> Beggar limits still likely as dreams crystallize
>
> By Gwyneth K. Shaw
> of The Sentinel Staff
> Published in The Orlando Sentinel on July 19, 2000
>
> Orlando officials turned down the heat on panhandlers this week, but they
> didn`t move the issue off the front burner.
>
> The end result -- strict new rules restricting downtown beggars to small,
> scattered zones -- is likely to be the same as if the City Council had
> voted Monday. That`s because in the minds of Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood and
> the businessmen who comprise her inner circle of downtown advisers, the
> stakes never have been higher.
>
> City incentives have drawn unprecedented residential growth downtown, with
> five new apartment buildings -- either finished, under construction or on
> the drawing board -- scheduled to deliver more than 1,000 units.
>
> Plus, two new hotels, including the high-end Westin Grand Bohemian, are
> rising, as are a number of new office towers.
>
> It`s hoped that the new downtown dwellers will foster a 24-hour downtown,
> with tony shops, coffee bars and restaurants complementing the daytime
> office traffic.
>
> In turn, Hood hopes, this new upscale population will demand more cultural
> offerings, a need that can be met by a $157 million performing-arts center
> near City Hall.
>
> In the past month, these indicators of downtown rebirth have strengthened
> considerably. Rumblings that financial giant CNL is considering
> consolidating Church Street Station, Church Street Market and a fallow
> block along Orange Avenue owned by Jaymont Realty into a mega-development
> have sent pulses racing all over town.
>
> An equally tantalizing piece of the puzzle is a potential new arena for the
> Orlando Magic basketball team, possibly located on West Church Street, and
> a new convention center inside the shell of the existing TD Waterhouse
> Centre.
>
> Factor in a planned new law school for Florida A&M University -- which
> Orlando hopes to place in the Parramore neighborhood, if it beats out three
> other cities -- and the dream of placing Orlando`s name among the nation`s
> top downtowns seems more attainable than it has in years, and maybe ever.
>
> If the "wish list" becomes reality, the arena, law school, performing-arts
> center and convention center could become the linchpins of a new downtown.
>
> But over and over again, downtown business owners, the people Hood calls
> "stockholders," make the same point. The city, they say, needs to push the
> marketplace to boot out image-killers such as beggars and tattoo parlors.
> Create a more upscale environment, the theory goes, and the amenities and
> dollars will follow.
>
> One of the first proposals has been severe restrictions on where and how
> anyone can ask for money or hand out fliers downtown, a move aimed solely
> at placating business owners who have griped about vagrants downtown.
>
> The month-long delay granted by the City Council on Monday was designed
> mainly to fix a few details of the plan, namely where the borders of the
> downtown "no-solicitation" area will be and where to put the small zones in
> which beggars will be allowed to work.
>
> But those at City Hall are adamant that the issue will be dealt with, and
> quickly.
>
> "That`s what we`ve been hearing from the business community for the last
> year, andthey really want something done about it," said Tom Kohler,
> director of the Downtown Development Board. "We need to do something.
> Whether this is the right approach or whether there is another approach
> that will work, that`s what I guess we`re going to be working toward for
> the next month or so."
>
> Hotel developer Skip Dalton, who is building an Embassy Suites on Pine
> Street, said perception is half the battle.
>
> "On the one hand, people know they`re living in a city, not in the suburbs.
> But they`ve got to feel secure that they`re not taking an unnecessary
> risk," he said. "You`re coming into contact with different folks, but
> there`s a difference between that sort of sense of there being action
> [downtown] and being afraid."
>
> Bob Snow, who helped raise downtown Orlando from the dead in the 1970s when
> he opened Rosie O`Grady`s in an old train station on Church Street, often
> makes the point that the nightlife offerings from local theme parks have a
> number of advantages over Orlando. Chief among them, he said, is the
> ability to keep a lid on vagrants and businesses that don`t fit a tight
> mold.
>
> Others, however, say catering to tourists may not be the best solution.
>
> "I`ve grown very, very weary of the competing-with-Disney-and-Universal
> argument," said Craig Ustler, head of the Downtown Orlando Foundation.
> "Winter Park Village is what downtown Orlando is competing with."
>
> The recent developments, however, are seen as a way to nudge Orlando`s
> downtown out of its dependence on tourism and accelerate a transformation
> that`s already moving quickly.
>
> That`s assuming, of course, that Orlando beats out Tampa, Lakeland and
> Daytona Beach for the law school; that Hood can marshal tens of millions in
> private donations for the performing-arts center; and that CNL closes its
> deals and assembles the kind of money needed to reshape Church Street and
> the Jaymont property.
>
> And, finally, that RDV Sports -- which owns the Orlando Magic -- can find a
> deep-pocketed corporate partner to bankroll an arena. If that happens, Hood
> likely would ask Orange County commissioners to allot part of the annual
> revenue from tourist taxes to help retrofit the TD Waterhouse Centre.
>
> The FAMU law school could complement the Florida Center for the Arts and
> Education, which will be overseen by the University of Central Florida, and
> the CNL negotiations could lead to the type of private-sector investment
> that Hood has long claimed is the magic bullet for Orange Avenue`s revival.
>
> Action is crucial, Kohler said, as is speed.
>
> "In the next six months to 10 months, there will be people moving into
> these apartments, being in these hotel rooms, and then there will be this
> next wave, if you will," he said. "You`ll see that [develop] in the next 18
> months to two years."
>
> That`s why it`s likely that the council will sign off on the panhandling
> law when it takes up the issue again on Aug. 21, despite a barrage of
> criticism.
>
> Hood is holding firm to the idea that her downtown vision is worthless
> without her cleanup plan.
>
> "I do believe we have an obligation to do something," she said. "Our job is
> not to sit back and let the situation worsen."