Downtown Orlando Project Discussion

[jgardnerucf]

The only bad and crime breaking thing is located on this thread about this subject matter. Good lord. It's a soccer match with 25k neighbors. Not a bum fight. Get over yourself. You need to walk and drink.

[bqknight]

Honestly, I think the whole walk makes it one of the best experiences in soccer. You can't do that in most cities. Everyone been partying downtown and you can feel the energy coming into the stadium. 

[nite owℓ]

11 hours ago, orange87 said:

I've never been to an Orlando City Soccer game. I'm going to one later this month. I just looked at a map to see the area I drove near that I was referring to as "bad," and it actually might not have been Parramore. I drove in the area between W Amelia and W Colonial, especially near N Westmoreland. I thought that was considered Parramore. Maybe I was wrong. I literally felt afraid driving through there.

Anyway, only reason I brought this up originally was because I'm going to an Orlando City Soccer game and I didn't know if I was going to have to walk a long ways through a bad area. Am I able to park in the Geico Garage for the Orlando City Soccer game? Doesn't seem like too far of a walk, and the game is during the day so it should be fine.

LOL, aww. You don't know true fear unless you've driven through that same area 15-20+ years ago on a non-game night - talk about terrifying. It's cleaned up a lot, but you can just imagine what it actually used to be like when the city didn't give a sht about maintaining public safety. I think that area is technically considered Callahan (named after Parramore's first black doctor), but pretty much anything south of Colonial is considered "Parramore" to most people. I once considered buying a cute Spanish Mission/Mediterranean historic  home on Concord St years ago as an investment to "beat" the gentrification and simply turning onto Parramore from Colonial Dr with friends in the car to show them the house they would literally tense up and practically crawl out of their skin lol. The people living in that area were incredibly nice though.

Anyway, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Game nights are NOTHING like regular nights. The energy is upbeat, tons of people milling about, and squad cars parked at a couple major intersections to help direct pedestrian traffic. I've even seen young kids/families walking around at night during Amway events. I'm sure it may be a different story if you decide to wander off the beaten path, but I highly doubt the trouble-makers will get trigger happy with that level of people/police presence around. I believe most of the violence in Parramore is drug-related (self-contained between parties) except for a few outliers of course. Crime is everywhere though...

 

 

[JFW657]

1 minute ago, nite owℓ said:

LOL, aww. You don't know true fear unless you've driven through that same area 15-20+ years ago on a non-game night - talk about terrifying. It's cleaned up a lot, but you can just imagine what it actually used to be like when the city didn't give a sht about maintaining public safety. I think that area is technically considered Callahan (named after Parramore's first black doctor), but pretty much anything south of Colonial is considered "Parramore" to most people. I once considered buying a cute Spanish Mission/Mediterranean historic  home on Concord St years ago as an investment to "beat" the gentrification and simply turning onto Parramore from Colonial Dr with friends in the car to show them the house they would literally tense up and practically crawl out of their skin lol. The people living in that area were incredibly nice though.

Anyway, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Game nights are NOTHING like regular nights. The energy is upbeat, tons of people milling about, and squad cars parked at a couple major intersections to help direct pedestrian traffic. I've even seen young kids/families walking around at night during Amway events. I'm sure it may be a different story if you decide to wander off the beaten path, but I highly doubt the trouble-makers will get trigger happy with that level of people/police presence around. I believe most of the violence in Parramore is drug-related (self-contained between parties) except for a few outliers of course. Crime is everywhere though...

You should've seen the place back in the 1980's. There was a Liquor World store on Parramore where they actually had a drive through, after hours "drug store" in the alley. Cash-only.

[nite owℓ]

@JFW657 Hmm, I can only imagine... but I'm very curious about how you knew it was cash-only??

