I got a new job and soon to be a FloriDoper!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Well, I have been looking for a new job for some time now, and while I didn’t get my dream job as mentioned in this thread, I did finally get a really good offer from another company, which I finally accepted today to Move to Orlando, Florida! :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley: :smiley:

So, I’m hoping to hear from some Floridopers who can give me any pointers either on relocation in general, or specifically the Orlando area. General relocation expereinces would be greatly appreciated!

I have a house right now in Ohio and have a decent relocation package from my new employer. However, we are planning on renting for a while to get the lay of the land and not get caught in the two-mortgage tango.

2

I’m in Orlando and I grew up here, if you want to contact me off board (or post more here) I can give you more specifics about where you want to be, especially in relation to wherever you’re working.

– IG

3

I don’t have any location info for you other than watch out for the 6-foot mice.

And, congrats on the job!

4

Never lived in Orlando but I’ve been there many times. If you like an after-dark streetlife scene with cool clubs, it’s all clustered around Orange Avenue (runs north-to-south through downtown). The metro area as a whole, OTOH, is cancerous suburbia in the final stages of metastasis.

The cost of living in Florida is relatively low. There’s no state income tax and sales tax is only 6% and does not apply to services. OTOH, as a result of that, and the warm climate, you have to get used to lots and lots of old people. Careful while driving. (Speaking of which, in Florida you need a car, period. It’s worse than LA. Public transportation here is very underdeveloped, and few places are built to a walkable scale.)

Weather: One thing non-Floridians might be entirely aware of: It rains here a lot during the summer, and in Florida it rains hard. (I knew an Irishman once who said he couldn’t believe the way it rains in Florida.) And it can start raining with no warning and stop just as suddenly. Orlando, however, is relatively hurricane-proof by its location (which is why Disney located there). Contrary to popular belief we do get winter here, at least north of Broward County, but it’s mild by Ohio standards; it’s been several years since there was even a hard frost.

If you’re going to buy a house, make sure you have an exterminator in regularly. Termites.

Florida is culturally diverse – you’ve got your pre-WWII cracker families, and all the Yankees that have come down here since electricity and air conditioning became widely available in the '60s, plus Cubans and other Latinos, plus all kinds of other immigrants nowadays.

5

Where in Orlando is your company located? The urban sprawl is ridiculous, and rents are ridiculous to match. A lot of apartment complexes have converted into condos in the last few years to cash in, so it’s harder to find decent-but-affordable apartments.

I’ve been living up here for two years, and I love it. Then again, I came from Miami, where I grew up, and I hated it down there. Always felt like a stranger at home. Now I rent a room in my best friend’s house, and I live with him and his girlfriend and I couldn’t find cheaper rent if I tried. My girlfriend is in the next neighborhood over, and I live close to supermarkets, restaurants, movie theaters, shopping, and more. My job takes me from our house in the south end of Seminole County (just north of Orange County, where Orlando is located) into downtown Orlando and the affluent smaller cities of Maitland and Winter Park. Winter Park is AWESOME, but very expensive. Downtown Orlando has some very cool neighborhoods too, but you’ll also pay through the nose for them.

My roommate knows a lot of people who live way out east in the Avalon Park area (past the University of Central Florida, a very congested, suburban area full of students), and as far out as Deland (you probably won’t want to live that far). Orlando has suffered from a recent upswing in violent crime, mostly centered around areas like Metro West, Parramore (bad!) and Pine Hills (aka “Crime Hills”). Avoid those. I hardly know anyone who lives in the southern part of Orlando, near the theme parks. I’m not a big fan of even venturing down to the touristy part of town, and I hate Kissimmee, the main city in Osceola County, just south of Disney World.

The main roads are I-4 (usually crowded, but truly not bad compared to the awful Miami expressways that become literal parking lots during rush hour), and the 408 and 417, which are both toll roads. If you don’t take I-4 or local streets, get used to paying tolls and buy an E-Pass so you don’t have to stop constantly to pay them.

