The Love/Hate Issue: What we all love (and hate) about the City Beautiful

Credit: illustration by Pedro Macias

What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to explore the central relationship in everyone’s life: the one they have with home? Whether you’re single or paired off, everyone lives somewhere, and everyone feels some kind of way about it. In our Love/Hate Issue, we’re sharing a handful of Valentines (and anti-Valentines) — Cupid’s darts aimed at Orlando by Orlando Weekly‘s editors, writers and readers.

They don’t love you like I love you 

Hometown girl 
Travels the world
Missing that MCO rug
The sick swans 
And her chosen family
Making the city beautiful 
With its old haunts 
And new restaurants
I can’t keep up 
With the vacant buildings 
And the cost of living 
Developers, investors, CEOs, 
And the corporate bros. My God, the bros 
Think they own our sweet scrappy city 
We know better 
There’s no possession in love
And Orlando is not for sale 

— Ida V. Eskamani

A music lover’s Valentine to Orlando

Since moving to Orlando, I’ve been in a tumultuous love-hate relationship with the music scene. From the thrill of an artist announcing a show in the area to seething in anger when faced with parking downtown. The Beacham, the Social, the Plaza and the Abbey have drained my bank account and stood as pillars of my Orlando immersion. While I would be several hundred dollars richer, I would also miss out on the experiences that made Orlando feel like home. 

— Mia Schaeperkoetter

Love/Hate bullet points No. 1 

Love: 

• The queer community (shout-out to Volume!)
• The diverse indie music scene
• Nice running routes 
• The Falcon
• Will’s Pub 

Hate:

• I-4
• The Mouse 
• TMG
• Downtown on the weekends after 9 p.m.
• Lack of public transportation

— Eva Strangelace

Love/hate/heat/weird music

I love being able to play weird music at Lou’s or Stardust or the Falcon for the same three people every time, but I also hate only being able to play weird music at said places for the same three people. I wish there was a way to reach a bigger audience.

I love being able to wear a jacket on five or six colder evenings in January, but also love being able to wear just a T-shirt on other evenings during the year and not being cold.

I love being outside in the morning before the sun is actually trying to kill you, and the sunsets in Florida are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.

Some businesses that keep life worth living: The Nook, discount bins at Park Ave CDs, Francisco’s Taco Madness, calzones from Fratello’s, Beefy King, iFresh and Lotte Market, Clemons, OMG and Boys and Girls Club thrift stores.

I hate that shows in Orlando NEVER seem to start on time. The flyer says 7, the venue says 8, half of the opening band shows up at 9. Come to think of it, nobody shows up on time for appointments here. What’s that about?

I hate having to drive everywhere. It’s usually too hot to ride a bicycle, and there’s no reliable public transportation to speak of. 

— Jonas Van den Bossche

Four haikus to Orlando

A deconstructed underground scene
Mirrors the chaos — 
Veganizing Tako Cheena  

When I tell my children
Spatz used to let me smoke inside
The revolution will be televised 

A taste of Mills
Drunken noodles 
And a drunk cigarette  

Freakishly sexy drag and animated androgyny 
They say Orlando
Keeps you queerious 

— Houda Eletr

Love/Hate bullet points No. 2 

Love:

• A very healthy music scene
• Ever-increasing food options throughout the city
• A diverse and fascinating cultural landscape (Fringe, Enzian and everything in between)

Hate:

• Traffic and forever I-4 construction
• That we still don’t have a baseball team in 2026
• That we have so few bookstores

— Pete Olen

Love/Hate bullet points No. 3 

Love:

• Venues that let creatives do their thing: Will’s Pub, Lil Indie’s, Forward /, Conduit, Judson’s Live, Courtesy, Stardust Video and Coffee. 

• Vinyl Record shops that make me spend money even though I don’t want to: Donut Shoppe, Park Ave CDs, Bossa N Roll Records

Hate: 

• So-called “vinyl bars” where the owner complains when you play jazz and then requests EDM mashups. Wtf is that?!

• So-called vinyl bars that are really just smaller EDM clubs with CDJs and laptops. Again, Wtf is that?!! 

— Nigel John

Dear Orlando …

Showed up to couples therapy “alone” back in the day, leading to two separations throughout the last 25 years, but I’m optimistic in our future together since we got back together. Celebrating nine years. In the words of Ralph Wiggum:  “I Choo-Choo-Choose You.” (Unless Iceland gets more sun and becomes less touristy and expensive). 

— Matt Keller Lehman

Love love love, hate hate hate 

Love: Acme Superstore, alt-drag keeping the city for-real beautiful (Hellhound, Kandi Krave, Goblin Market, Gala of Ghouls, Dragged From the Grave, Creature Feature, Volume), Greenwood Cemetery, shows at the Dining Room, Drunken Monkey, Anh Hong, local indie wrestling, Chuck Schuldiner is from here, Lydia Lunch’s yearly visits, our twee-pop renaissance, underground electronic practitioners, noise

Hate: Developers swooping in to snap up any available property only to launch some of the goofiest and lamest concepts known to man or beast, cost of living now being on par with actual big-city, moneyed interests having a stranglehold on wages, public schools left twisting in the wind

— Matthew Moyer

Bones and signals

I love the homeowner on Livingston Street who keeps a giant Home Depot skeleton in their yard year-round. I’m too poor to buy a home or a massive skeleton of my own, but as a goth girlie at heart, it brings me immense joy to see it every time I drive past. I hate the traffic signals in my quiet, residential neighborhood that take five minutes to turn green, even when the street in the other direction is as empty as Stephen Miller’s heart.