I have a horror story to share... I used to live in the Mills/50 district after graduating high-school ~2001. Rented a house with various roommates/friends. Our Vietnamese landlord/shop-owner began renting out the empty rooms to random people of his choosing since we couldn't fill the "vacancies". One of the new mystery tenants who moved in had a drug problem unbeknownst to us. I was young, too nice, naive, very sheltered... and blinded by his beauty . Anyway he didn't have a car so I would foolishly let him borrow mine, but squashed that after he borrowed my car one day and didn't show up until 24-48 hours later lol. Red flag #1. One night he has the balls to ask to borrow the car again to go to a party. I offer to drive him, because well... he's pretty and parties were priorities. This was Pre-GPS era so I'm following his directions and driving around in the dark. After stopping off at one of the nearby Vietnamese restaurants to pick up some cash (2nd Red flag) we continue driving on some back roads and suddenly I'm in the scary part of Parramore. I've always been horrible at directions/navigation so I didn't realize where I was until it was too late. I was pissed, but also terrified. Our windows were down since this was my first car; a beater with finicky air conditioning. We stop in front of a house near a huge block party and suddenly the car gets swarmed by people reaching inside the car from what seemed like all directions and at that point I literally have an out of body experience lol. "What you want? What you need?"- they were drug dealers selling us drugs. My passenger hands them some cash and within seconds they bring back some drugs. I'm literally frozen watching all of this happen like a dream. My roommate has to command me to drive bc I can't move, meanwhile there's a cop literally parked down the street doing jack sht and now I have drugs in my car. Fun times.

Edited March 15, 2018 by nite owℓ

[codypet]

^^^ Did we go to school together?  I had a friend that told me a similar story second hand from someone else and I graduated in 2002.

[nite owℓ]

Did you go to Edgewater HS in college park?

[dcluley98]

I have walked to every soccer game I went to in the new stadium. There is no problem at all and a lot of nice people all around, from my experience. Some of the local neighborhood residents also cook some great food that they sell to fans on game day. Couple of local hangouts you can go to including Yard Bar Beergarden and Broken Cauldron. Good times hanging out and great food. It is a fun experience to walk around and enjoy the sights and sounds, and absorb the energy around you in the march to the match. 

Hoping the team plays better in future home games,  but I always had a great time on game day no matter what. 

Edited March 15, 2018 by dcluley98

[codypet]

29 minutes ago, nite owℓ said:

Did you go to Edgewater HS in college park?

Dr. Phillips but I did know people over there.

[jgardnerucf]

2 hours ago, JFW657 said:

You should've seen the place back in the 1980's. There was a Liquor World store on Parramore where they actually had a drive through, after hours "drug store" in the alley. Cash-only.

The good 'ol Dixie Doodle Lounge. Dad would take that way back after the shaq-penny days.

--Wait, are we in the coffee house???

Edited March 15, 2018 by jgardnerucf
Tangent

[jrs2]

16 hours ago, orange87 said:

I've never been to an Orlando City Soccer game. I'm going to one later this month. I just looked at a map to see the area I drove near that I was referring to as "bad," and it actually might not have been Parramore. I drove in the area between W Amelia and W Colonial, especially near N Westmoreland. I thought that was considered Parramore. Maybe I was wrong. I literally felt afraid driving through there.

Anyway, only reason I brought this up originally was because I'm going to an Orlando City Soccer game and I didn't know if I was going to have to walk a long ways through a bad area. Am I able to park in the Geico Garage for the Orlando City Soccer game? Doesn't seem like too far of a walk, and the game is during the day so it should be fine.

Park at The Plaza.  Walk down Church St.  Don't they have a big mob of fans that start on Church St. and head west?  

Yeah, and then you can bar hop all the way there and go to some of the hot spots at the Magic Entertainment Complex along the way...oh, wait...

[Universe_Explorer]

I've been to practically every home game for years, it's very safe.  The lack of on-site parking was purposeful, to encourage folks to park and go out downtown then "march" to the match (as is common in most European soccer leagues).  OCSC fans got a little comfortable with American football style tailgates at the citrus bowl - which are super fun, don't get me wrong - but wasn't the atmosphere the city or team had in mind.  It is very frustrating, however, to walk past the demolished garage that had ground floor retail across from Amway which is now a surface lot, and a little disheartening to  then walk past the empty lot next to the stadium (where the stadium would have been, if not for the greedy church).   When these lots fill in the walk up Church st will be more aesthetically pleasing, but it's alway full of fans, cops, and revelers on game nights.

