Need advice! Move to Orlando, Florida? (condo, crime, employment)

[DaBukaba]

Ok, so I'm a 22-year-old male and have lived in the Los Angeles area of California all my life. And now I'm faced with a decision -- move to Orlando, Florida (and continue my college studies there), or stay in L.A. I would really appreciate some insight from residents of Orlando, please (and not necessarily only those who have been to L.A.) The thing is -- I hate it here in L.A. I'm completely tired of it, because the pace of life (in every single way possible) has simply become WAY too fast-paced for me (I'm not a really slow person or anything but I even feel out-of-place). (Honestly, the only part I like is Malibu, and that's entirely different from the rest of it.) Now I've briefly visited Orlando twice, and I understand that Orlando IS a big city, too, but from what I gather it has a good mix of the slow pace and the fast pace, i.e. countryside, greenery, lakes, but also skyscrapers, good city life, diversity, and I do not want to abandon the city life because at the same time I do not want to live in a place that's too slow-paced or with a lack of things to do, and I do appreciate a city life. In addition, I love the tropical, humid weather of Orlando, its relatively close proximity to the beach (I understand it's about 40 miles, and I don't need to be right by the beach, so I prefer not to move to the Florida coast), and I must mention that I am theme park (and Disney) FANATIC, and one of my favorite places in the world is Disney World (which I MUCH prefer over Disneyland). Upon reading some of these threads, I see so many negative comments about Orlando. So I'd really appreciate some insight from Orlando residents. Do you recommend I go for it? Or stay where I am, even if I hate it? Any advice, comments, insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot! (Oh, and are there lots of part-time job opportunities in Orlando?)

[Alphaman]

By reading your post sounds like you about made your decision. Personally I like Orlando it has it`s good and bad however it`s alot smaller then LA and the night life might seem slow compared to LA.

Downtown on Friday and Saturday nights are hopping but stop serving at 2am. Also alot of new buildings are going up so the downtown is improving and it might liven it up some. The jobs are plentiful but not many pay well.

Other florida cites to consider would be tampa/st pete and miami.

[knightgoose]

Downtown Orlando has a pretty good nightlife(30+ bar, clubs, lounges on Orange Avenue, Wall St., Church St.) and there are a lot of condo projects going up so residential life is getting better downtown.

If you continue your college studies here I assume you may be looking at UCF which is 11 miles from downtown and has an awesome campus w/ some good nightlife by campus( Medicis, Devaneys Too, Knightly Scoop, Jack and Mickeys, Knight Library, Liquid Cellar, Pounders). Good school that used to be commuter but now have most of their students from all over(mainly south florida) and has a pretty good party atmosphere so you won't be bored going there b/c there is a place to go every night. see DJ Jake's GREEZER.com website or KnightLyfe.com » Welcome to KnightLyfe.com

[Magnulus]

Orlando has all the same problems LA does, only it isn't as bad. Give it time, though. Realisticly it has less crime and traffic than LA, but that's not saying much. For a city/metro of its size (3 million people) it has alot of problems you will not see just visiting here.

I honestly don't know what you want. On the one hand you don't like a big city, on the other hand you do? What exactly don't you like about LA? Fast pace? Orlando is fairly fast paced, it isn't layed back anymore at all. It is also a very "mean" city, which means in many areas people are not friendly at all. The friendly, easy-going attitude is being killed, it used to be true that Orlando was a friendly area but I've noticed in the past 7-8 years or so the attitude has really gone down as the area has grown. People are very impatient here about everything, and road rage is a problem

I live out in the burbs, though, and it is pretty boring, filled with vapid dumb people (lots of fat middle aged women walking around with kids) but at least there isn't alot of crime. Traffic is "bad" all over Orlando, but it isn't quite to LA standards (yet). Jobs here pay very little relative to the cost of living, consider that too. And the local economy is in a recession by all accounts, the housing market is collapsing and employment is down. Granted I am a bit lazy and put off ("discouraged unemployed" would be the term) but I've been out of work for over a year. They aren't scrambling for workers like they were in the late 90's, when Orlando really was a decent place to live and didn't cost alot.

Orlando really has very little of a downtown despite the sky-scrapers. Even LA has a downtown of sorts. Very pedestrian unfriendly town, and very bicycle unfriendly as well (if you like actually commuting by bicycle, something that is easier to do in California I am told, particularly northern California).

It might be just the thing for you, who knows. Just take that as my 2 cents, other people have other opinions on the area.

[brinkofsunshine]

From what you wrote in your post, Orlando sounds like it would be a good fit for you. Orlando definitely has a slower pace than LA. Heck, even downtown has a slower pace. But it still has all the amenities of a big city- entertainment, shopping, dining, nightlife.. and of course, the theme parks! I think most people are nice out here, and someone mentioned road rage above- I've only seen one incident of road rage and that was about 8 years ago. Also, if you stay in good areas you'll avoid the crime (same as in any city). If you really like what you've seen so far, and hate where you are, I'd say go for it