— McKenna S.

Love/Hate bullet points No. 4 

Love:

• Mills Market
• So many coffee shops! Especially Aguila Coffee, Framework, Black Phin
• Daytime vendor markets: Faire of the Dog, Goblin Market, Monster Mart
• Tori Tori
• Local drag: Hellhound, Volume, Gala, Creature Feature
• Austin’s Coffee

Hate:

• TMG owning a business on every block 
• No lesbian bars!
• Parking on Mills/Downtown
• Lack of third spaces
• Not an easily walkable city
• Horrible drivers

— Kissa Death

Orlando: The heart of Florida

Surrounded by red, “American” intolerance and hate coursing through the state like tainted blood. But the heart continues to beat, the heart continues to house compassion and acceptance. A safe place, a light in the darkness, for the marginalized to lay their heads with the peace of mind that their neighbors will show up for them. Orlando does not let the pressures of the state take their humanity. And that’s what makes a city beautiful.

— Maria Butcher 

Dear Orlando,

Orlando Weekly is looking for love and hate letters to you for Valentine’s Day. Despite moving away many years ago, I feel like I have something important to say.

You were my first safe space. You were the first place I could call home and truly feel it. Honestly, I haven’t felt at home since I left and you changed with the times.

I was a college kid ready to take on my life. You introduced me to new friends, helped me fall deeper in love, helped me laugh and have the time of my life.

You continued to be my home as time went on. I found my passion for fundraising through my internship at the SPCA of Central Florida, now named the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando. I found community and my talent for event planning in my job at Homegrown Local Food Cooperative (closed). I found my love for bunnies and rabbit rescue through the Orlando Chapter of Gainesville Rabbit Rescue. I found my voice with Animal Rights Florida.

On Feb. 14, 2013, my boyfriend (now husband) proposed to me on the walk back to the car from dinner at Cafe 118 (closed). We got married a year and a day later at Guang Ming Buddhist Temple. We promised each other we would have a vow renewal every five years. Our first one was at Lake Eola among the swans, ducks and geese on a beautiful Valentine’s Day under a Spanish moss-draped tree.

We moved back to Melbourne shortly after getting married. Still close enough to visit — to regularly meet our college roommate and his wife halfway between Dunedin and Melbourne at Downtown Disney, now Disney Springs. We would take pictures in front of the LEGO dragon each time we visited. Once we got “First Visit” buttons and pretended to be tourists from Oklahoma.  We almost got caught by a cast member who just so happened to have gone to college in Oklahoma but we made it out alive. 

We tried to move back again in 2018 but nothing was the same. So many places we loved were gone or changed drastically. I remember you being a place of community and camaraderie but gone were all of the small businesses that created this space. Along with the businesses being gone, the inflation was horrific and everyone was bitter. It didn’t seem like the same amount of people had that spark to help each other anymore.

We had to leave because we couldn’t afford our apartment when my husband wrongly lost his job. It felt like I was being pushed out of the place that always felt safe to me but looking back, you no longer felt like home. You had become a totally different town that I just did not belong to anymore.

You changed but maybe I changed a lot too. Maybe this isn’t all on you. People (and cities) grow apart. They change. Nothing stays the same. There is no constant.

I love you for who you made me, for the opportunities you gave me, and for the people you put into my life. I will always love you and hold the memories of that time when we were younger and together.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Orlando. I hope you are happy.

— Alycia Corpiel

Dear Orlando, I hate you. 

I hate your poorly timed traffic lights downtown to your miserably packed theme parks. I hate your traffic and sh*tty parking options. I also hate that people think you are amazing when, in fact, you are overpriced and behind on everything. I cannot wait to get out of you and the entire state that surrounds you. Sincerely Never Yours, Me.

— Alita Fallon Gomez

Two Valentines: Anger is an energy

Dear Orlando,

You’ve become the angriest, most stubborn and unapologetic city I’ve ever met — for good reason. From memorial crosswalks to City Hall to Tesla dealerships to ICE offices to every single street in downtown, you’re always pissed. And I wouldn’t change a thing. Keep standing up and making your community proud, and stay mad.

To our city’s most money-hungry:

Too many new chain restaurants, bars, places to bowl
Making prices go up and leaving everywhere a small-business-sized hole
Girl, you are sucking the city’s soul.

— Chloe Greenberg

Hope springs eternal

Orlando, you’re like that old friend with THE WORST TASTE in men. I hate how many times you’ve been gaslit and ghosted, from the Pritzkers’ Baldwin Park land grab to Glenda Hood’s infanticide of the Orlando Breaks scene to Cameron Kuhn’s many downtown “revitalizations” to Norman Pellegrini and the corrupt Central Florida Expressway Authority to Barbara Poma’s OnePulse … and let’s not even talk about Lou Pearlman.

O, you have got to take off those mimosa goggles. 

But I love that it looks like you’re about to lay off (or at least cut down on) the stale pale males. Your mayor’s tenure is old enough to drink and he’s bowing out; there are some exciting candidates running for 2027 (cough Eskamani). As for City Council, you’ve got three more chances to get youth and progressivism at the wheel in 2027.

Leap out of the business-centric, business-as-usual rut you’ve fallen into, O, and try to be a city for all of us, not just the same old lucky few.

— Jessica Bryce Young

Orlando’s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.

Related Stories

Everything you’ll want to binge this week

This article appears in Feb. 11-17, 2026.

Related