Just Wow

[spenser1058]

The convoluted case of the cloverleaf:

From Cheddar 

[HankStrong]

On 8/8/2020 at 2:46 PM, spenser1058 said:

This one I added just for @HankStrong because it’s several years old, while DPCPA Phase 1 was still under construction.

As a result, the glorious Round Building hadn’t been torn down and the splendid brise was still intact. It lives!

BOO!!! This is awful.

[spenser1058]

All aboard for Florida’s Trains:

By Mike Armstrong 

[spenser1058]

It seems the Rowdies are doing their bit for the homeless problem...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/15/us/florida-man-tampa-stadium-trnd/index.html
 

From CNN

[spenser1058]

Let’s take a quick drone tour of downtown:

 

[spenser1058]

OK, surely I’m not the only one to notice the resemblance of this thing (at least from the side) to “The Doomsday Machine” from ST:TOS.

”Commodore Decker, please report to the bridge!”

https://www.livescience.com/oumuamua-interstellar-hydrogen-or-aliens.html

From Live Science

[spenser1058]

One big part of building a successful city is having locally-owned companies go big time and the heirs of the founder make significant investments in the community.

Whether it’s the Ford family’s significant investments in Detroit, Coca-Cola money building the endowment of Emory University in Atlanta or the Davis family bringing the Mayo Clinic to Jacksonville, wealthy families can make a big difference in their community’s success.

Of course, any look at contributions to local non-profits here in Orlando show the usual donations, but which FFOs have made the kinds of overarching investments in the region like those listed above that have actually changed things?

Of course, there’s the Dr. Phillips family. Arnold Palmer had involvements in the community, although his attentions were split with his hometown of Latrobe.

The Maguires had an interest in Valencia and of course Harriett Lake’s desire to help folks all over town is well kmown, as is Harris Rosen’s philanthropy.

But where are some of the bigger fortunes like that of the Darden or Hughes families? Are our most important families leaving the lasting contributions that take a city to the top tier? There are others you might know of. I don’t know the answer here but is this an area that deserves more emphasis as we transition to a different future?

 

 

[spenser1058]

The 21st century theme park concept of total immersion in... 1963? The amazing story and later demise of Ocala’s Six Gun Territory:

From Midway to Main St.

[spenser1058]

Orlando Streets would fit right in here at UP - here’s a vid of downtown Orlando construction projects:

 

[spenser1058]

For the first time in 92 years, ExxonMobil is no longer a part of the Dow. The times they are a changin’ as folks move beyond their gas guzzlers:

https://earther.gizmodo.com/exxon-ends-92-year-run-on-dow-jones-1844839090
 

From Gizmodo 

[spenser1058]

Eeeek! Hormel reports a shortage of SPAM may be coming this fall. Whatever shall we do!?!

[spenser1058]

In a reminder that change is inevitable, a look at how malls use to be the biggest thing that could happen to a community and now the majority will cease to exist or be converted to other uses. 
 

Two things come to mind from this : (1) nothing is forever and so the process of deciding what’s next should be continuous rather than sitting static for a decade;

(2) If you want to be one of the survivors, you have to make sure you have an interesting, quality place to be rather than just doing the minimum and ending up with a place no one cares about.

The best malls are doing just fine - it’s the copycatter ones that have fallen by the wayside.

From Wired

[spenser1058]

The Downtown we wanted:

The Downtown we got:

 

Edited August 29, 2020 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

 

 

[spenser1058]

Apparently, George Jetson’s Japanese cousin has been busy!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/29/us/flying-car-successful-test-in-japan-trnd/index.html
 

From CNN

Of course, the road builders in the US will call in Judge Doom to snuff this out just like GM and Chevron did with the Red Line... 

Edited August 30, 2020 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

This history of Winter Garden has some amazing points.

(1) It’s remarkable just how many buildings were saved that go back as far as the turn of the 20th century in such a small town.

(2) The WPA was responsible for a number of buildings built during the Depression as well as the city docks and the city’s first swimming pool (which I visited frequently whenever I visited my grandparents as a kid).

(3) The story of the restoration of the Edgewater Hotel in the 1990’s puts the lie about downtown Orlando’s historic Woolworth and McCrory’s buildings as “too far gone to save” to rest. At the Edgewater, 91 tons of debris were removed, creating a splendid little hotel which jump-started the renaissance of Winter Garden’s downtown - one of the most successful such districts in the nation. It shows what was lacking in Orlando were not valid opportunities but a lack of vision by a leader whose strings were controlled by greedy developers.

https://www.southwestorlandobulletin.com/a-historical-look-at-winter-garden/
 

From the Southwest Orlando Bulletin

Another interesting takeaway comes with City Hall. As noted in the article, such a building was erected in the 1930’s by the WPA in an Art Deco style. That gave way to an early ‘70’s Nixon-era revenue sharing structure that can best be described as meh.

When the city sought to build a new City Hall in the 21st century, rather than building a non-descript Baker Barrios facility, they looked back at the history of the community and built a modern take on the deco original. That recognition of pride of place is something lacking in today’s downtown Orlando.

The WG police department is still located in the ‘70’s municipal building. When the city decides it’s time to relocate that facility, I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

[spenser1058]

What is the “third place” that will replace the American shopping mall?

