Hourglass District

[spenser1058]

Andy's favorite, Scott J, talks about the Hourglass in general and vegan option Leguminati in particular:

https://www.scottjosephorlando.com/reviews/recent-reviews/74-vegetarianvegan/4468-leguminati

Edited September 26, 2018 by spenser1058

[Jernigan]

These things...

[orlandoguy]

Ugh.

That is all.

[HankStrong]

I must be missing the diss?  It looks like a fairly generic house, but people do have to live somewhere.

[orlandouprise]

a suburban box with a snout.

[Jernigan]

They’ll eventually sell just because it’s hard to find anything right now but I’m (delightfully) surprised the price has fallen as much as it has.  Hopefully encourages other builders to be a little more thoughtful 

[JFW657]

2 hours ago, HankStrong said:

I must be missing the diss?  It looks like a fairly generic house, but people do have to live somewhere.

Exactly.

Plus, it's on Bumby in the middle of a solidly residential area surrounded by similar looking homes, so it fits right in. Not a big deal. 

[Jernigan]

They don’t fit in at all.   There isn’t another house between Curry Ford and Kaley that has a protruding garage. Nor on Carlton Drive, and Jessamine is...well unique lol.

This wouldn’t even be allowed if it was a few blocks west.  A minimum of 5 feet is required for the garage from the rest of the front of the house.   

When you fill a street with garages it makes it less walkable as walkable places are interesting.  It’s like if we didn’t have a city code that required storefronts to have windows downtown.  

[JFW657]

That all may be true, but in that location, it's just not a big enough deal to get bothered about. I'd say about 99.9999% of the people who drive, ride a bike or walk past it wouldn't even notice what's there. Even if they build identical ones on either side of it, it's doubtful that more than a very small handful of people would have an opinion about them one way or the other.

There's a lot of room in Orlando for different kinds of buildings. They don't all have to conform to some high design standard.

Besides, a few "ugly" buildings give us something to measure the good looking ones against.

As long as they're tucked away on back streets like S. Bumby and not downtown or on some major thoroughfare.

[Jernigan]

I’m more surprised than offended - aside from what I mentioned before, it was strange they did 3 identical ones without any variation or even a different splash of paint.   They’ve been on the market forever. I wish I had that much money to throw around on projects!

[spenser1058]

Just put a visor on it - yeah, that's the ticket'

[AndyPok1]

I'm on @Jernigan's side here and why we need to annex this part of town so that they can't keep doing this junk.  Orange County doesn't give a crap, but it's practically an alcove, and 99% of people don't realize Unincorporated vs City unless they're paying property taxes.  It's like OC is literally sticking their middle finger into ORL.

[spenser1058]

20 minutes ago, AndyPok1 said:

I'm on @Jernigan's side here and why we need to annex this part of town so that they can't keep doing this junk.  Orange County doesn't give a crap, but it's practically an alcove, and 99% of people don't realize Unincorporated vs City unless they're paying property taxes.  It's like OC is literally sticking their middle finger into ORL.

It will be interesting to see how governance will change at the Brick Bunker now that we have a Democratic mayor (and if we end up with a blue commission after the runoffs.) 

When Linda Chapin became the first chairman under the new charter, she tried to proclaim detente with the City as well as to do things the county shied away from like lighting, streetscaping, more sewers etc.Those efforts ran out of road in 1998 when the county swapped to the other party again.

Interestingly, Linda's heading up Jerry's transition teams and things like aesthetics and zoning may get a fresh look. 

It might even be possible to think of consolidation if the city and county are on the same page. I've always opposed it because OC voters had such different priorities than Orlando folks, but this ain't my daddy's Orange County.

The key would be to leave the smaller towns be but it would solve most of the jurisdictional problems.

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2018 by spenser1058

[AndyPok1]

Yeah, that's a different thread that we've discussed, and I'm anti-consolidation.  But just "rounding" off Orlando is important I think.  ESPECIALLY in these areas that are Orlando in all but name.  We're talking numerous neighborhoods that are 1.5-1.8 miles as the crow flies from city hall.  That's asinine for a big city.

And that's just in the Curry Ford/Hourglass area.  The unincorporated area just south of Grand Avenue Park/School is 1.1 miles!

[HankStrong]

On ‎9‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 1:23 PM, Jernigan said:

When you fill a street with garages it makes it less walkable as walkable places are interesting.  

I'm calling 100% BS on this.  Garages and/or ugly houses do not under any circumstances make a neighborhood "less walkable" than pretty houses or houses without garages.

I'm on board with keeping the city more interesting and away from the cookie-cutter neighborhoods of the burbs.  However, making crap up like this statement is what the NIMBY crowd does.  Boo!

