Downtown South (Sunrail/Amtrak, SODO, Orlando Health, Lymmo, Orange/Michigan Avenues)

[AndyPok1]

45 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Really? I don't get that impression at all.

Which posts are causing your confusion?

Well going back to the complaints about another bar when there are none in SoDo.  Or the food options, when SoDo probably has one of the best neighborhood food selections (especially if you don't mind chains)..

But since you asked specifically... yours about not liking to pay to park.  A downtown with free parking is a downtown that isn't thriving.  Typically people complaining about not enough free parking is a nimby or suburban person, not someone you find on an urban forum.  Hence couldn't be sure if it was a joke or not.  Also, Denny's.  I've never met anyone that LIKES Denny's.

[Jernigan]

Hey he didn't say parking should be free lol. I hate to pay to park downtown too!  

Thanks, LYNX!   

[metal93]

I don't mind paying a little for parking as long as it's easy to access. The city's made some moves with the smart meters but I think more can be done - maybe increase the availability of on-street parking while encouraging the phasing out of surface lots. That being said, I generally avoid paying for parking if I'm not in a hurry to get somewhere, plus it's not too difficult to find free parking if you know where to look and are prepared to walk a bit and maybe take a LYMMO bus to get there.

[AndyPok1]

Agreed.  Even though I have my spot at 55W, often I don't want to drive up the garage if I'm only gonna be home for an hour before heading back out.  I have a variety of places that I can usually nab a spot that is only a 5 minute walk or lymmo ride away.  Or I just pay the dollar for a meter.

I think Orlando (and the developers moreso) has done great with phasing out surface lots.  Outside of the ones the diocese owns, there really aren't that many besides the ones on the outskirts of the CBD on Garland, and I don't even mind the one on Pine and Garland.  Wish the big one at Jefferson that had a proposal would've gotten built though.

[JFW657]

14 hours ago, AndyPok1 said:

Well going back to the complaints about another bar when there are none in SoDo.  Or the food options, when SoDo probably has one of the best neighborhood food selections (especially if you don't mind chains)..

But since you asked specifically... yours about not liking to pay to park.  A downtown with free parking is a downtown that isn't thriving.  Typically people complaining about not enough free parking is a nimby or suburban person, not someone you find on an urban forum.  Hence couldn't be sure if it was a joke or not.  Also, Denny's.  I've never met anyone that LIKES Denny's.

Well, re: the restaurant comments, occasional mildly sarcastic pokes and jibes on these forums are to be expected and nothing to fret over.

Re: my parking comment, it was just an attempt at being a little facetious, while actually making a true statement. I don't go downtown very often anymore because I really DO hate paying to park. I wasn't trying to be a troll or bring a negative attitude.

As for any suburban, NIMBY, don't-belong-on-an-urban-forum nature you might ascribe to me or those who share my feelings about paying to park downtown, I lived in Thornton Park right off Summerlin, first on E. Pine St for eight years then moved one street south to E. Church St for seven years from 1984 to 1999. Probably long before you moved to Orlando and, possibly I suspect, before you were born. So I think I have a relevant perspective about DtO to offer the forum, even though I now live closer to SoDo.

Re: Denny's and downtown Orlando... AFAIC, beggars can't be choosers. If they were to put a smallish urban style Denny's into the ground floor of a downtown building with a cool looking entrance like the one in the pic I posted, or some of the ones they have in places like Las Vegas, Japan and Thailand (Google image search), it would be a vast improvement over the Jack Squat we have now. 

All that having been said, please don't take offense or misconstrue any of my above comments as I did not make them in a snide, or churlish or otherwise negative fashion.

Just stating some facts. 

Edited March 17, 2017 by JFW657

[JFW657]

2 hours ago, metal93 said:

I don't mind paying a little for parking as long as it's easy to access. The city's made some moves with the smart meters but I think more can be done - maybe increase the availability of on-street parking while encouraging the phasing out of surface lots. That being said, I generally avoid paying for parking if I'm not in a hurry to get somewhere, plus it's not too difficult to find free parking if you know where to look and are prepared to walk a bit and maybe take a LYMMO bus to get there.

I have a spot, but like you said, it's a bit of a walk.

[jgardnerucf]

1 hour ago, JFW657 said:

Just stating some facts. 

PREACH!

[AndyPok1]

Yeah, trust me, no offense taken at all and not meant to take a pompous attitude.  I just truly can't differentiate honest complaints from jokes these days.

In regards to the Denny's... there's the old you can put lipstick on a pig thing.  This one is meant to be pompous... I find Denny's to be the lowest of low class and have only had bad meals there in more states than I can count so I quit going.  At one point they made their slogan, "We're cooking now!" .... What in the world were you doing before?  Give me a Perkins, Steak and Shake, or Ihop any day.

But yes, an actual good diner like Carol's or Linda's but 24/7 would be an amazing addition.  I've been to Red Mug a handful of times and had average overpriced food and long waits each time.  With that said, I think it's an important thing for the downtown community to have, so I'm going to try to keep patronizing is.

[aent]

1 hour ago, AndyPok1 said:

Yeah, trust me, no offense taken at all and not meant to take a pompous attitude.  I just truly can't differentiate honest complaints from jokes these days.

