AndyPok1

Here's the thing... You can Uber to museums and daytime stuff. When I'm traveling I want my hotel within the nightlife. I don't want to deal with commuting while drunk. Last time I stayed in DT Tampa, I was livid when the Wharf had last call at 11pm. I'll take DT Orlando 1000 times over DT Tampa.

I end up at Burton's more often than I should. I largely love it, but the staff post-covid has left me wanting. I was there 3 times in 8 days and tipped very large... and I still would be waiting 5+ minutes to get a bartender to remotely pay attention to me. I'd agree with this sentiment. Lil Indies is where I take out of towners.

Yeah I tend to go to those places while travelling or for happy hour or once a year just to try them out. Not my scene. I'm happy at Caseys and Fuel and Stagger.

It has less to do with being small vs large and more about youth vs age. Orlando has only become a "real" city in the past 30-40 years. Whereas other cities have had time to grow. As I've said numerous times, there are neighborhoods in Parramore, Wadeview, Curry Ford, and SoDo that are less than 2 miles from City Hall that are Unincorporated Orange County. City population is meaningless in literally every context except one. I don't care about city size, but I do care about property tax. As far as I'm concerned those poors that live in the county should enjoy their septic tanks and shouldn't be allowed at Lake Eola. Annex yourself in, give us your extra property tax, or lose the benefits. (I say this partially in jest, but the fact that people enjoy the benefits of urban core living while bragging that they are saving on taxes piss me off. Those of you way out east/south, you're fine. Drive into the Farmers Market whenever you want.)

Work has been under way for over a year on it I believe. Basically connecting Boone to Sylvia like this: Here's two pics I took... wow March 7th... almost exactly a year ago... before getting kicked out by security. There were no active work site signs :shrug: From Anderson/Boone looking down From Sylvia looking up:

No disagreement there. I just tend to be somewhat monopolistic. I think the overhead of two systems running/marketing/etc outweighs the benefit of one being slightly faster and more friendly

I noticed that on the original diagrams and have never understood how it would work... Even the new signage on Hughey confuses me what the left turn onto South does. Hoping now with everything (except for the Boone connector to SoDo) open, it will all make since. Anecdotal feedback. I'm a huge Sunpass proponent. I think CFX operating EPass is a giant waste of time and money and wish they would just retire it. But yes, as people said, if you are primarily driving on CFX toll roads, you will get a slight discount, and supposedly more of your toll money stays local. Personally, I don't think the scale is worth it and the company largely pisses me off with the weird marketing/shade they throw at Sunpass. If you're ever going to travelling outside of Florida, get the SunPass PRO (or I believe its what EPass calls UNI?). It is intercompatible with EZPass in the northeast and midwest (which was supposed to be done by 2016 but better late than never). As far as the bogus charges/clerical/toll by plate.... as long as you have auto-reload (I do $25) on, I've had 0 issues in almost 15 years. Plus it works at MCO which is so awesome for my airport trips.

Yeah I haven't eaten there since Grilled Cheezus took over the kitchen. Sad too because I loved Dapper's menu and Pourhouse was a great place to get some snacks during a sporting event.

And you may have continued to get them as it became 25 years old, but very quickly the tide would have shifted. I loved the old Amway, but it was built at the exact wrong time (late 80s/early 90s). There's a reason virtually nothing from that time period exists anymore, both basketball and football. Environments changed rapidly and there are massive design flaws. You're the first person I've ever heard preferring the old building looks. As I mentioned, the glass facade and massive entryway on Church St is admired and copied into new arenas for both efficiency and design. Overlooking the lake was a bad thing because it was in a sea of parking with no downtown connectivity. Is it unfortunate Church St businesses can't survive for whatever reason? Absolutely! But go down during an event and see how packed every restaurant and bar nearby is and watch all those people walk back from the arena and stop places as opposed to walking out into the sea of parking and going home. Agreed, Amway the company is crap. Can't control that unfortunately.

To be clear, I'm not a fan of the DeVos. But using a decade is cherry picking because there's been 2 pandemic seasons mixed in as well as conveniently starts right after the Dwight hey days when they had 5 straight winning seasons. Moreover, Amway Center is a jewel of our downtown. I was at a Dua Lipa concert the other night, I've seen Jonas Brothers, Garth Brooks, Backstreet Boys, countless others. Most touring concerts do one South Florida (Sunrise or Miami), and one Central Florida (Orlando or Tampa). Without Amway Center, we would get none of these concerts, they would all go to Tampa. I quite enjoy being able to have Happy Hour dinner at Shakai, a pregame drink (or 3) at Caseys or Harry Buffalo, wander over and see a concert before Ubering home. If I had to drive home from Tampa, I would not be spending money at restaurants in our downtown. And I would have to stay sober. And I'd go to a lot less concerts. Y'all want things besides drinking to do downtown. Without the Amway Center, there'd be even less. Cleveland just hosted NBA All-Star weekend after doing a $185 million dollar renovation to a stadium built in 1994. You know what one of the two arenas they used as an example when proposing it? Amway.