[JFW657]

On 9/29/2018 at 2:01 PM, AndyPok1 said:

Yeah, that's a different thread that we've discussed, and I'm anti-consolidation.  But just "rounding" off Orlando is important I think.  ESPECIALLY in these areas that are Orlando in all but name.  We're talking numerous neighborhoods that are 1.5-1.8 miles as the crow flies from city hall.  That's asinine for a big city.

And that's just in the Curry Ford/Hourglass area.  The unincorporated area just south of Grand Avenue Park/School is 1.1 miles!

And according to the millage rate chart I saw, my property taxes would go up over 2%. No thanks.

[Jernigan]

1 hour ago, HankStrong said:

I'm calling 100% BS on this.  Garages and/or ugly houses do not under any circumstances make a neighborhood "less walkable" than pretty houses or houses without garages.

I'm on board with keeping the city more interesting and away from the cookie-cutter neighborhoods of the burbs.  However, making crap up like this statement is what the NIMBY crowd does.  Boo!

Hardly a NIMBY!  You have my vote for anything the FAA will allow there

[AndyPok1]

4 hours ago, JFW657 said:

And according to the millage rate chart I saw, my property taxes would go up over 2%. No thanks.

Correct.  They would.  I tend to look at things from a greater good perspective.

Also, generally city has better services because of the higher mill.  The line for sandbags pre-hurricane at the city-only location, and the debris pick up post-hurricane were wonderfully better than my friend's in unincorporated.

[spenser1058]

East Orlando is about twice the size of the City of Orlando. East Orlando has basically one (maybe  1 1/2) county commissioners to handle issues and a county staff divided up with all the rest of OC. The City has a mayor, 6 city commissioners, a dedicated staff  plus a county commissioner and the attention of county staff to solve problems. It does make a difference.

Broward had an interesting solution to the problem a few years back. They set a deadline by which urban areas could incorporate or be annexed into existing cities who were better equipped to handle urban problems. It's something we should look at. 

BTW - cities don't necessarily have to pay higher taxes than county folks. Places like Windermere (if you like dirt roads,) Apopka and Casselberry have all at one time or another had taxes equal or lower than the counties they were in.

 

[FLClarkKent]

I'm bummed that my neighborhood ABC shuttered its doors recently. However, my liver and wallet are relieved it's closed.

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2018/10/01/abc-fine-wine-and-spirits-on-curry-ford-just-closed

 

 

[codypet]

9 minutes ago, FLClarkKent said:

I'm bummed that my neighborhood ABC shuttered its doors recently. However, my liver and wallet are relieved it's closed.

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2018/10/01/abc-fine-wine-and-spirits-on-curry-ford-just-closed

 

 

People in the Lake Como neighborhood were mentioning this happening for about a month now.  They knew it was closing soon, just didn't know when.  With ABC upgrading their locations to a Total Wine clone, I don't know if this store or the surrounding  fit the bill for renovation or reconstruction.

On 10/1/2018 at 7:42 AM, HankStrong said:

I'm calling 100% BS on this.  Garages and/or ugly houses do not under any circumstances make a neighborhood "less walkable" than pretty houses or houses without garages.

I'm on board with keeping the city more interesting and away from the cookie-cutter neighborhoods of the burbs.  However, making crap up like this statement is what the NIMBY crowd does.  Boo!

I don't think the garages facing out perse is the problem.  This is very walkable and pleasant to look at.  I don't think pulling the garages back would have helped anything.  A neighbor of mine wanted to enclose the carport and the city wouldn't let him because the result would be a garage that passed the front plane of the house, which is a no no now.

On 9/28/2018 at 1:23 PM, Jernigan said:

They don’t fit in at all.   There isn’t another house between Curry Ford and Kaley that has a protruding garage. Nor on Carlton Drive, and Jessamine is...well unique lol.

This wouldn’t even be allowed if it was a few blocks west.  A minimum of 5 feet is required for the garage from the rest of the front of the house.   

When you fill a street with garages it makes it less walkable as walkable places are interesting.  It’s like if we didn’t have a city code that required storefronts to have windows downtown.  

These are right down the street.  I believe there's others on Kaley going west too.

[sunshine]

we need trees..trees... trees

[spenser1058]

Yay trees!

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, FLClarkKent said:

I'm bummed that my neighborhood ABC shuttered its doors recently. However, my liver and wallet are relieved it's closed.

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2018/10/01/abc-fine-wine-and-spirits-on-curry-ford-just-closed

 

Wow, that's kind of shocking, actually.

I remember when that place had a decent little "fern bar" style lounge attached to it on the north side, and even before that, when said lounge was a crappy little dive that made me a bit nervous the one or two times I ventured in there.

Hope it gets replaced with something useful.

[codypet]

Same area sans the trees

The trees help, but they're not the only think helping the walkability of the neighborhood.

Same neighboorhood.  No protruding garages, limited trees, and not a pleasant walk.  Even after adding sidewalks.