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An opinion of a place you’ve no knowledge of. No one with a lick of experience with the place would spew such falsehood. It would be equivalent to saying Manhattan is sparsely populated. It makes no sense. Name one tourist attraction downtown. Just one.
I disagree with your assertion and the analogy makes no sense.
It's funny seeing people arguing that Orlando is pedestrian friendly. I'm sure the city has been working to improve on this seeing as Orlando has been known for years as the worst city for pedestrians. Including this year, apparently.
No one is arguing that the city as a whole is. Just pointing out that the core is very pedestrian friendly, and it is. That’s all.
I love both places and lived in Orlando for many years, but I have to disagree.
Orlando has no equivalent to Ybor City, Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights, Davis Islands, Harbor Island, Hyde Park or SoHo. Winter Park comes close to Hyde Park - with Amtrak and Sunrail as a bonus, but they aren't really the same.
Tampa is an older port City, with industrial bones that Orlando never had. It's structurally more urban, and it shows.
The hottest thing in Tampa right now is the Armature Works, the repurposing of the old streetcar barn into a new mixed-use project on the river north of Downtown. This could never happen in Orlando, that sort of urbanity doesn't exist there.
I would agree with you that Tampa has better/more urban bones and is structurally more urban in certain sections.. however, with that said, I feel like Walkability is a different beast in that regard.
The only one of those that I would say Orlando truly has no answer for are Ybor City and Armature Works. That being said... consider this:
"As the newest of Florida's four major metro areas, Orlando had the benefit of watching the mistakes that Miami and Tampa have made in terms of planning, or lack thereof.
"Orlando is the only true city in Florida," says Kelly Cohen, who sits on eight boards in the city and chairs the city's public policy committee. "Urban planners say, from a city sense of having a Downtown core and then well-planned, residential areas moving outwards from that, it's the only proper city in the state."
I think this fits. Downtown definitely feels more urban than anything Orlando has to offer, as does the complex of Armature Works, Ybor, etc. And Water Street is a more impressive development than anything happening in Orlando right now. But, what is happening AROUND those places? On those other places? I would disagree with Orlando lacking. To me, Winter Park is perhaps more authentic feeling and over a larger area (the Park Ave district) than Hyde Park Village/SoHo is. That section might be on a more continuous grid.. but something about it just feels.. idk. Cut off from the city in some way. Tampa seems to have gone through a late 20th century decline like a number of American cities did and sprawl/road lengthening, etc.... and in a way Tampa never did. Davis Islands, Harbor Island, Seminole Heights esp.. all sort of just feel cut off from the city entirely. Meanwhile, Thornton Park extends directly east from downtown, without interruption, and that extends without interruption into the Milk District.
Another difference is that Tampa feels entirely surrounded by freeways, whereas, while there is 50 to the north in Orlando, that doesn't really interrupt things much, and the freeways really only stop things to the south and west. Therefore, once you keep going north on Mills or Orange Ave... you run into continuous urban districts (Audubon Park, Mills 50, Baldwin Park, College Park, Ivanhoe Village), that then run into more continuous urban districts (various sections of Winter Park), which even then extend further afield (between Downtown Orlando and the section of Maitland by the Enzian Theater is a continuous path which nearly the whole way is T4 urbanity or higher. https://www.google.com/maps/@28.6270...7i16384!8i8192
Perhaps this expresses what I mean. This is 11 miles of mid density, walkable, continuous form with not that much interruption between individual places, and obviously there are certain gaps and a different route could've been chosen.. but I think this would feel leafy and enjoyable to walk through or bike through for most of it (zoom in on Tampa City and Orlando City with green bike lanes turned on and you may see a difference), and as you mention, it's also connected by transit.
By comparison, those other places:
-Harbor Island
-Davis Islands
-Seminole Heights
and even to some degree Hyde Park, although I will say it may be close to equivalent, although it is pretty heavily residential
-aren't all that urban or walkable (Davis Islands feels like 20-25 miles away from the city with it's change in density and street layout)
-aren't connected well
-have sidewalk/public realm that takes up a lower pct. of the street, and is perhaps more dangerous or not as inviting or continuous for pedestrians
-in some cases, feel less safe than these places listed in Tampa do.
I guess what I'm saying is, Tampa looks and acts like a city in it's core.. but so much is gone now. For all that people might say about Ybor (which is underutilized at this point), if you go about a mile east of there, it looks like this: https://www.google.com/maps/@27.9681...8i8192!5m1!1e3
Meanwhile, Orlando feels like a town in it's core by comparison.. but unlike in Tampa that town/core flow seems to keep going more.
I hope that was generally understood-because it's so interesting to me. They each are or feel bigger (or better urban form, at least) than the other in some ways, but yet the end result is still a similar urban tier-even though they are quite different.
And while I know it's not this cut and dry or simple citywide, these two pictures speak to Orlando's advantages citywise just as much as pictures of Armature Works and Ybor City speak to things that Orlando, similarly cannot match. If somehow they both took some things that each other had as strengths (from their current weaknesses), man, that would be a city!
I hope that was generally understood-because it's so interesting to me. They each are or feel bigger (or better urban form, at least) than the other in some ways, but yet the end result is still a similar urban tier-even though they are quite different.
And while I know it's not this cut and dry or simple citywide, these two pictures speak to Orlando's advantages citywise just as much as pictures of Armature Works and Ybor City speak to things that Orlando, similarly cannot match. If somehow they both took some things that each other had as strengths (from their current weaknesses), man, that would be a city!
I hope that was generally understood-because it's so interesting to me. They each are or feel bigger (or better urban form, at least) than the other in some ways, but yet the end result is still a similar urban tier-even though they are quite different.
And while I know it's not this cut and dry or simple citywide, these two pictures speak to Orlando's advantages citywise just as much as pictures of Armature Works and Ybor City speak to things that Orlando, similarly cannot match. If somehow they both took some things that each other had as strengths (from their current weaknesses), man, that would be a city!
This is good stuff. I'm a little more familiar with Orlando and have only visited Tampa once so this gives me an idea of how they compare outside of their urban cores.
The Orlando streetview actually reminds me of Jacksonville.
It's interesting Tampa takes the lead when in reality Orlando is growing and sprawling faster than the Tampa area. Even though Orlando metro is smaller, I think the area has more traffic due to greater numbers of tourists. There are more highways in Orlando. Orlando is newer and shinier which is nice. Tampa is more established and mature. It's likely Orlando will overtake Tampa in population in the future. Latins in Tampa are Cuban, Latins in Orlando are more Puerto Rican.
It's interesting Tampa takes the lead when in reality Orlando is growing and sprawling faster than the Tampa area. Even though Orlando metro is smaller, I think the area has more traffic due to greater numbers of tourists. There are more highways in Orlando. Orlando is newer and shinier which is nice. Tampa is more established and mature. It's likely Orlando will overtake Tampa in population in the future. Latins in Tampa are Cuban, Latins in Orlando are more Puerto Rican.
Tampa has the advantage of having 3 fairly large cities within its metro area, versus Orlando's 1. I don't foresee Orlando surpassing it in population. However, in terms of being more modern, flashier, and really, beginning to feel bigger throughout its core areas, I certainly think Orlando is well headed there, if not already ahead.
I think St. Petersburgs' downtown area trumps anything in either Tampa or Orlando.. Have you guys seen St. Petersburg lately, it's beautiful!
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