was told by some Orlando enthusiasts how great it is here because there are a lot of good malls! Am I the only one wondering what these people are thinking??
I have been amazed even in threads on this forum to see people extolling the virtues of the latest strip malls and chain restaurants to bless their neighborhoods. Do people really think this is the good life???
I agree with the mowing down of natural beauty about 7 years ago I had a nice wooded area about 300 feet away. They mowed that down and build a bunch of crappy little houses and a strip mall what a bunch of crap.
I am blessed to live beside 300 acres of conservation land with a 100 year deed and enjoy the natural, wild beauty and animals. I agree that natural land is much more beautiful than most 'improved' land. However, I think our city is beginning to wake up and realize we can't pave everything. Many of the newer communities do have large parcels of woodlands set aside that can't be developed. There's probably little that can be done about Orlando proper now....it's almost an asphlat jungle, but there is still hope for the outlying areas.
Oresident - Crossed wires is right, for sure. This is only a medium of words and not expressions that allow a person to get their point across. My last post I used the term landscaping loosely... what I meant was that most of Orlando presents itself as manicured (i.e. flowers, grass that is mowed, etc.) I don't get the urban blight feeling as other cities I've seen such as Camden or Newark or Philadelphia or Detroit, the list goes on...
It is all about personal preference in life. I just prefer to live places where it looks nice, I don't see anything wrong with that. In Orlando, and FL in general, many developments are built near and around golf courses and shopping. I prefer this lifestyle rather than living in out in the woods upon acres of property. Nothing wrong with that at all but; I just like to be close to what I perceive as amenities. I also think FL has a lot of natural beauty as well. We love Weikiva State park but I wouldn't necessarily want to live there.
I do get your point though and agree on some points. Orlando is not my final destination!
First, I didn't read the article in the Orlando Slantinel. I don't have to. Anyone who has been in FL a couple decades or is a native, knows that rag to be as worthless as a New York rat colony. There are four things the Slantinel is good for: classified section, crossword puzzle, tv guide and comics. That's it. When you start reading outside of those four areas, you are reading fantasy, opinion or disgruntled/displaced ghetto rag.
With me so far?
I was an Orlando resident. I had family in the Tampa area long before Disney ever started buying up swampland in Orange and Osceola counties. If you want the news, listen to the radio. More specifically, listen to talk radio. That's where you will hear the heartbeat of the area as well as the nation. It will make you think rather than just mindlessly read words on paper devoid of feeling or tone.
If you fled another area to move to Orlando, that was your first mistake. Look before you leap. What did you hope to find in Orlando? Was it the air, the beaches, the fishing, the roaches, the alligators and poisonous snakes? What was it that led you to come here? Would it be all you anticipated if you weren't swayed by the lies in the daily rag?
All places are what you make it. If you are in Orlando for all the right reasons, then you need to stop looking at the negative and start living the positive. I get so irritated that people come to Florida thinking it to be something it isn't and then dismayed to find it is as simple as it is.
Expensive? Sure, just like everywhere else that is desireable. With the good, you will also get some bad. Nothing is perfect. But be part of the solution if you want change, go sit on the city councel meetings, attend the church of your choosing and become involved with the community. Join the local chapter of CERT, volunteer as a fire fighter, take classes at Valencia or UCF. No law says you have to have a degree or graduation in mind to take a class or two.
Nobody benefits from those who come to Orlando and then just complain that it's not what you had hoped. And worse that you see something negative in the daily rag, agree with it and then perpetuate it with more negative thoughts shared elsewhere. Be part of the community and see the good in your neighborhood.
Paradise is anywhere you want it to be, anywhere you move to, but it takes active participation from the masses, not just a few. I was there against my will initially, but made the best of it while I was there. Children usually don't have a say in where they live - where the parents go, the children go. I stayed most of my adult life and retired to where I called home all those years.
Why am I reading the Orlando forum? I just wanted to see what folks are saying about where I was. And I see it is just getting piled higher and deeper because of the Orlando Slantinal. Trust me on this one point: Stop reading that rag and start enjoying the area for what it has to offer. There are all manner of opportunities for higher learning, for active participation in the community, for being a part of the growth of what is a very nice place to live. It served a member of my family for a serious health condition very well and prolonged her life way past what would have occurred elsewhere.
Be happy where you are and don't add to the misery perpetuated by the Slantinal.
Oresident - Crossed wires is right, for sure. This is only a medium of words and not expressions that allow a person to get their point across. My last post I used the term landscaping loosely... what I meant was that most of Orlando presents itself as manicured (i.e. flowers, grass that is mowed, etc.) I don't get the urban blight feeling as other cities I've seen such as Camden or Newark or Philadelphia or Detroit, the list goes on...
It is all about personal preference in life. I just prefer to live places where it looks nice, I don't see anything wrong with that. In Orlando, and FL in general, many developments are built near and around golf courses and shopping. I prefer this lifestyle rather than living in out in the woods upon acres of property. Nothing wrong with that at all but; I just like to be close to what I perceive as amenities. I also think FL has a lot of natural beauty as well. We love Weikiva State park but I wouldn't necessarily want to live there.
I do get your point though and agree on some points. Orlando is not my final destination!
I know what you're saying. I agree that the lack of blight is nice. Absolutely true!
But still, why does it have to be a choice between living in the rural woods or living in a paved-over world of stumpy out-of-place trees and generic "landscaping?" In a lot of other cities, they actually keep original trees in yards when they build houses. In Orlando, they just mow everything down even when the actual built structure is only going to take up some small percentage of the area.
If you go out to Seminole county you can see some places where they didn't screw up as much when they built things up. Some houses actually have old trees around them.
I'm not talking about the famous weird "nature reserves" that are spread all over the place, I'm talking about why neighborhoods themselves all over Orlando look like fake imitations of a real neighborhood.
Or how about some building up instead of paving out? Orlando is a city after all. Then at least they'd be putting the ruined landscape to good use.
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