From Vox

I think we can also use this to figure out why downtowns like Winter Park, Winter Garden and (delightful!) DeLand are working as “third places” where downtown Orlando is not. I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I’ll have more to say about it.

Edited August 30, 2020 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

First, I think places people want to be *and stick around* have to feel like *I BELONG HERE*.  We were told by planners that no one stuck around the old O-rena or at Bob Carr because they were too isolated. It sounds reasonable until you find out that they’re not sticking around much at the ostensibly pedestrian-friendly Am or DPCPA, either.

Part of that’s by design. Because the Magic wanted to maximize their profits, they loaded up the Am with all kinds of eating, drinking and merchandise options to keep you spending money with them instead of elsewhere (sound like a couple of theme parks we know about?)

The building is essentially a big box jammed up against I4 one one side, blank walls on the west side (so much for interacting with Parramore) and on the back. Along the front, there’s very little interacting with Church St. except as required to get you inside the building. And even that part is closed most of the time. 

For all it has to do with its neighborhood, it might as well be on an empty lot off the BeachLine. 

Edited August 30, 2020 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

DPCPA doesn’t have as many ancillary facilities, but it’s probably telling that all the  predicted upscale shops, eateries and bars have yet to materialize.

Church St., in fact, is emptying out at a prodigious rate. You may remember that was one reason former Mayor Glenda was deemed a failure as she entered her third term. 

It would be easy enough just to blame it on COVID, but in fact that was occurring before the pandemic took hold in late March. Further, it hasn’t been as catastrophic for other areas. Thus, let’s take that off the table for the moment and hypothesize why the supposed “Main & Main” isn’t and is unlikely to be (as a student of Orlando history, I should note that it never was - Orlando’s prime intersection has long been Orange and Central - think of the Jack Kazanzas star. That lack of  knowledge is one reason the perso who was going to deliver downtown from its doldrums hasn’t done so).

Next up - destroying the scale of downtown.

[spenser1058]

Longtime Orlando residents will tell you that downtown basically died in the late ‘60’s and the ‘70’s. Mayor Bill Frederick is credited with bringing the center city back to life after his election in 1980.

What’s interesting is that four towers were built during that time: Citizens Bank, CNA, Southeast Bank and Hartford Insurance. Church Street Station also opened in 1974.

Clearly, building towers and a tourist attraction downtown didn’t remove the stigma of Mayor Carl Langford’s downtown (a period when he appeared on 60 Minutes to explain his acceptance of a federal grant because the home city of Walt Disney World was designated a “distressed area”).

Clearly, if towers and lots of tourists make a city, something was amiss.

[spenser1058]

A little break to get back with Judge Doom and find out why the US has fallen so far behind on high speed rail:

From CNBC

[AmIReal]

On 8/30/2020 at 1:04 PM, spenser1058 said:

The story of the restoration of the Edgewater Hotel in the 1990’s puts the lie about downtown Orlando’s historic Woolworth and McCrory’s buildings as “too far gone to save” to rest.

From my perspective the Woolworth was not beyond being restored it just wasn't considered of the same value as what replaced it. It has been nearly 2 decades since that decision was made and I think very few in Orlando look back and think the decision was wrong.

I can't imagine Orlando is aspiring to be downtown WG or Sanford. 

Edited September 1, 2020 by AmIReal

[prahaboheme]

16 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

From my perspective the Woolworth was not beyond being restored it just wasn't considered of the same value as what replaced it. It has been nearly 22 decades since that decision was made and I think very few in Orlando look back and think the decision was wrong.

I can't imagine Orlando is aspiring to be downtown WG or Sanford. 

You’re probably right. The last two decades have shown that Orlando isn’t aspiring to save its building stock.

Two decades is rarely enough time for the majority of people to come around to what’s been lost. Hell, South Beach was nearly demolished to become another Aventura. Greenwich Village was nearly destroyed by a cross-downtown highway had someone not stepped up to fight it.  The village has a lot of unremarkable buildings, t the sum of the whole has made it the most desirable real estate in Manhattan.

The West End of Boston was destroyed in one of the most flagrant acts of urban renewal in the nations history. At the time, it was considered a huge success. It’s universally loathed now and Boston has been trying to fix it ever since. 

[prahaboheme]

It’s not like Orlando is lacking of areas to build modern developments downtown. what ultimately became Church and Orange could easily have gone a few blocks north to what is now still a vacant lot — 3 decades later.

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, AmIReal said:

From my perspective the Woolworth was not beyond being restored it just wasn't considered of the same value as what replaced it. It has been nearly 22 decades since that decision was made and I think very few in Orlando look back and think the decision was wrong.

I can't imagine Orlando is aspiring to be downtown WG or Sanford. 

Exactly.

A couple of two story, architecturally and historically insignificant buildings could not be allowed to stand in the way of the kind of development befitting that corner forever. Something had to be done and thankfully, it was. 

Those two old dime stores were not even in the same universe as the art deco treasures in Miami Beach or the eclectic classical styles found in northeastern cities, much of which actually dates back to the nineteenth century. 

Had they been on the scale of the Kress building across the street, or the Metcalf, etc., they'd still be there.