lala67

another positive aspect is that kids are more independent. They can walk or ride a bike to the things they need to access. Too many kids living in more auto-oriented communities live out their existence being shuttled from place to place. One of many arguments against living here is that the houses do lack a lot of the modern conveniences and size of new homes being built. We get 'you could've had a much bigger house for all the money you paid'. We gave up a few things for sure, but when our friends are kvetching about traffic and sprawl where they live, we just nod sympathetically and I admit feeling a little smug. Many of our friends were quite mystified by our choice. Even my husband was a little skeptical at first.

I totally agree. I often make the mistake by assuming everyone around the country should attempt to move closer to their downtowns. But it's dawned on me that Orlando's downtown is unique in ways because there are so many great neighborhoods skirting downtown. I live near SODO. My skids (stepkids) go to Boone High School. The Blankner School is right next to it, plus we have a neighborhood park and community center/pool. It's a great little neighborhood. Maybe it doesn't have the cache of Lancaster Park or College Park, but it works. We have gridded streets. Yes, I'd like more and I want things to improve, but I really like the unique community we have here. Our street is quite diverse, but nearly every other house has the original owner living there or their children now live there. Everyone comes out for Boone's home games. The neighborhood turned out for the homecoming parade last friday. It's a really unique place to live and raise a family. How many areas around central FL can kids go to school in the same area from K-12? How many truly neighborhood high schools are out there? Even Edgewater is separated from much of its neighborhood. But beyond that, it's a great place to live as an empty nester, or a young single professional, etc. It's just a great place to live. My husband works on the east side of town. I work in Maitland, we actually improved both our commutes when we moved here from the Chickasaw Trail/Lee Vista area (tho I do miss my very short trip to the airport). And we're just one of many great downtown neighborhoods . I want a movie theater downtown in the worst way! Using Lynx as transportation is actually feasible in my neighborhood and it's only going to get better.

yeah, I love taking pics after a rain...everything's nice and shiny and the lighting always seems pretty good, especially with our sun showers. HA! I was wondering if anyone would know where those racks were located. Their building is gorgeous! I'm terribly jealous, though I work in a pretty cool building, but it's in Maitland. I hate the commute.

Did a walking tour of Orlando a few weeks back. It had just stopped raining, taken between 10am & 11am. can't figure out how to embed pictures from flickr. But here's a link http://www.flickr.com/photos/66792931@N00/...57602435405802/ The purpose of my walkabout was to identify examples of good/bad pedestrian facilities, and to take some interesting shots. So, no awesome looking pics of skyscrapers, LOL.

nope, new project. The state is kicking in enhancement dollars for the project. They estimate it will cost $15M or some such. FDOT had Metroplan's B/PAC add the PD&E phase to their priorities list. It'll be a nifty gateway feature into the downtown; preliminary sketches I've seen are pretty snazzy. And yeah, it's a strange use of money, but I can't really say more than that.

residential is definitely in over supply. Several major A/E firms have laid off a lot of their residential folks. Land is too costly and houses aren't selling. But it's cyclical. The money's already been made in SF residential...developers are moving onto other things.

I dunno about that. They're taking out several interchanges in downtown as it is. I don't think FDOT will be adding too many more interchanges between Anderson and Maitland Blvd. Flow on I-4 would be pretty mucked up if they added more interchanges I think.

nope. Congestion is not necessarily a bad thing. I visited Portland last summer for the first time and was quite impressed. It's not a huge town, but its downtown is a lot bigger and more vibrant than Orlando's. The light rail is a huge plus.

or actually have the game IN Orlando

it's probably a wash...I think building the tracks is pretty cheap. acquiring the ROW is very expensive. Acquiring ROW from CSX very expensive. The cheapest way is using existing ROW. I think plans call for using the 408 corridor for rail, which makes the most sense. As for comparing Portland to Orlando, I think Portland is what Orlando should aspire to, not Atlanta. Portland has its problems too. Even with the light rail, there is still quite a bit of sprawl. Some critics rightly point out that the areas that get the most hype as being walkable, mobile, etc. are the older areas, once you get out of the traditional city it's just like any other auto-oriented area. Their growth boundary hasn't really been as successful as it could have been as well.

as far as the housing slump, I think it's just leveling off. I think for years, central florida real estate was undervalued, we were due for an overall increase. We needed things to slow down to weed out the speculators and the folks not in it for the long run. No way could the region sustain that kind of increase...it wasn't good for business in the sense that housing costs were outpacing salaries. That said, my company, an A&E firm, is seeing things pick up in the resort sector, which I think is a very good sign. Guess that's the silver lining of the dollar slumping overseas.

WPB is indeed a distinct metro area and not part of Lauderdale. Palm Beach County stretches from Jupiter to Boca Raton and from the atlantic to Belle Glade/Clewiston. I was born and raised down there, the region may all sorta run together, but that's just a natural consequence of not being able to develop much east or west. Orlando is a bit unique in that it's MPO includes three counties, Orange, Osceola and Seminole, and it's not hemmed in like south florida. MyRegion has been trying to encourage coordination with other surrounding counties b/c it just makes good sense. But those other counties, Lake, Polk, Volusia, and to a lesser extent, Brevard are a little light on population. But they all are growing at a pretty good clip, that is true.

