AndyPok1

I put the over/under at November 2022, pending further hurricanes that cause a complete shutdown of construction.

Yeah I think this is where I disagree. I don't care how many condos get built. It's not going to change the massive HOA payment to pay for elevators and parking garages and security and pools. It's not going to change banks wanting 20% down on condos. Owning downtown is a privilege for the wealthy and the old. We can argue whether that's right or not, but that's a fact of life since 2008. And pretty much every major city where people want to live that's the case. What I care about is a vibrant downtown. So I don't care if we build towers where people are stuffed in like sardines. I don't care if we go full Japanese hotel pods. More people downtown is more activity. More vibrancy. More urbanism. More walking. More people spending happy hours on patios. Less driving. Leading to more retail. Leading to better last mile transit. Every lot that is filled with new residential is a good thing by and large (with obvious exceptions of underutilized lots. *cough Crescent*) because it increases the 24/7 dynamism that is Downtown Orlando that most other mid-size cities WISH they had.

To be clear. I *WANT* to be downtown. There's zero financial mechanism to make that possible for me and own simultaneously. 2/2 condos go for $300k. That means I need $60k liquid just to move in. Then I have $1130 a month mortgage, $600 HOA, $400 Property Tax, $150 (?) Insurance. That's basically $2400 a month AFTER I magically found $60,000 to move in? It took me 5 years to get the $20k I needed to buy my place while paying $1600 in rent.

The more I think about it, the more I really don't understand what point you're trying to make. I have a serious salary. I don't contribute a thing to Wadeview Park. Hell, if anything I detract from it because I'm constantly ubering downtown and I'm banned from their facebook page for insulting a guy for making a flier with 4 different fonts. What does anyone contribute to downtown unless you're a business owner or on the DDB or the Church St Main Street board? There is 0 path to ownership in our downtown period. When rent is upwards of $1k/month/person, and most banks refusing to do mortgages on condos without 20% down, the only strategy is to either buy a big place in a suburb, a small place in a traditional city neighborhood, or keep renting.

I guess I don't ostensibly care about a city's "wealth"? You contribute to downtown simply by being there and not being in the suburbs. This is 900 more people living and playing (and ideally working) downtown.

Ha, I'm actually not the right audience. Most microbreweries attempt to create a culture/atmosphere. I don't give a damn about that, I just want creative beers I can't find elsewhere. So I largely don't frequent any of the local ones.

I completely forgot about Star and Sanctuary (and Paramount!), but Grande, Met, and Plaza are all condos as well.

I think it's pretty awesome. Would I want to live in one long term? No. But when I moved downtown in 2013, it was either a 1/1 for $1500 or a 2/2 for $1600. I absolutely would have rented one of these for 6 months/year until I found something better. Also, the downtown condo HOA prices as astronomical. Almost no one wants to pay them. I'm the target audience for a downtown condo, and I can't remotely justify it.

Oh I'm sure. But a ballpark brings traffic in at least 81 nights a year. It is one of the few "public-financing stadium revitalization" efforts that can actually drive change if done properly. Festival Park would be a nightmare because of parking. Imagine 20k cars trying to arrive or leave at once. Chances are they would put it somewhere between Orlando City Stadium and the Citrus Bowl, but I'm anti that because that wouldn't help Parramore in the slightest, whereas it can be used to develop a whole new "activity center" from the ground up.

Yay, someone else that thinks like me! I've been on my personal soapbox saying that every time it comes up here. We need to start thinking like bigger cities.

Not that I know of. The only thing "special" about it is that the first 2 floors of the parking garage are reserved for the Church 24/7. Not really entirely different from how 55 West parking doesn't start until level 9.

Definitely the most nothing press conference I've seen in a while. Granted, I'm all for more professional sports, but this has no weight behind it whatsoever and was an excuse to show off a logo that will be forgotten. It did lead me to start thinking of interesting locations for a 35k seat retractable roof ballpark though. I'm biased, but buying up the industrial land behind/around Target could be fascinating. Not sure a professional baseball stadium and a LGBT tragedy memorial really screams synergy, but the resulting development could definitely turn Sodo into a secondary destination to compliment downtown while still being in the traditional city core.

I get depressed every time I travel overseas about anything payment related. In 2010, it was that restaurants in Canada brought a machine to the table for you so you didn't have to give them a card. Earlier this decade it was the ease of payment using QR codes and WeChat in China. Last month in London it was how literally evrywhere accepted NFC/contactless payment. I pulled out my credit card once the entire trip, and just tapped my phone (with 100% success rate unlike here) everywhere else.

Good thing if you want a regular apartment, there is... 55 West, The Grande, The Vue, Metropolitan, Aspire, Plaza, Steelhouse, Skyhouse, Nora, The Sevens, Camden Orange Court, 420 Church, Citi Tower, Modera... soon to be 520 Church, Radius, Orange/Robinson

Publix has theirs intentionally slowed down or something. Every time I try to use one I end up screaming obscenities, because I try to swipe-swipe-swipe and its like YOU DIDNT BAG IT