Central Florida is for the Rich & Retired
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11/30/2021
I've grown up here in the 34786 zip code for the last 20 years. It was great when I was a kid, but in the last 5 years of my life I've realized the lack of forethought and preplanning for the infrastructure of Orange County as a whole really makes living here miserable. I live 12 miles from downtown Orlando. It takes me an hour+ during rush hour to get to downtown. 45min otherwise. There's little to no public transportation. The roads are absolute chaos. There's collectively about 5 main roads in west orange county and all the millions of residents have to use them on the daily to avoid paying $100/mo in tolls. I was one of the lucky kids. There used to be loads of green space and opportunity for kids to go out, ride their bikes, experience nature within safe walking distance of their homes. We even went camping in the woods near my house. Well since then it's become apparent no one in the area cares for that kind of experience for our children. The only things people care about in this area now is if they can walk to a McDonald's or a Starbucks and how many houses they can cram onto half an acre for ridiculous profit. Not to mention how horribly we are failing our children and their education. We have some of the best teachers here but they are so over worked and stressed by the overcrowded schools and lack of funding. I don't know how we keep our high ratings for our schools. Lastly the weather is awful? It confuses me so heavily when people say they move here for the weather. It's so hot outside you can't go outside for the majority of the year, and when it's not hot it rains. All day. Every day. The heat also makes people very angry and irritable.
So in summary if you are rich with no kids and have money to develop and own 2+ houses and rent them out, live inside air conditioning all day and don't have to drive anywhere, orange county is perfect for you! Otherwise if you want to be a able to have a reasonable commute, afford housing, go to a park, enjoy the outdoors, orange county probably isn't the best for you. Thank you for reaching the end of my rant.
Hannah | Lake Butler, FL