neoanderz

Huge turnout last Saturday. I rode to/from Winter Park and Downtown. It was the first time I really felt like SunRail was a major train system reminiscent of train rides I've taken in Europe and Asia with lots of crowds and people using it as a serious form of transportation. The line just to buy tickets was long and I realized the ticket machines are really inefficient. After you buy your ticket, the machine just stalls out for like 5 min, I guess "processing" something. They need to fix this bug. When you are the only one in line you don't notice it since it's after you have the ticket, but when you are waiting for the five people in front of you it adds considerable time to the process. Overall great experience though. Look at the crowds.

According to this article, WPB to Orlando will start in 2018 although I'm kind of doubting it and would guess 2019 myself. Miami to WPB will start in mid-summer 2017 though according to Brightline's website.

Now the Alexan at Audabon project can proceed which im happy about. It will bring some more residential density to the area and hopefully provide more continuity between Baldwin Park and Fashion Square. The big question now is what exactly will happen to Fashion Square. Will the bank continue the plan to develop a hotel on site or will they do something more drastic in terms of redevelopment? This could be a very good thing that the bank now owns it. Maybe we will get some big changes.

It would be great to be able to take sunrail from downtown to sand lake station and then hop on the light rail to visit i-drive. Totally skip i-4. It would be totally stupid if we had to go from downtown to sand lake station then get off and wait for airport sunrail then go to airport, get off, wait for light rail, then go back in the same direction to i-drive. If they really do that im going to throw a fit.

The mall is in a prime location for retail. I think it could support mixed use but full residential in that spot doesnt make sense to me. That is really not my concern though. Im worried that the mall is going to get slowly picked away at and we will be left with a bunch of stand-alone big boxes each surrounded by a parking lot. That already appears to be happening with the Dick's Sporting Goods and soon to be Orchard Supply. Don't get me wrong. I like those new stores but I dont like the format. I wish they would come up with a comprehensive plan to properly redevelop the whole thing instead of doing it piecemeal how they seem to be doing it now.

According to the Daily City, 12 mature oaks will be removed.

Also, I found this article which gives some background on Orchard Supply Hardware (which seems to be coming out of nowhere all of a sudden). It was a bankrupt hardware chain from California which Lowe's bought out. More interestingly, they are utilizing the stores now to expand into new areas with a footprint that is smaller in size than a Lowe's or Home Depot but larger than say ACE hardware. It is hitting a sweet spot in size that I think allows them to get a bit closer into urban cores than Home Depot can. I'm optimistic and curious to see it..

The Sentinel reported the Sears properties will be torn down and replaced by an Orchard Supply Hardware, Floor & Decor, and "small shops and restaurants".

I'm not a fan of this rendering at all. It looks like a beach-front condo from the 80's not something I would have imagined for this prominent location.

I enjoy the game a lot. It probably helps that I played soccer for a number of years while growing up so I can appreciate when a beautiful game is played. I haven't played other sports so much. When I watch a soccer game, I see a LOT of stuff happening even when there is no scoring. In fact, a few of the best games I have ever seen were 0-0 scoreless ties. I know this must sound insane to you. There is a lot of skill being exhibited on the field in regard to smart passes, good ball control, good shots, good defense, and good keeper saves. I think it is easier to appreciate if you have played a bit yourself. When I watch a game, I look for things that I know I couldn't do and I see a lot of them just at the MLS level. Then there is the huge significance of a goal in soccer in comparison to high scoring sports. I think this is what gets most people excited even if they haven't played. With soccer, there is always this looming idea that it is very difficult to score at all and therefore any goal can be devastating. In fact, the offsides rule was created specifically to REDUCE the number of goals so that each goal would be more reflective of true skill by a team. Most people who really understand the sport want goals to be hard. If they changed the rules up and made goals easy then to me it would ruin the game.

From what I read in the OBJ today, it said that even when the train rides are sponsored there is a limit to how many trains/trips due to federal staffing regulations. So basically they used all the available staff they had on these 4 trips in each direction. I guess they could have evened it out and had 2 trips coming and going for both north and south (instead of 3 and 1). It really is too bad because some people have a very bad opinion of Sunrail now. I really wish they could just charge a fare which would make the crowds more reasonable. Why can't they charge a fare? Is it some law or something? They really need to change that rule.

Thanks for the renderings. I didn't realize how significant this renovation was going to be. It looks completely transformed from a "hipsterish" place to a kind of classy establishment. Very nice that they got rid of the parking lot. Parking lots are so 20th century.

This project looks exciting to me and the biggest question on my mind is which grocery store will go there. Fresh market, publix/greenwise, whole foods. Whole foods is doing a downtown Miami location so maybe they would be interested in this downtown spot.