So "mediocre" is a loaded question. Mediocre is largely a death knell in the NBA. And the Magic HAVE been very good at being mediocre. They had the McGrady era where they lost in the first round in 3 years... then had a bad year and were able to draft Dwight. Then had 6 great years (including upsetting my Cavs team that was all but certain to win that year). After that, they quasi-tanked.... and then then between Vucevic/Gordon/Fournier/etc they were mediocre again making it into the playoffs twice. Then Isaac broke himself, and the decision was made to rebuild it again. There's a LOT of fun players on this current team. But your best player (Isaac) is still rehabbing, the former #1 pick with potential (Fultz) is still rehabbing. Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner have show promise. You just need that all-star and superstar. The last core never really developed into those players. Its dumb luck. Long way of saying.... you can often remain "mediocre" in the NBA for long stretches. But it often leads to Indiana Pacers/Atlanta Hawks where you have a ceiling of the second round of the playoffs. That's a goal sometimes.... ESPECIALLY after an extended drought. But it also often leads to never truly contending for a title.

No. Morey was the GM of Houston. He went to Philadelphia in 2020, well after their tanking and when they were already a Championship contender. In mid-and small-size markets, tanking is almost exclusively the only way to get become in the championship conversation. And even then you have to get lucky.

I'm pretty pumped for this.

FD Cantina in the old Jax/CityFish space is open. They did a nice job renovating the place. The food was presented well. Appropriately priced for downtown. Solid option before a night out, especially once they start Taco Tuesday/Happy Hour/Brunch. I'll probably stay with La Fiesta as my go to though

The results have been predictable in that there's a thriving urban environment that people want to live in and party at regularly? Seems good to me. I'm currently heading downtown to help set up for a charity event at a bar tonight raising funds for the Pet Alliance. I have to stop at 2 other bars on the way to pick up gift certificates their owners are donating to the raffle. The downtown bar and restaurant community is very strong and filled with many great people and patrons. Just because it isn't what you are looking for doesn't mean it is a failure.

I largely agree with @klstorey. For the record, I've had many a fun night at Eye Spy/Aero/whatever the hell we're calling it. But I've been here a decade and never heard of this Barbarella name until the past month. It's always been I-Bar or Independent Bar. And I'm ALL for history. Hell, I was a history major. But nostalgia and history are two very different things.

I mean.... I think Cane's as a food is overrated... but that sauce. *drooooooollll* Also less than 1500 feet as the crow flies from me. Dangerous.

They are starting as a fixed rate before switching to variable I believe. $0.50 cents per section. At least thats what WFTV reported but y'know... -- Also, this led my down a rabbit hole of reading informational brochures... from https://i4express.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/4867-I4Express-Print-Brochure-12x18-20211215-onlineversion.pdf "Florida’s Turnpike Direct connect exit ramp from WB I-4 Express to SB Florida’s Turnpike Direct connect entrance ramp from NB Florida’s Turnpike to EB I-4 Express" Didn't realize Turnpike ramps were only one direction.

Fun fact. Applied to 4 schools. KSU has the hardest scholarship process (had to come on site and compete in various tests), and ended up offering me the least amount of money. Needless to say, the $20 gift shop tee is the only attachment I have to the Golden Flashes.

Agreed. I've been to numerous shows at Bob Carr that I imagine would not have been able to come if they had to pay for DPAC

This is the exact picture with why I've refused to buy season tickets or otherwise be a donor. They did the same thing for the "open house" when Phase 1 was about to open and it was pre-Hamilton and they were desperately trying to sell out. I said, hey, let me go sit in like 3 different seats so I can decide where I want my tickets to be. They were like oh sorry, that part of the theatre is closed off. I made a joke about how ironic it was that the event was an open house and the one thing off limits was.... the house.

Agreed. I'd love to get more affordable housing and better designs. But we can't even keep up with the demand for unaffordable housing right now. And at this point, I only use that parking lot as a more direct route to walk to YouFit. Beyond the very rare trip to Firehouse (like legit think I've been twice in the 5 years I've lived across the street), there's nothing in that plaza for me and the parking lot is beyond empty almost all the time.

Don't you dare let me dream @Jernigan! The view from my patio would be so much nicer.

The US is 10 years behind everything. Bringing a device to your table to pay in restaurants has been happening in places as near as Canada since the late 00s. This is a fair point. I do know people that go to like Mather's after work on Friday every week. I count that differently though. If I'm bored on a Saturday afternoon, or after dinner on a Tuesday, or Sunday Funday... I'm not going to Mather's to just see who is working/what regulars are at the bar, etc

The issue with TMG is that their concepts are go-to once every 3-6 months for a special occasion. None are going to be my home bar I hang out at multiple times a week. Which Pourhouse very much qualifies as.