And People Wonder Why There Is No History In Orlando

Orlando's City Council laid a giant egg last night, voting to allow the complete demolition of the historic Jaymont Block in downtown with a mere "promise" to try to preserve the terra cotta of the old Woolworth's facade and with no attempt to save the 1942 facade of the old McCrory's building - one of the more familiar and unique storefronts in the downtown area.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to progress or even to redevelopment of the Jaymont Block - one of the prime downtown real estate parcels. I just think that there should be more of an effort made to preserve the history of Orlando as much as possible. Sometimes that might require making compromises. In this case, I think a fair compromise would have been for the developer to incorporate the historic facades into the new complex.

But instead, we have the midnight demolition. Mayor Buddy Dyer says the public had ample time to make their point of view heard - 4 hours during a City Council meeting. I think that he's wrong. He claims that the whole process was conducted openly - yet he allowed the City Preservation Board to be bypassed and asked Council members to sign confidentiality agreements before seeing the details of the plan a few weeks ago. Is that open? Or does it fail the smell test? Personally, I give it a big, fat F.

So now the Jaymont block facades go the way of the San Juan Hotel, the Beecham Theater, and numerous other historic structures in the city. Orlando has little history outside of Church Street because our city leaders are too weak to try to keep something of our past around. Progress is important and should be given priority, but not at the complete expense of heritage and history. Orlando deserves better.