3 Amazing Parks in the Orlando, FL Area

The Orlando area has a number of excellent parks that offer a range of activities for the whole family.  Parks are an important part of any community since they provide recreational opportunities for residents, act as a gathering place forbest parks in orlando fl events and preserve valuable open space.  In fact, homes located near well maintained parks typically enjoy higher property values for all of these reasons.  In this blog post, we’ll discuss some of the best parks in Orlando, FL and what you can do in them.

1. Lake Eola Park

Perhaps the best known park in central Florida is Lake Eola Park, located right in downtown Orlando.  The park is centered on Lake Eola and boasts a paved 0.87 mile walking/jogging trail circumscribing the lake; it also has a playground and some open fields on its eastern end.  The lake itself is spring fed and famous for its swans, which are quite numerous and tame; park visitors often have to walk or jog around the swans, which refuse to give up their spot in the middle of the sidewalk.  The walking trail is popular with both residents and tourists since it provides beautiful views of downtown Orlando.  In addition to walking and jogging, park visitors can rent a swan-boat for 30 minutes ($15) and paddle around the lake.  Lake Eola Park’s central location means it also serves as a venue for many activities.  At a bare minimum, the park hosts a farmers’ market each Sunday morning.  Many miscellaneous events such as food and wine fests, movie nights and food truck meet-ups also take place in the open space area to the east.  In short, Lake Eola offers beautiful views of downtown Orlando, opportunities to exercise and plenty of events at which to eat and shop.  If you’ve never been, we recommend you check it out!

2. Wekiva Springs Park

If you’re looking for a park that’s a little more ‘natural’ but still offers a range of civilized amenities, try visiting Wekiva Springs.  Wekiva Springs Park is actually located around 10 miles north of downtown Orlando at 1800 Wekiva Cir. Apopka FL 32712.  It is expansive – encompassing around 7000 acres of wilderness, but the section that most people visit is centered on Wekiva Springs, which pumps out 42 million gallons of cool, exceptionally clear water each day!  The major activities taking place at the park include swimming, canoeing/kayaking, hiking and camping.  Wekiva Springs contains an excellent swimming area where fresh spring water ‘boils’ up from a fissure in the limestone bedrock underneath the ground.  The depth varies from just a few feet to nearly 6 and the swimming area is separated from the rest of the river, making it a popular spot for parents with young children.  Canoeing is probably the most popular activity since canoes and kayaks can be rented cheaply from within the park grounds.  The river current is mild (around 2 mph) and a variety of wildlife such as alligators, great blue herons, egrets, foxes, river otters and turtles can be seen.  Large cypress trees and other dense plant life make the river quite picturesque.  We believe another (very) important point to note is that there is a bar/restaurant named Wekiva Island around a mile downriver of the canoe launch site.  It’s an extremely popular spot with locals and offers a variety of food and drink options.  It’s family friendly, but does tend to get a bit rowdy as the day goes on (especially on holiday weekends). After you get out of the water to warm up, Wekiva Springs has plenty of spots to grill out, play volleyball and hike.

3. Econlockhatchee Wilderness Area

If nature and solitude are what you want, try visiting the Econ River Wilderness Area in Seminole County.  It’s farther out than Wekiva Springs at about 18 miles from downtown Orlando, but it’s worth the trip.  The park is really more a nature preserve (it is a state forest) and as such it is absolutely huge at around 9000 acres.  Due to its size, it has multiple access points, but one of the more popular is at 1350 Snow Hill Road Geneva, Florida 32732.  The park consists of a large forest which contains a navigable river named the Econlockhatchee (usually just abbreviated as the Econ).  The area boasts miles of hiking and mountain biking trails.  A few of these trails run along the river, creating numerous viewing opportunities.  Since there can be fairly dramatic changes in relief along the river bank (by Florida standards) the view is quite scenic in many spots.  Assuming the water level is high enough, canoeing along the Econ is also a possibility.  The big draw of this park is its size, pristine nature and low usage.  It’s possible to hike for many hours without seeing another person.  If you’re lucky, you can also catch a glimpse of a gray fox, river otter, deer, wild turkey or bobcat.  Birds such as sandhill cranes and bald eagles can also be seen, as can alligators and turtles.  If you’re looking for some peace and quiet along with unspoiled scenic beauty, take a trip over to the Econ River Wilderness Area.

There are many other fantastic parks located throughout the Orlando area. You can find the locations of all of the parks and a lot of other information by exploring the MoveMap on MoversAtlas.com!

What is the Median Household Income in Orlando, FL

Median household income is an indicator of the economic health of a community.  Unsurprisingly, regions with a higher median household income tend to have better educated residents and more job opportunities.  If you take a look at our what was the median household income of orlando in 2010MoveMap, you can see that income figures vary significantly for the Orlando metropolitan area, partly as a function of economics and partly due to simple geographic factors.  The Orlando area actually consists of the City of Orlando itself and series of satellite suburban municipalities.  These small cities are often called bedroom communities since many of their residents live in them, but work elsewhere; Orlando in this case.  This skews the earnings map a bit since people whose incomes are generated by working within the City of Orlando actually live elsewhere.  Because median household income is tallied based on where someone lives, many suburban communities have higher median incomes than Orlando itself, where the wages are actually earned.