As for living, we have several malls and movie theaters, most national chain restaurants (although very few truly unique mom-and-pop places or local institutions), and shopping ranging from high-end fancy to tourist-trap outlet malls to the normal suburban destinations to giant flea markets (Flea World in mostly-rural Sanford, north of where I live in Seminole County).

6

Oh, there are also plenty of bars and clubs, if that’s your thing – mostly concentrated around downtown, but the cooler ones are spangled all around. You can go see live bands at the Social (downtown), House of Blues (Disney) or Hard Rock Live (Universal), and occasionally even catch some live theater or improv comedy at SAK (one of Orlando’s best-kept secrets; I’m a big fan). As for semi-local food, we have some of the best Vietnamese food in the U.S., due to a large Vietnamese neighborhood near downtown Orlando, full of restaurants and exotic Asian markets and shops.

I’m always happy to make more recommendations and suggestions!

7

You do know I’m the House Manager for them right? If any Doper comes in and introduces themselves to me, I’ll get you some free concessions or something. I’m the tall HM wearing a hotrod cowboy hat :wink:

– IG

8

And eyeliner?

9

Some nights, I’ve toned back on the eye liner some.

– IG

10

Congratulations. Wishing you luck in your new career! :slight_smile:

11

Orlando, uh?

Well, the oldsters have already been mentioned, but there’s two other groups of drivers that seem to be more common in Florida than in the rest of the planet: college students and tourists.

So I do hope you’re a good driver, 'cos that place doesn’t have many around.

Orlando isn’t as bad for the rain as Miami, from what I hear; it’s “semi tropical” weather. A friend who visited me in Miami mentioned that when he was living in Orlando he and his mates would sometimes agree to meet “after the afternoon rain”, it’s that regular. OTOH in Miami, you’d get either a dry summer (no rain at all, many days over 100F) or a wet summer (heavenly dams open at 7:15, stops pouring at 21:15).

Get used to having a change of clothes handy. Florida weather has three basic choices: hot and muggy, hot and wet, cold and indoors. There’s other variations but those three seemed to come up most.

And no, I don’t hate the place… those four years I lived there were quite nice.

12

Yeah, I’ve lived in Florida my entire life, and I still sweat like mad almost every time I walk outdoors. The humidity can really be oppressive, so get used to stepping out of a nice refreshing shower in an air-conditioned house wearing fresh, clean clothes, and immediately feeling like you’ve soaked through your drawers in a matter of minutes.

Today we’re actually having COLD weather (although the OP would probably scoff, being from Ohio), and I for one am loving it! Unlike South Florida (Miami-Dade up north to about West Palm Beach), we do actually get a bit of wintery weather up here.

13

When I worked in the theme parks we could predict within 20 minutes of when the rain would arrive during the day, it is fairly constant and short lived. As it is said, it can be quite the short lived downpour. However we do also have the slow moving tiny droplet rain, and that rain is interesting because Orlando-ians, tend to not go out in it. I don’t quite understand it, but it’s the truth - the soggy day shuts down the night life.

I grew up on the South side of Orlando and while we have our seedier areas, overall it’s quite nice and quite suburban. I live within 20 minutes to any of the three major theme parks (maybe 30 to Disney.) Metrowest isn’t run down or anything, it’s fairly affluent, but it has had a bit of crime in the past year.

One other thing that has cramped Orlando is that when it really hit its growth spurt, downtown was commercial only, so for most of my life we’ve only had businesses and government downtown, it is only recently that residential has begun to move in there.

You’ll learn that roads are always under construction down here, and lots of them are. The city planners seemed to think that the easiest solution was to expand every road at the same time, then they realized they didn’t have the manpower to do it so they’re churning through as much as they can as quickly as they can.

The truth behind this is that Orlando has experienced rocket ship growth and the roads weren’t built predicting it, so there are a lot of choke points and especially on the south side up to a few years ago there were lots of two lane roads that are now frantically being scaled up to 4 or even 6 lanes.