In regards to the Denny's... there's the old you can put lipstick on a pig thing.  This one is meant to be pompous... I find Denny's to be the lowest of low class and have only had bad meals there in more states than I can count so I quit going.  At one point they made their slogan, "We're cooking now!" .... What in the world were you doing before?  Give me a Perkins, Steak and Shake, or Ihop any day.

But yes, an actual good diner like Carol's or Linda's but 24/7 would be an amazing addition.  I've been to Red Mug a handful of times and had average overpriced food and long waits each time.  With that said, I think it's an important thing for the downtown community to have, so I'm going to try to keep patronizing is.

haha, back in high school once everyone got their licenses, they kept bring me to dennys. after a few weeks of it, I stopped ordering there, and after a few months of it, i managed to still be treated like crap by the servers, so I had to say if the nights end up at dennys I'm not interested in hanging out with you guys at all. They agreed to switch to SNS and we lived happily ever after. I didn't go to dennys for many years and outside the state of florida, and it was still crap. And now I probably haven't gone in 10-15 years. beggers can't be choosers, but I'll starve before I eat there again. anything but dennys

[JFW657]

Well then, I stand corrected on the subject of Denny's.  

I haven't eaten there in years myself, but I remember it was decent enough back in the 70's and 80's when I did occasionally eat there.

OK, scratch Denny's!!!

Edited March 17, 2017 by JFW657

[JFW657]

2 hours ago, AndyPok1 said:

Yeah, trust me, no offense taken at all and not meant to take a pompous attitude.  I just truly can't differentiate honest complaints from jokes these days.

That's a common thing on internet forums. As you obviously cannot determine tone of voice from written text. I made the conscious decision to, when in doubt, just assume it was a good natured joke and respond in that manner or not respond at all. If the person was complaining or making a negative comment, I figure he'll probably continue with it some more, then I'll know for sure. 

[John Hargrove]

Man I love Denny's.

But I'm unapologetically low class. 

[dcluley98]

Haha, growing up, I remember ubiquitous little diner shacks called The Clock Restaraunt, for "around the clock." They used to be quite common in the seventies and eighties. These were like smaller, more local Denny's type diners that served breakfast, lunch and home-cooked/southern style comfort food dinner around the clock in greasy, eighties style booth and old-smoking-waitress fashion.  There are still a couple left in Florida somehow, and some scattered through South and North Carolina, though they used to be way more popular and widespread back a few decades.  I have fond memories of mediocre, but cheap meals with my grandparents and parents.  Sure it was low class, but cheap, decent enough, friendly enough, and nothing that would be too off-putting to anybody that came through the door and slid into a vinyl-covered booth. Pretty much my classic memory of a "greasy spoon" back in the day.  



Apparently, there still is one open in Auburndale: 

Edited March 19, 2017 by dcluley98

[JFW657]

I remember seeing those places, but never went in one.

I remember going to Sambo's, though.

There was one on Merritt Island.

And of course, the ol' raunchy Ranch House...

There was one of those in Cocoa on N. US 1.

[spenser1058]

There were a few Ranch Houses in Orlando including E. Colonial across from Target and W. Colonial across from Parkwood Plaza. It was quite the expanding local chain (they even had a hotel on Daytona Beach) and then disappeared. I always wondered what happened to them.

[JFW657]

I vaguely remember the TV ads for them back in the 70's.

A chorus of deep baritone male voices singing "Come to the Ranch Hoouuusse!!!!!" 

[spenser1058]

Sambo's (the Orlando locations I recall were SOBT just south of Holden and W. Colonial at Hastings St. in Pine Hills) unfortunate choice of name, of course, did not survive the Civil Rights Era. It was a bit of a shame as I was a big fan of the "Six Little Sambo Cakes;" fortunately, by that time, Captain Kangaroo was extolling the virtues of IHoP and I moved on happily.

Edited March 20, 2017 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

Yeah, I think the name had a log to do with the chain's demise, though there is still one left in California.

 

 

[Universe_Explorer]

I work in the SODO area, and I must admit that I agree - as crazy as it sounds - that there is a lack of bars there.  For all the drinking that goes on downtown, there aren't many places to grab a happy hour drink in that area despite all the residents and businesses there.  If you want proof, look at how busy Johnny's Filling Station (a mile or more away on Michigan) and even Vanberry's (quite a bit down Orange) get.  ORMC is the only hospital I've ever worked at that doesn't have a "hospital bar" (i.e., a dive-like place located relatively close that people hit up after work).  That ortho guy tried it with Doctors across the street, but that part of Orange is so pedestrian unfriendly it never took off. Maybe someone will open a bar at the new Lucerne development... 

[Jernigan]

Delaney Tavern is being built where Docs was

[bqknight]

18 minutes ago, Jernigan said:

Delaney Tavern is being built where Docs was

I have somewhat high hopes for this, even though not much has been said about it. 

[orlandouprise]

any idea when delaney tavern and lions pride pub will be finished?

[Jernigan]

Nope 

[bqknight]

16 hours ago, orlandouprise said:

any idea when delaney tavern and lions pride pub will be finished?

Lion's Pride is meant to be May. 

[Jernigan]

Zoning change applied for for the empty lot next to the new Hampton Inn on Columbia.   Request is to change use from medical office to another hotel.   6-story Towneplace Suites by Marriott.  Didn't see that coming.