My thoughts on how to fix downtown Orlando - And I would like to hear yours!

[Crane's Rooster]

I think one of the keys to improving downtown is diversifying the housing there. There seems to be a trend starting to happen with all the new rental apartments going up but the reality is downtown housing is still primarily expensive rentals and condos. If the city were to give incentives to developers to build more mixed housing, meaning all income levels and primarily the working middle class, I think it would change the downtown character alot. I think by bringing in more families you change the dynamic by changing the demands downtown. For instance, more families means greater demand for park spaces and public spaces. We've got to start catering to just more than affluent empty nesters and their yuppy kids.

[Wilshire81182]

I think it will always be expensive to live downtown because it is packed with amenities and convenient for people who work in the area. I do not know how much is too much, but I have been looking at Thornton Park condos and some of them are kind of affordable. It depends on how high up you want to be or how much space you need. I have not looked downtown though in the Upper Orange area or west of Lake Eola. I think the mix of people living down there will always tend to include less then usual numbers of families because of the exposure to crime and noise that downtown brings, unless it is in one of the bungalows in the area close to downtown. I read recently that the movie theater is back on, someone else has taken up the project. With that and the Publix, I think that downtown is definitely on the right track to get more user friendly and livable.

[iminer]

sound a good idea.you can do what you think,it's a big luck.

[Robert-Kuypers]

Well to be honest I am hoping beyond all hope to begin working with the city on something like this very soon so I wanted to get what Orlando was thinking. I do think that downtown is bereft of a place(s) for the "working class" to live, but for a reason. Their is currently no pull for them to move downtown so no one is targeted them. I am a big fan of if you build it (right) they will come. If you make it more advantageous for families to come downtown when they will want to stay down their. Hence community parks with a playground to play with kids, free theater, free basketball hoops, picnic areas. Basically I am thinking a micro central park in Orlando. We unlike almost every metropolitan city still have the chance to do it now and make something very memorable for all of our kids.

[Robert-Kuypers]

Then the taxing problem would be fixed at least in our county by the GIANT INCREASE from the limited gambling. By limited we only allow it in restricted tourists zones (read I-Drive) and the existing parimutuels (dog tracks and jailai). The taxes would cut our property taxes, hopefully turning around some of the housing problems, and coincidentally hospitality jobs in gambling are some of the highest in the industry so we ill also be raising our dismal per capita in central Florida.

[**NoodLes**]

Good luck trying to get gambling legalized in the Orlando area. Orlando wants to be seen as a family-oriented vacation destination, not the next Las Vegas. Even if it is considered, believe me Disney will open their big mouth and have something to say about it. Any profits from gambling will have to go through Tallahassee first, so Otown will probably see very little money from it. My solution would be to fund more money from the lotteries than gambling.

Also, families will not move to downtown Orlando. The traffic is crazy around there and who would want their kids growing up around all the clubs and bums on the street. I sure wouldn't.

[DailyJournalist]

It is going to take much more than a park to make downtown Orlando vibrant.

1) You would have to bring high rises full of jobs instead of expensive Disney-Like condos that only the wealthy can afford. Without jobs, no middle class family will want to live there. There are simply not enough jobs downtown to sustain any major population. Most jobs are spread out in the suburbs.

2)You will need to build a couple of museums that will attract crowds in the day and evening and bring more businesses such as bakeries and the such (things that you would find in any true downtown).

3) Downtown needs to be connected to the airport and other parts of the city, some sort of light rail would solve this problem.

The suggestions I gave will be very hard to accomplish. The focus of local government is tourism and catering to the rich. This is why all these expensive high rise condos were built in downtown, but no major corporation is building any high rises full of jobs.

[Crane's Rooster]

I think some of us are not on the same page when referring to downtown. I think I misunderstood and the poster was really talk about just the Central Business District where as I was thinking more Central part of the city including some of the neighborhoods like Colonialtown, Delaney Park and Thornton park. Yes there are many single family housing options in these neighborhoods but the majority of those are too expensive for the average working family. Even in those neighborhoods it seems the only new developments are extremely expensive condos and townhomes. I think if they built more afordable multi family dwellings, like flats or rowhouses that the average working family could afford many people would consider living there. This would add the population and density and in turn create a greater demand for other amenities downtown.