Geico garage is always open for the matches, but considering your concerns, I recommend parking at the suntrust center garage.  You exit onto church st in front of 55 west with plenty of people eating and drinking for those blocks, cross under i4 (they took down the pretty lights for the I4 ultimate, but I assume they will be back) and march with a few 100 others up to the stadium.  Alternatively, you can park in one of the "ghetto??" lots being operated by business owners north of the stadium (closed stores, mostly) and hang out at the Yard bar before going in the game.  It's essentially tailgating.  We alternate between those options.  My young kids come most games and we've never encountered anything more off-putting than the usual grift of urban living (occasional panhandlers, infrequent strange looking homeless people, and large crowds of drunk fans), but they've always lived in the city and don't pay much attention.  Last option: Uber.  We do it when the kids aren't coming and I want to be one of those drunk fans...

[gibby]

When Pine Street gets opened up all the way to the stadium, it will be an even better walk.

[sunshine]

Never understand the appeal of getting drunk for anything.....

Anyway, here is new movement...

 

Design updates green-lit for Cambria Suites at Lake Eola, construction plans in review

http://www.growthspotter.com/news/hotels/gs-design-updates-for-cambria-suites-project-at-lake-eola-20180315-story.html#nt=oft03a-1la1

 

[dcluley98]

That was in the latest ARB report as well: http://www.cityoforlando.net/city-planning/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2018/03/ARB2017-10009reportMarch2018.pdf

Here is the new rendering: 

Also LOL at the shopping bags and the Lambo and Ferrari. Why do the architects making these things always insist on doing that? Hahaha. I bet those people had a great time shopping at the Lake Eola Amphitheater retail destination.  

 

Edited March 16, 2018 by dcluley98

[jrs2]

Didn't think of it before, but if they build this it would really spruce up the immediate area for Metropolitan residents.

[JFW657]

3 hours ago, dcluley98 said:

That was in the latest ARB report as well: http://www.cityoforlando.net/city-planning/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2018/03/ARB2017-10009reportMarch2018.pdf

Here is the new rendering: 

Also LOL at the shopping bags and the Lambo and Ferrari. Why do the architects making these things always insist on doing that? Hahaha. I bet those people had a great time shopping at the Lake Eola Amphitheater retail destination.  

Maybe they were just at the homeless feeding and are now sneaking their free food back into the hotel in the shopping bags. 

[orlandouprise]

Gotta say I like the old one better. More glass, thinner floor dividers, better rooftop area . More of an airy design. New one not as good IMO.  The new actually looks stumpy to me now...lol...what's new?

[Camillo Sitte]

13 hours ago, dcluley98 said:

That was in the latest ARB report as well: http://www.cityoforlando.net/city-planning/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2018/03/ARB2017-10009reportMarch2018.pdf

Here is the new rendering: 

Also LOL at the shopping bags and the Lambo and Ferrari. Why do the architects making these things always insist on doing that? Hahaha. I bet those people had a great time shopping at the Lake Eola Amphitheater retail destination.  

 

The pink [?] car parked on Rosalind is a Mclaren, not a Lambo. 

As for the ubiquity of these types of representations in presentation renderings, as I have said before, those entourage books you buy in your first year can be $50 or more.  Gotta get your money's worth somehow. Though as often as not, it isn't the architects actually making these renderings but rather professional graphics firms.

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Camillo Sitte

[dcluley98]

 

Lambo is on cross street(Washington?) , ferrari is on rosalind/magnolia and looks like the untouchable enzo. 

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by dcluley98

[Camillo Sitte]

32 minutes ago, dcluley98 said:

 

Lambo is on cross street(Washington?) , ferrari is on rosalind/magnolia and looks like the untouchable enzo. 

 

Not enough pixels on my phone. Car on Washington looked like a 488.  Looking now on my laptop, yep. I was wrong. And now that I can see the brake vents, the car on Rosalind does appear to be an Enzo.

[dcluley98]

It's actually both a fake enzo. . . . 

Previous: 
 

[dcluley98]

Two Enzos!!! How lucky are we, indeed?!!

 

[gibby]

At least they had the foresight to show the cars blocking the sidewalk along Washington, as will certainly be the case.

[klstorey]

On 3/16/2018 at 11:31 PM, orlandouprise said:

Gotta say I like the old one better. More glass, thinner floor dividers, better rooftop area . More of an airy design. New one not as good IMO.  The new actually looks stumpy to me now...lol...what's new?

1

I totally agree. I worry that the ARB might have too much say in designs here. They seem to push everything into a specific look that might look aged in a few years. We're seeing the same thing in Winter Park too.