The City of Orlando actually has a highly variable median income with some neighborhoods (particularly in North Orlando) being significantly more affluent than others within the city.  The MoveMap also shows that suburban municipalities to the north of Orlando such as Winter Springs, Longwood and Maitland all have fairly high median incomes across their entire municipal extent.  Likewise, municipalities south of Orlando with high, uniform yearly earnings include Windermere and Bell Isle.  Each city in central Florida is ranked below in terms of its average household income:

City Median Household Income
Windermere

$88,809
Oviedo

$82,168
Lake Mary

$76,037
Belle Isle

$71,270
Maitland

$70,988
Winter Springs

$68,239
Ocoee

$64,017
Longwood

$59,811
Winter Garden

$59,175
Apopka

$58,985
Winter Park

$58,094
Edgewood

$56,528
Altamonte

$48,763
Casselberry

$42,687
Orlando

$42,418
Lake Buena Vista

$39,375
Kissimmee

$35,764
Eatonville

$29,457

Take a look at our MoveMap to see what the earnings levels are for your area.  Even within a small city, the median income can often vary significantly from place to place.

Should I Be Worried About The Toxic Waste Sites in Orlando, Florida

Unfortunately, there are six known toxic waste sites in the Orlando metropolitan area.  The good news is that most have been cleaned up to meet the remediation standards of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  You can see the superfund sites in orlando fllocations of the toxic waste sites for yourself using our MoveMap.  In this blog post we’ll discuss three of these, telling you why it’s a designated Superfund site and what its cleanup status is.

According to the EPA, the City Industries site is a one acre former hazardous waste recycling compound located at 3920 Forsyth Rd Orlando, FL 32792.  The site was abandoned years ago, but when operational, City Industries Inc. handled and disposed of a variety of waste chemicals some of the chemicals were disposed of improperly, leading to on-site soil and groundwater contamination with volatile organic compounds.  In 1983, the state of Florida actually ordered City Industries to cease operation, at which point the compound was abandoned.  Around 1,200 barrels of hazardous waste and thousands of gallons of sludge (in holding tanks) were simply left on the site.  The property was added to the National Priority List (NPL) in 1989, making it eligible for cleanup.  After being added to the list, the EPA treated over 1,600 tons of contaminated soil and built a ground water pump and treatment system.  The site has been reclaimed and the area is now used for commercial and retail space.

The Chevron Chemical Co site located at 3100 Orange Blossom Tr. Orlando, FL 32804 consists of around 4 acres of industrial property where groundwater and soil contamination has occurred.  A variety of activities took place at the Chevron center and the EPA identified several contaminants of concern which include pesticides, volatile organic compounds (such as xylene) and metals. Fortunately, the EPA took action to clean up the site they state that the level of contamination at the property does not pose a threat to people living nearby.  In 1991 & 1992 the Chevron demolished all buildings on the property.  They also removed around 18,000 tons of soil which was contaminated with pesticides and treated ground water during the excavation.  Ground water monitoring wells were also installed to keep tabs on the contamination. Monitoring and cleanup operations are ongoing.

General Dynamics is situated in Longwood at 1333 North US Highway 17/92 Longwood, FL 32750.  Circuit boards and other electronics were manufactured on the property from the mid ‘60s to the early ‘80s.  Currently, the site is unoccupied and has been placed on the National Priority List due to soil and groundwater contamination.  From an environmental perspective, the area is fairly complicated since another manufacturing facility called Sprague Electric Company has also contributed to groundwater and soil contamination in the region.  The EPA believes the groundwater plumes from the two sites may have merged.  Fortunately, they do not believe the site currently represents a threat to people living and working nearby. However, the activities performed on the property have damaged the environment.  The surficial and part of the Floridan (deeper) aquifers have been contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and this groundwater contamination could threaten the City of Winter Spring’s public water supply if not dealt with.  The plume has not become an issue yet and Winter Springs routinely checks its water supply for contamination. In terms of cleanup progress, the Sprague Site has been worked on and monitored for years, but the site investigation and cleanup efforts for General Dynamics are just getting underway.

While sites containing hazardous chemicals are scary and undesirable to live near they are also a part of our modern society, whether we like it or not.  The best thing we can do to protect our families and allay our fears is simply to educate ourselves.  If you’re concerned about Superfund, AKA toxic waste, sites in your area, we encourage you to take a look at our MoveMap and see if there are any sites located near your home.   After that, you can check out the EPA’s website which contains detailed information on all Superfund sites and contaminants present at each of them.