Residents in Orlando Protest funds wasted...

[annerk]

Originally Posted by beenthere65

I agree, with better schools and more crime-fighting and Orlando also needs a light rail.

No sense spending the money on light rail unless there is plenty of buy in from people who would be willing to use it.

Also, generally speaking CNG powered buses are more efficient, less invasive to teh environment, and infinitely cheaper. It might be better to look at making improvements to LYNX.

[Crane's Rooster]

Originally Posted by blueoktober

What I don't understand is that no one is upset that it isn't really any bigger, is in an even more congested (and run down) area and will be cramped as hell. I drive by it every single day on the Anderson exit and just cannot fathom why they are building something that is just like what is currently there.

The problem is that they wanted to keep the venues downtown, which is a very small physical area. The idea was to put the Events center on Church to revive the Church Street area and also create a development corridor along Church all the way to the Citrus Bowl. Unfortunately, funding for the Citrus Bowl has dried up and the project has been suspended indefinitely.

I actually think that this is a great location for the new arena. They have already began efforts to try to revitalize this block by putting the City View apartments there. Also, one of the knocks on the current arena is that there is nothing to do in the immediate vicinity. With the new location, you are steps from Church Street. From the rumors I've heard, they may start shutting down Church Street from Orange down to the arena during game days. This would create a mini street party leading up to and after game time. Places like Antigua's, Mako's, Chillers and 23 would be the hot spots for pre-game partying. Not to mention the new development that will likely sprout up once the arena begins use.