Celebration, FL & Ybor City, Tampa: contrasting new & old

[Prahaboheme]

Originally Posted by spyguy

Truman Show-esque. So perfect it's creepy.

The Truman Show was filmed on location at Seaside, FL -- considered the first new urbanism community and is credited with spawning the entire movement. You can say that Celebration is Seaside's younger cousin. Much of the inspiration for the layout of Celebration is from Seaside.

Seaside, FL:


Celebration:

Notice the similarity in layout?

It should be no surprise that Seaside still remains the crowning glory of the new urbanism movement.

[brickell]

I like Celebration. It's does feel sterile and "too clean" and like a caricature of a real city, but it's pretty, calm and feels miles away from the tacky hustle of the tshirt shops and steak houses of 192. I think any urban enthusiast should add it to their list of central Florida attractions, even if it's just to stop in and have an ice cream or walk around the lake. It's a little unfortunate the it has to wear the Disney stigma along with the new urbanism tag. It is a real place with real people living in it. It's still sprawl, yet another subdivision in a sea of them, but a step in the right direction.

To have the caricature makes it easy to see what they were going for, what they missed, what other places could do better, what is useful and what isn't. Downtown Kissimmee is just 15 minutes down the road if you want to see what happened to the real urban character of Florida.

As for Ybor City, I haven't been there in a while, but the last time I went it still seemed like it was suffering from being a mainly nightlife entertainment center with little to no reason to venture there during the day. Have people actually moved there and made it more livable?