slapdash09

that picture of the lobby reminds me of the one in front of sam snead's

during my lunchtime walk to java lava today, i saw a hanging man with a garbage bag on his belt was razoring off blue plastic on the north side of the vue. beautiful glass!

frankieb96, what a clear and pretty photo. thank you for sharing!

have any of you eaten at "numero uno" on south orange avenue? i went there for the first time last night, although they've been around since 1978. it was the best cuban food i've ever had. the seasoning was perfect. yum!

i'm trying to visualize what this thing is going to look . . . are there any other "ponds" like this in the area that are similar to this proposal? it's not exactly like the big empty waterlogged areas by the eastbound exits off of i-4 at millennia and lake mary because it's on the other side of garland and not directly next to i-4. . . do any other retention ponds like this even exist? i wonder if there's going to be a more defined pedestrian sidewalk area from the steps at that bus stop down garland to orange and ivanhoe. i_cre8, do you have more info?

when ar we going to have the flying personal aircrafts proposed on the cover of june's orlando magazine?

it actually sorta ends into that orange/ivanhoe intersection with the old travelers building to the left. a couple of weeks ago they demolished the building to the north of the hand surgery building. the hand surgery building is quarantined off by dot signs. the only info i could find on this part of the i-4 expansion project is on page 124 of www.metroplanorlando.com/site/upload/documents/TIP_0711_Dec06.pdf.

here are some shots of our beloved downtown from a rare, less-than-elite uptown orlando perspective . . . most of these were taken from the park north at cheney place (cue *groan*) parking garage. hey--someone's gotta speak for the guys with [not a bazillion bucks]! these are "medium" versions of my pics. for alternate views, click on a photo and select "all sizes" above the photo in my flickr account and select large or original. i have neither the patience nor the artistic eye required for an slr camera, so kindly overlook the auto-focus of my point-and-click. a bit of the vue through 55w solaire on over the courthouse and dynetech 55 west colonial exit the lexington this week's demolition of the old orlando hand surgery associates building and one shot from my view at work (thornton park central): the vue and the courthouse

my boyfriend's brazillian family bought one of these for me for christmas . . . ya boil water and sugar in one pan and then pour that goodness over a finely ground espresso (i use illy medium roast). let it bloom while filtering through a melitta cone filter and let it slowly manually drip. worth the wait, heaven in my mouth--two cups and i'm very happy to go to work!

as far as i can tell from page 124 of www.metroplanorlando.com/site/upload/documents/TIP_0711_Dec06.pdf, the i-4 pedestrian bridge and ivanhoe gateway goes from new hampsire st. to ivanhoe blvd. across lake ivanhoe adjacent to i-4

that's exactly what i was thinking over coffee this morning, dreaming of a shopping district in downtown orlando. why can't this be a reality like every other major city? instead we have 10 malls within 30-minute hops from one another. i know the suburbs are where the people are, but i have to hope that eventually some big-name businesses will believe in downtown. i guess not until we have the critical mass actually living here :-(

h&m is one of my favorite stores i always make a point to visit in nyc or boston. speaking of shopping in church street, i hope css becomes fantastic again! i used to love shopping there in college. unfortunately it was pretty dead during the day, but that made it like some sort of forbidden area of a ghost town where you could always find a good bargain. and the bloody marys at jungle jims had a full salad hanging off of the celery stalk.

now that the dot has cleared the lot on garland behind 860 north orange, today they began demolishing the glass building that occupied the hand surgery associates who moved to 801 north orange. i guess that means the phase of i-4 redevelopment north of colonial to ivanhoe blvd. is beginning? when do you think the pedestrian bridge will begin construction? that will be pretty cool.

that's a bummer. it was one of my favorite middle school field trips EVER.

i live on the second floor of park north on the track side, and trust me--the tracks are CLOSE. yet the train has never woken me up. maybe i'm a heavy sleeper, but nonetheless, it doesn't bother me at all. in fact, to me the train brings ambiance. my girlfriends with little boys love to bring them to my balcony to see the choo-choo train. i love to check out the graffiti on freight cars . . . try to wave at amtrack passengers (who never wave back and think i'm a dork) . . . and watch my cat scurry into his cat door off the balcony before i can even hear the first train horn. sometimes it's entertaining to see a track walker (like i used to be at my grandparents' house in deland) unless he's a hobo. but then that's kinda bittersweet--it reminds me how lucky i am. i could look at all of this stuff as bad, but life is what you make it!

your first picture is my absolute favorite place on i-4 to view downtown orlando. i love it!

does anyone know where near millennia that suntrust is moving? that's gotta be one heck of a large building! i wonder what the loss of all of those people will do to downtown's daytime economy (i.e. foodservice).

I'm part Japanese but was raised on traditional American fare, and fresh Vietnamese is my favorite. :-) What I don't like about Chinese is the fried foods. I probably haven't had good Chinese. Oh, I take that back. I had some delicious Chinese in NYC's Chinatown a few years ago. I sat at a table of six with five others dining alone -- all of whom had ties to Florida. We had fun watching the handbag sales people open and close their shops as cops came and went.

I've heard from a few Chinese people that "Lam's Garden" on Colonial and Bumby (in the Winn-Dixie plaza) has very good Chinese. However, Chinese food is my least favorite Asian fare, so I haven't been there myself.

citrus is at 801 n orange (yes, i own in the much-hated-around-here park north condos (because i am single and don't make a lot of money to buy a fancy-pants place!)) i think there has been server introduction/training this past week because i see people there shaking hands and stuff when i go home for lunch. speaking of 801, last weekend there was actually a 30-artist show in one of the empty storefronts there which drummed up a lot of hipster traffic. i was surprised!

overnight someone from Olde Town Brokers business carded every car in my garage with cards touting solaire condos for sale or rent. i guess it worked because i'm sitting her posting this. hopefully it will help someone around here realize their american dream and not just fatten a pocketbook! edit: ugh, it looks like a landing page for the future. ugh! sorry for the spam.

congratulations; nice pictures!

i agree with everything except for one thing -- leaving out the arcade. when i was younger, the arcade, rosie's with the lit elevator and its $.25 cokes, and the buffalo trading post with its candy sticks was what brought my family to church street from sanford. we didn't have a lot of money, and it was a low-cost night out that gave the kids something to do while our parents walked around and enjoyed the adult-level atmosphere. there were things for me to do at church street as a kid ... i was bought my first drink at the cheyenne salon as a 17-year old there for line dancing. in college, we'd sing away the night at the dueling pianos bar. when i got my first job downtown, we'd have lunch at jungle jims, and i fell in love with its blood marys with a whole celery skewer of veggies ... if it were not for the businesses geared toward different demographics, i would not have those benchmarks from a multitude of different times in my life that keep me cheering on this integral part of downtown ... and those types of businesses will do the same for future generations -- and the families we hope to encourage to live downtown. oops; sorry fore the little trip down memory lane. i guess my point is, don't forget the kids. they'll have the money in 30 years to keep the area alive then, too!

does anyone have inside knowledge as to when the sea world water park is planning to open?