 |
|
|
Orlando Culture
|
|
In common with other cities,
downtown Orlando has languished -- until recently, when a spate
of condos, restaurants and retail began to flourish. Orlando's
centerpiece is Lake Eola, which is a 43-acre showplace for strolling
and jogging on a 1.4 mile loop around a downtown lake. Residents
often are found here, eating at a small outdoor café,
taking gondola rides or renting swan paddle boats. Residents
and visitors also are often found taking in local plays at |
the Walt Disney Amphitheatre. On weekends, downtown has a popular
farmer's market.
Once a white bread community, the area has diversified into a melting
pot with Asian enclaves just outside of downtown. Orlando has one
of the largest Vietnamese communities in the entire state with Korean,
Thai and Chinese restaurants and stores patronized by all ethnic
groups.
The area is rightfully proud of its neighborhoods, which include
trendy Winter Park, long-established College Park and new kid-on-the-block
Thornton Park.The later is a center of new urbanism that rings downtown.
Here's where residents live in lofts and walk to trendy stores and
shops.Winter Park is an upscale suburb of Orlando that is home to
25,000 residents. If you want to see how they live, take a ride
on the Scenic Boat Tour, a local attraction for more than a century
that takes visitors past lakefront mansions.
College Park is not often visited by tourists, but it has long
been home to residents who live on streets with names such as Harvard,
Yale and Dartmouth. A somewhat improbable resident, writer Jack
Kerouac lived here when he wrote On The Road. His former home is
a museum. Visitors might want to take a look.
|
|
|
|