I tend to think of Orlando as Las Vegas - Sin. We’ve got our strip (International Drive) with all sorts of lights, stores, and family entertainment. And then off the strip we’re just a normal town/city. However I should note we are home to the world’s largest Checkers (it actually has two stories of seating space.)

Coming from Atlanta I was quick to notice that Orlando is not owned by any of the beverage companies. In Atlanta it was hard to find Dr. Pepper anywhere, but in Orlando you’ll find Coke and Pepsi all over the place.

If you’re a sports fan, the only professional sports team we have are the Orlando Magic who are currently second in the East. We have an Arena Football team named the Predators who do pretty well as I recall. We used to have a minor league baseball team but I haven’t heard anything about them for a while so I assume they’re gone. Our IHL team is gone.

Umm… the only main colleges in town are UCF (Univ. Central Florida) and Rollins. Not much sports there though UCF does alright.

We’re an hour (maybe longer depending on how slow you drive) from beaches east or west.

Oh, I know something random to throw in here. A lot of people are surprised by how tall of a state Florida is. They don’t realize that Miami is way f*cking south. I mean, Atlanta to Orlando is ~7 hours. Orlando to Miami is ~4 hours as I recall. The Keys? Forget about it :wink:

Oh yes, and we’re flat. We’re the flattest state in the union. The Mormons built a temple not too far from my house because it is one of the highest points in Florida. The highest point in Florida is 345ft above sea level. That’s shorter than many skyscrapers… But you can drive a Stick shift real easy :slight_smile:

That’s enough for now!

– IG

PS - Today’s weather forecast: high of 62, current temp is 49. Yeah, we’re freezing…

14

Orlando to Miami 4h if you drive like crazy, there have been no accidents and you’re counting “…to the northern edge of Miami”. Crossing that monstrous piece of suburbia itself can take four hours with no accidents.

15

It took me eight hours to drive from here to Atlanta when I went to the Tom Waits concert in August, and I actually live north of Orlando proper! But yeah, Florida is definitely spread-out.

Improv Geek, I’ll look for you next time I go to SAK. I was there last for the final night of Fourplay (it’s an improv musical, people!), but I used to go a lot more often when I hung out with Matt Cross’ old roommate, who since moved to L.A… I also know Chrissy, and I’ve met Gina several times but doubt she’d remember me. Thus concludes the name-dropping portion of this post.

16

I made it from just north of Miami to Orlando in 3 hours. My car nearly overheated doing so, but we made good time…

Lou, definitely look me up. FourPlay was great. And I know Chrissy very well (she used to be my youth pastor at church) :slight_smile:

– IG

17

Thanks Rysdad!

Much thanks Improvgeek! I definately will as soon as I get a bit closer.

Also, thanks to BrianGlutton for the input on the local scene. That is one thing we are really looking forward to. It seems like in North East Ohio, it’s bowling, shopping or watching the Sports Team D’Jour loose. :eek:

BigBadVoodooLou, I have only been there once, so I apologize for the poor directions, but my company is in a industrial park east of international drive near the intersection of Jowh Young and West Sand Lake (423 and 482 I think?). I’d like to be close to work, the wife is plannign on applying at Disney (she has a background in hospitaility/ restaurant management) so woudl like ot be close to there. I’d VERY MUCH appreciate any ideas on places to look. Especially given the traffic situation, I’m hoping to avoid long commutes at first.

18

clnilson, congrats on the job, and the move to Florida. I live about an hour away from Orlando, myself.

19

You shouldn’t have any trouble finding housing near enough to work. John Young and Sand Lake is a quickly growing part of town and if you go further east there is a housing boom so I’m sure you can find something. Definitely drop me a line off board and we can talk specifics and I can help you guys out :slight_smile:

Welcome to Orlando!

– IG

20

Sadly, that’s not the part of town I’m familiar with. I know there are a lot of apartments and condos along John Young Parkway between I-4 and Sand Lake, but be careful you don’t end up in scuzzy areas – you’re not too far from Orange Blossom Trail over there, and that’s another place you don’t want to live.