What is so great about living in/near Orlando? Who loves or hates it & WHY?

[GloryB]

The longer I live here, the more I am enjoying Orlando. In the beginning, I really had a hard time, but I love my job and have made friends. I'm not fond of the particular area we live in and do plan to relocate to another part of town once my lease is up. Other than that, their is a lot to do and many nice places to hang out. I think within the next year it will feel just like home.

[touretteboy65]

I'll try to be be as open minded as possible while giving my two cents on this one. First off, I've lived in the Orlando area for nearly 19 years. I was as excited as could be when I first moved here. The area was busy, but not hectic or congested. Crime was present, but not an incredibly bad issue. Pay was okay, but the amount was expected due to me just starting out on a new job (career). Fast foward to late 2008; what a difference 19 years makes. Again, I consider myself to be very VERY OPEN MINDED; no problem with any race, national origin, sexual orientation, etc. Live and let live, that's my take on things. That being said, I'll give you my take on things here (and this may be totally opposite from others', so do with it what you may). Crime---It's a major problem. Homicides are way up, have been for several years now. Murders, just in Orange County alone (City of Orlando and unincorporated Orange County totals), exceed 100 per year. If not for our Level I trauma center at Orlando Regional Medical Center, those numbers would skyrocket and probably double. The medical staff (especially the trauma center) at that hospital work miracles. Violent Crime---Yep, there's violent crime that dosen't result in death. Armed robberies (50 CVS & Walgreens pharmacies robbed already this year) are INCREDIBLY out of control. Thugs running 3-4 deep hitting these places almost daily. Carjackings are usually an everyday occurance, but most of them are between the thugs themselves. Regardless, who wants to be around them when they occur, especially when 9 out of 10 of them involve firearms? Shootings? Are you kidding me?! It's the Wild Wild West here. Again, most involve thug on thug, but, I refer to my previous statement; who wants to be around when the lead flies? Property Crime---Well, if it's not nailed or bolted down, it's a goner. As you all know, the economy is in the tank, so people are doing what it takes to make a buck. If you wake up in the morning and find your house is warm and humid, or arrive to work and find the same, gander over to your now non existent A/C unit and find it in tatters. Bums are ripping them to pieces and taking the copper and aluminum. You're left with a $5000-8,000 bill because you gotta replace the compressor and air handler, that is now shot because it was straining to work without a compressor and is non compatible with the new unit you have to buy. Vehicle burglaries? Don't even get me started; too many to mention. Traffic---As my hero Geroge Carlin would say---Holy jumping sh*t balls!!! Put it to you this way. When I'm home on my day off, I absolutely refuse to drive anywhere because traffic so bad. Not only do you have to tolerate the shear congestion, but the road rage, speeders, red light runners, inadequate traffic management syestem in place, tailgaters, tourists, etc., are enough to cause cardiac arrest. It is not safe to bike or walk anywhere. Bikers and walkers are looked down at and either run down or run off the road (and sidewalks). Don't be fooled by the "bike paths" included on the roadways; they are narrow paths that are simply used as an extra lane for aggressive drivers to pass other vehicles. By the way, Floridians, and their state representaives, have this hatred towards mass transportation; they constantly vote it down and kill any projects that would improve the way things are. They are content with choking on car fumes. Weather---Simply put; it sucks. Yes, I know it's Florida, don't remind me. But, c'mon! 92 degrees Christmas morning??!! Are you frickin' kidding me???!!! Enjoy your two weeks of comfortable weather, folks. Scientifically, it is proven that the average temp in Florida has risen, steadily, 1-2 degrees over the past several years, due to development and the reduction of green space. Summers (that's the time between late February and mid December), are consitently in the mid 90's. Add the humidity factor, and you're dealing with a "real feel" of 96-110 degrees. Yuk!!! Smell what the Rock is cooking? It's in your armpits. Schools---Forget it; a disaster. Unless you dribble ball or throw a football, the school system is not interested. Little to no funding in comparison to taxes paid. The lottery? Created years ago to provide supplement funding to Florida's budget. These clowns here have wrecked our economy so bad that the revenue from the lottery, including the revenue already set aside for education, isn't enough to support the consistently F rated schools in this state. Besides, most of these schools in this area are nothing but breeding grounds for future criminals and single parents. Private schools are incredibly expensive. People who used to send their kids to private schools can't afford them now and are frced to place them in private schools. The numbers increase and schools become overcrowded. Teachers have been laid off due to no money, and as a result, the student/teacher ratio is way off. Teachers here are paid squat and the quality of education shows it. Quality teachers have said goodbye and have left to greener pastures somewhere else to teach. Diversity---Bring a Spanish dictionary. It's not called the "Great White Flight" for nothing. I know it's time to move when there's more Spanish only billboards dotting the roadway than English only. Again, I'm all about diversity and learning to live with my neighbors, but there's gotta be some attempt to learn English and assimilate to American culture, not vice versa. Well,

