Violindude

Some pictures from my trip to Downtown Orlando

Swedish people must really like Orlando. We get Ikea and now H&M. What's next an

I love the Schimmerhorn because it has awesome acoustics. I don't care if the OPAC is modern or has old world charm as long as it's good for performance.

He mentioned the magic moving to Nashville several times. If they left they wouldn't go to TN because Memphis has the Grizzlies. TN is a pretty small state to accomidate two pro basketball teams. I think this article was written by a real drama queen.

While Orlando might not have Charlotte's height hopefully we'll pass them in density. Like some one said earlier look at Vancouver. You wouldn't even know all their building are under 500' because it's so dense. They have a low height limit to protect the view of the North Shore mountains. Who needs a tall skyline when you've got mountains? While Charlotte is trying to be Atlanta I think we should model our city after Vancouver. I love Atlanta but Vancouver's skyline is much better in my oppinion. But I must say a good photo.

I've seen Spiderman 3 twice (once at 1 am) on Imax twice there.The theater and all of Pointe Orlando is looking better now then it was. It's a great deal too. I spent $12 on my ticket and got free popcorn and soda with my ticket to Imax.

Nashville's commuter rail is considerably small. I think it only runs back and forth from Lebanon to Nashville . I've been to Lebanon, TN and I can see why they would want a ride out but I'm not sure why the would want to come back. I was suprised to hear it doesn't even go in to the larger suburbs. I think once Orlando's commuter rail starts running it'll be alot more effective from the get go.

Orlando has got more going for it then alot of large mid sized cities. Orlando is becoming a major hub for medical, technological, educational advancement. Orange county alone has grown by over 300,000 people in the last 17 years. That's a huge growth spurt. Orlando proper could have a much larger population if the county were considered a part of the city like Nashville, Charlotte and so forth. Orlando city limits are quite small when compared to alot of other places. There's nothing but good going for Orlando. While people aren't wanting to move to cities like Miami, Chicago, LA, SF anymore; cities like Tampa and Orlando are thriving. Orlando in my oppinion couldn't be doing any better. Optimsm all the way.

Subsidies, government granted monopolies, and other forms of corporate welfare today exist as privileges granted by government to those with political access. These destroy the level playing field that free markets depend on, create a corrupt relationship between government authority and special interests, and are unconstitutional. It's not the responsibility of the Gov't to keep us entertained with the museums and arenas. That's what buissness'/private investors are for. Like I said in my previous post. I think Orlando deserves these venues and if they aren't built here they'll be built somewhere else with public money

That's a question that I can't seem to answer. I as a Libertarian think it's wrong to give subsidies to anyone much less a billionaire. I do understand though that if cities everywhere are doing this why can't we? I wish we'd do this the good old capitalistic way of having ONLY private entities paying for it. I say lets have them buit or else some other city will do it.

Orlando (aka Disney) has some of the best New Years Eve fireworks in the country. I can't remember what the public poll ranked it on AOL but it was in the top 5

I got a little flustered up when I read a few pro tax arguments but I decided my origonal response was out of place and the next one I was planning was as well. I think I might actually create a thread in the Orlando coffee shop about this very subject. Back to Orlando headlines!

Are you actually implying income taxes are a good thing? The reason why people are moving to FL, TX, TN is because thoes states don't have an income tax. Before 1913 there was no income tax. Even in the 50's the average American paid 2% of his income in taxes and we had the highest standard of living in the world. Now the average American pays upwards of 30% of his or hers income in taxes and we now have the 8th highest standard of living in the world. The lower the taxes the more people will spend and invest which will help the economy not only in Orlando, FL but all over the nation. The best alternative is to only tax what is spent but I won't get in to that.