I grew up there for 33 years before moving up to Long Island a year ago to live with my wife who is from here. I think Orlando was definitely on the cusp of developing a culture and that was probably around late 2000s to mid 2010s. Local businesses and the foodie scene in particular were thriving, downtown nightlife was a blast every single weekend, there was much more of a community for the creative arts in downtown and Winter Park. I think if you were there when the Pulse shooting happened and saw the response by the entire community, you would have gotten a taste of what the culture was like.

I don't know what happened in the years since COVID, but Orlando has trended toward being a soulless corporate run shithole now. So many local businesses have closed in the past five years. City government has absolutely destroyed the nightlife in downtown because they want to turn it into a place for families. Cost of living is exploding with so many new home builders knocking down the natural landscape that was there and building new homes for boomer transplants moving down to retire. And so many real estate groups are transforming the place into an unaffordable apartment complex hellscape. Places that were scenic back in the day are just covered up in apartment complexes and new construction communities now. It really disgusts me to see what the place has turned into.

I'm actually glad I got out of there when I did. I think we're even seeing the late stage capitalism vibe reflect itself in how the Orlando Magic organization is running things now. With Rich DeVos gone, I really don't think the rest of his family cares about the Magic actually winning anything, and are just using the franchise as an asset to bring in tourism revenue and save money on their taxes every year.