[Wilshire81182]

You may be openminded but you are extremely prone to exaggerations. I only see spanish signs in areas you would expect them in and I think that it is courteous and welcoming to people who speak Spanish as their primary language. That was extremely closeminded to me.

I am tired of people saying that Orlando is a cess pool or an embarassment. I have seen very few major cities like Orlando that have a downtown surrounded on 3 of its 4 sides by beautiful well maintained neighborhoods with brick paved streets. If I look at a map, I tend to look at a major portion of central Orlando as one big nice area north of Hoffner between Orange and Conway all the way up to Winter Park and Maitland. Then on top of that most of SW Orange county is nice south of Conroy and West of I-4. Most of the northside north of Altamonte is nice except parts of Sanford, it is also nice NE in Oviedo and Winter Springs and SE in Lake Nona. Wekiva, College Park, Hunters Creek, all nice maintained areas and I am leaving some out too.

Every city is going to have its problem areas and unfortunately I think the eastside is becoming a not as nice area, in this I include Azalea Park, Goldenrod, Union Park, The Valencia CC area by Millinocket, and some of the areas by UCF too. Avalon Park and Waterford Lakes, as well as Andover and Cypress Springs are kind of vulnerable to these areas and are deteriorating and maybe not so slowly. I think a lot of people that I talk to that are disappointed in Orlando live in some of these areas.

The southside has Oak Ridge and Sky Lake that if left to spill over will impact South Chase and Landstar.
The west side has Parramore and Pine Hills that spills into Metrowest and Ocoee. As a whole though, I do not drive around thinking that Orlando is a dump, but I can recognize it as a city with problems and due to the economy possibly not the full funding for the solution at this time. Unlike the urban core in downtown and Winter Park that seem to be filled with people who earnestly care about their neighborhoods, some of the suburbs tend to be filled with many like on this forum who just want to sit around and have someone else fix the problems and complain about the problems.

Orlando has a lot going for it and whenever I have visitors from out of town, Orlando is a great city to showoff with all the dining options, attractions, beautiful neighborhoods, adjacent beaches and neat things to do and see. Maybe if they lived here or watched the news they would start to feel differently, maybe if they happened across some severely malcontent individuals their thinking could be warped, but until all of Orlando is like one big Compton or Detroit, I cannot give up hope or stand by to let people slander it. There is a lot to boast about in Orlando and if you cannot recognize that, try living somewhere else and see if you do not have the same problems or a completely different set of other ones.

P.S.- Anyone complaining about the weather has no sense, I just do not understand why you would do no research or think that it is not going to be sunny and humid here most of the year, this is Florida and to that I say, "DUH!"