For 436 I think the criss cross eliminates the traffic signals needed at the midpoint on the bridge. It will definitely improve flow. I believe that people exiting from the interstate in both directions will do so simultaneously, and the folks trying to get on I-4 will then go at the same time. folks crossing the bridge will have one phase of lights to deal with. I saw this configuration somewhere that explained it a lot better. That intersection is horrible! even without the flyover, the 408/I-4 interchange will have a lot better flow.

agreed, I think the area has a lot of potential.

picky picky...it could've been charlotte as well, but I'm not positive.

Dallas/Fort Worth has light rail...when then county chairman Martinez and the other county commissioners (Sindler) killed light rail in 2000? (not sure the exact year), DFW got the money that had been ear-marked for Central Florida. I'm still bitter about that. We also lost some visionaries at the City and Lynx after the deal was killed, ironically, I think those folks are now working in Nashville.

elected officials from Orange Co, Winter Park, Maitland (not that maitland was ever really on board anyway)

any development push in the parramore area will require a lot of political sensitivity and may make development approvals more difficult. I'm not sure the area west of say Parramore could really be developed with a lot of high rises. There needs to be a stepdown as you move further west. There are also some historically significant properties that should remain as well. Some smaller, funkier retail, clubs, etc could add more dimension to the downtown. I'd like to see some smaller venues for concerts and the like. perhaps an artist colony. etc. Leave the glitz and yuppification east of I-4.

you can say that about just about any public agency contract. It's frustrating being nickel and dimed to death on contracts then dumped on by the public and client b/c the final product is mediocre. But I've seen some inovative public designs. Boone High School's entry is pretty nice, and I'm often amazed that the school board actually approved such a design. That said, it has it's own shortcomings. As a planner/uban designer, I'm pretty frustrated with some of the same lack of architectural vision camillo speaks of, don't even get me started on how too many buildings are designed to have no relationship to the street or neighborhood.

it's really a pretty damned good deal to the cities. WP and Maitland have been narrow thinkers for decades when it comes to mass transit. I'm surprised we've gotten this far or that Crotty has actually supported commuter rail, albeit I think he's been rather reluctant about it. I've felt for sometime that the powers that be were looking for any excuse to back out of the deal. They've got funding, the state had agreed to pay all O&M for the first 7 yrs, CSX has agreed to the sale of their tracks (no small feet) and yet these folks still question if they can find the money or not. It'll be interesting to see how the property tax reform will impact many of the projects being proposed in the area.

yeah, but if the streetscape and plazas aren't all that inviting it won't be all that nice I'm thinking. Crappy design is crappy design. It's not pedestrian friendly at all. Functionally pedestrian...but not friendly/inviting/etc. just my opinion. I just got back from a week in Philly and that's one walkable city. many of the structures are mid rise and it's still very dense with a lot of residences. I ddin't feel very hemmed in...wide sidewalks, good connections, very accessible. Good tree canopy too. And streets that are, in some cases, only about 8' wide. that's what I'm talkin' about!

but that's a bit deceiving...the population number is debatable depending on what 'town' you're looking at. I believe the CITY of Orlando boasts only about 200K-250K and Orange Co. is just over a million total. Of those 65 million visitors how many actually get to downtown? I went to a meeting several years ago talking about the condo boom downtown. At that time, 2005?, DT had 9,000 residents (DT being defined as the CRA = roughly SR 50, Summerlin, 408, and I-4) and 55,000 jobs. Another 7500 residential units were coming online (and we're finally seeing them now). It's a pretty amazing transformation when you consider the competing 'downtowns'...Winter Park, Altamonte, Maitland, Heathrow, Lake Mary, I-Drive... From the air, all the high rises look pretty good, but I'm disappointed in the ground level hardscape of the new buildings. The plaza in particular. Now that there's some color, it looks better, but there's way too much concrete and the poor washingtonian palms are placed underneath the eaves of the building...they're already touching the structure. The streets still aren't that inviting. I understand there are plans to make Orange two-way, but I don't think that's going to really stop the canyoning effect we're going to be left with once the high rises are in place.

I'm pretty sure it's part of the Downtown Historic District and even if the buildings themselves aren't listed on the National Register, I believe they still come under some regulation and are considered contributing structures. I agree it would really be a shame to lose these historic structures, and from what I can tell, they're in pretty good shape. He'd have a pretty good fight on his hands with the historic preservation board I think. I'm speaking of the historic structures only of course. I like the idea of a midrise hotel and other entertainment venues to add some life to the street.

the last presentation I saw given by FDOT (last month) said they were definitely going to allow bikes, and there would be bicycle parking available at the stations.

Several years ago there was talk of elevating SR 436 between MCO and the 408 for just that purpose, not really sure if it got much further than the initial planning study and they figured it wouldn't fly due to community opposition or if it was too expensive. The state and the local governments have cobbled together a commuter rail plan that would run from Deltona? to Polk County. I think the initial segment would be from Sanford to just south of SeaWorld. The state recently brokered a deal with CSX for their rail line. Which is shocking to say the least. However, the state has only agreed to pay for the first 7 years of maintenance on the tracks and will then turn ownership to the local governments (Lynx I would presume would be the central agency). That was snag one, snag two was all the talk going around up in Tallahassee right now about property tax reforms. Some of the major players, Orange County Commission, are now running a bit scared and are making grumblings about being able to pay for commuter rail. Congressman Mica was able to get 50% of the costs funded by the feds. After watching Light Rail go down in flames back in 99 (thank you Mel Martinez), I will try not to get my hopes up again.