I can't quite understand the apathy (or even support?) of this airport on this board. I can tell you though that I am all about urbanization and this airport is the exact opposite of urbanization. It is a giant 100% unwalkable, unusable (for 99% of the population) piece of land in a prime location. It might as well be a giant sinkhole where part of the city fell down and nobody wants to do anything about it. This place could easily be Baldwin Park 2.0. Yes, I am talking Baldwin Park with trains. Not only would this transform the airport land itself but it would completely change, for the better, many other downtown neighborhoods to the west of it. Most notably the milk district, I think. Look at the aerial maps. There are significant chunks of land west of Maguire and east of Bumby which cannot be used at all because there needs to be a clearing for the planes to come down for landing. This is not about getting rid of the height requirement. I couldn't care less about the height requirement frankly. This is about urbanization of land very close to the core which is not living up to any kind of urban planning standards. This is about those low-rise buildings where there currently are "no-rise" buildings. This airport is worse than a giant parking lot. At least if it were a parking lot, I could park my car there. At the moment, I can't do ANYTHING there. Some people might be thinking that the neighborhoods to the east are simply not dense enough to justify an extension of the "urban core" that close to fashion square. This is not the right way to be thinking though. First, the urban core is not something that has to spread contiguously like an explosion spreading outward from the center. Rather, it can pop up in various places which will eventually encourage the "gaps" between to urbanize as well. After all, Baldwin Park is not continuous with the urban core yet I doubt anyone here thinks it is "too far out" and is therefore a waste of a development. Yes, it might not literally be in the core but Baldwin feels like the right type of development that should exist in the location where it is. The airport certainly does not and it is probably closer to the core than Baldwin. Maybe it feels like too much of a hurdle and that is why people are so apathetic. I don't know. Hurdles like that just make me more energized against them though.

Glad to see this Winn Dixie leaving. How could they expect a store like that to compete in the grocer's market we have going on right now?

Any ideas what the new grocery store for the Lucerne project will be? I am thinking either Fresh Market or Publix Greenwise Market.

I also think it is very strange to remove any surface area of a lake to add a water feature. Also, strange to add a beach when you aren't allowed to go in the water due to water quality issues. So we will be losing part of the lake so that we can walk on sand. Will there be swans on the beach?

Try Pom Pom's Teahouse

One you left out is the UCF connector. Although it could wind up being a BRT, light rail is one of the considerations. Here is the main project site: http://lynxsr50.com/default.aspx Here is the latest presentation: http://lynxsr50.com/pdf/PAWG_Meeting_5_05142014.pdf

Zoolander reference

Shift work at the hospitals is a tricky commute to accommodate and so far sunrail hasn't really optimized itself well for it. Since I am currently a shift worker at one of these hospitals I can explain some. 1) First, all standard units require nurses (who constitute most of the shift workers) to work multiple weekends each month. This means it is impossible for most nurses to exclusively ride sunrail since they will have to drive the car to work for those weekend shifts. Thus, they are not able to get completely into the habit of taking the train and might just forgo the train altogether out of habit of driving the car anyway. 2) 7-7 does not actually mean 7-7. This is more of a problem when going home. In the perfect world, a nurse leaves at 7 on the dot although in reality this almost never happens. I have left anytime ranging from about 6:50 (extremely rare) to about 10 o clock. On average probably sometime around 7:30 to 7:45. If you work day shift then this is a huge problem because for example the southbound train from FL hospital in the evening leaves at 6:43pm and next one is 8:43pm. It means the 6:43pm would be impossible to ever catch and you would always have to wait until 8:43pm no matter how early you get out. It means on a NORMAL day you would have to wait more than 1 hour at the train platform (possibly nearly 2 hours), at night, after working a 12 (really 13) hour shift. This is not an exception. This is EVERY time. Heaven forbid you are stuck at work late enough to miss the 8:43pm train. This is not necessarily an uncommon thing either. I had a few weeks recently where every day I was stuck until after 8:45. I would have had to take 6 taxis home or used the Hertz rental 6 times. In short, if you are working dayshift it is very risky at best to even attempt taking the train. 3) If you work night shift, it turns out it is actually much better for taking the train contrary to what most people would think. You would be coming into work around 6:30pm and leaving work around 7-8 am. All of this is during the 30 min train schedules. There is still a chance you could leave work late (after 8:43 am) but at least you could eventually catch a train 2 hours later instead of being completely stuck. Still this is hardly a consolation especially if you have to be back at work that night. It means you probably wouldn't get home until after 11 am and would need to leave the house again by 6 pm to catch the evening train. Even if you don't need to eat, shower, or do anything else you will be looking at best 7 hours of sleep (probably much less) and this is after working 15 hours or so. 4) Night shifters however get one less day of train usage since they can't take the train on Fridays (no ride home Saturday morning). So that's only 4 out of 7 days of train usage or roughly 50% of the time they could even use it. It is ironic that most employees at the 2 big "employer" stations of this commuter rail are not even able to commute or have to jump through hurdles to even try to commute via rail. This would be fixed with more frequent trains in the evenings and weekend trains. Luckily I won't be a shift worker much longer so I am looking forward to commuting via sunrail soon enough.

The article says phase 3 will be just north of the Meadow Woods station so I don't think it could affect you unless you will be using a phase 2 station. Even then it isn't clear if this is considered a separate line or if sunrail will remain one single long line. I am guessing the latter though based on the wording.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/all-aboard-documents-reveal-ticket-price-newspaper/ngP6L/ The ticket price was leaked. It will cost $23.77 one-way from Miami to West Palm in coach class. Doesn't say price to Orlando though.

Just went by the mall today. The bowling alley area seems to be coming along quite well. It will be good to see the hotel and TGIF come in. Then you've got the apartments to be built also. I think the mall will be looking good once its all complete. With that said, the food court is absolutely terrible. Has to be the worst food court I've ever seen in a mall. There are only 5 restaurants in it and they aren't exactly the best five either. They need to fix this ASAP. At least the mall has a Panera.

Unicorp renames $200M I-Drive Live project http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2013/12/unicorp-renames-200m-i-drive-live.html The whole thing is now called "The Orlando Eye". No more "I-Drive Live".