[markhunt]

Originally Posted by touretteboy65

I'll try to be be as open minded as possible while giving my two cents on this one. First off, I've lived in the Orlando area for nearly 19 years. I was as excited as could be when I first moved here. The area was busy, but not hectic or congested. Crime was present, but not an incredibly bad issue. Pay was okay, but the amount was expected due to me just starting out on a new job (career). Fast foward to late 2008; what a difference 19 years makes. Again, I consider myself to be very VERY OPEN MINDED; no problem with any race, national origin, sexual orientation, etc. Live and let live, that's my take on things. That being said, I'll give you my take on things here (and this may be totally opposite from others', so do with it what you may). Crime---It's a major problem. Homicides are way up, have been for several years now. Murders, just in Orange County alone (City of Orlando and unincorporated Orange County totals), exceed 100 per year. If not for our Level I trauma center at Orlando Regional Medical Center, those numbers would skyrocket and probably double. The medical staff (especially the trauma center) at that hospital work miracles. Violent Crime---Yep, there's violent crime that dosen't result in death. Armed robberies (50 CVS & Walgreens pharmacies robbed already this year) are INCREDIBLY out of control. Thugs running 3-4 deep hitting these places almost daily. Carjackings are usually an everyday occurance, but most of them are between the thugs themselves. Regardless, who wants to be around them when they occur, especially when 9 out of 10 of them involve firearms? Shootings? Are you kidding me?! It's the Wild Wild West here. Again, most involve thug on thug, but, I refer to my previous statement; who wants to be around when the lead flies? Property Crime---Well, if it's not nailed or bolted down, it's a goner. As you all know, the economy is in the tank, so people are doing what it takes to make a buck. If you wake up in the morning and find your house is warm and humid, or arrive to work and find the same, gander over to your now non existent A/C unit and find it in tatters. Bums are ripping them to pieces and taking the copper and aluminum. You're left with a $5000-8,000 bill because you gotta replace the compressor and air handler, that is now shot because it was straining to work without a compressor and is non compatible with the new unit you have to buy. Vehicle burglaries? Don't even get me started; too many to mention. Traffic---As my hero Geroge Carlin would say---Holy jumping sh*t balls!!! Put it to you this way. When I'm home on my day off, I absolutely refuse to drive anywhere because traffic so bad. Not only do you have to tolerate the shear congestion, but the road rage, speeders, red light runners, inadequate traffic management syestem in place, tailgaters, tourists, etc., are enough to cause cardiac arrest. It is not safe to bike or walk anywhere. Bikers and walkers are looked down at and either run down or run off the road (and sidewalks). Don't be fooled by the "bike paths" included on the roadways; they are narrow paths that are simply used as an extra lane for aggressive drivers to pass other vehicles. By the way, Floridians, and their state representaives, have this hatred towards mass transportation; they constantly vote it down and kill any projects that would improve the way things are. They are content with choking on car fumes. Weather---Simply put; it sucks. Yes, I know it's Florida, don't remind me. But, c'mon! 92 degrees Christmas morning??!! Are you frickin' kidding me???!!! Enjoy your two weeks of comfortable weather, folks. Scientifically, it is proven that the average temp in Florida has risen, steadily, 1-2 degrees over the past several years, due to development and the reduction of green space. Summers (that's the time between late February and mid December), are consitently in the mid 90's. Add the humidity factor, and you're dealing with a "real feel" of 96-110 degrees. Yuk!!! Smell what the Rock is cooking? It's in your armpits. Schools---Forget it; a disaster. Unless you dribble ball or throw a football, the school system is not interested. Little to no funding in comparison to taxes paid. The lottery? Created years ago to provide supplement funding to Florida's budget. These clowns here have wrecked our economy so bad that the revenue from the lottery, including the revenue already set aside for education, isn't enough to support the consistently F rated schools in this state. Besides, most of these schools in this area are nothing but breeding grounds for future criminals and single parents. Private schools are incredibly expensive. People who used to send their kids to private schools can't afford them now and are frced to place them in private schools. The numbers increase and schools become overcrowded. Teachers have been laid off due to no money, and as a result, the student/teacher ratio is way off. Teachers here are paid squat and the quality of education shows it. Quality teachers have said goodbye and have left to greener pastures somewhere else to teach. Diversity---Bring a Spanish dictionary. It's not called the "Great White Flight" for nothing. I know it's time to move when there's more Spanish only billboards dotting the roadway than English only. Again, I'm all about diversity and learning to live with my neighbors, but there's gotta be some attempt to learn English and assimilate to American culture, not vice versa. Well,

You get a rep point for me for this one!