It’s been a long and winding year, and as we sit on the precipice of the holidays and any possible visits from Santa, we thought we’d wax poetic about this year’s stories and help the big guy out with a little list of our own.
Here is a roundup of people, places, and things that I’m deeming “Naughty or Nice” from 2021 as we stand poised on a fresh new year of hyper-local headlines.
Nice:
- All of our frontline workers holding the fort and working this marathon of a pandemic.
- Super cool dude, Patrick Dunleavy, saved a dog from drowning in Lake Highland.
- Betty the Australian White’s Treefrog for becoming the face of Cadbury for 2021.
- Guy Fieri for opening another fried chicken restaurant on 17-92 so we can call the corridor the “Cock Block” for the forseeable future.
- Hulu for airing this awesome animated short about the Winter Park Boat Tour.
- Kroger for launching a local delivery service that’s faster and more efficient than the others and with less text alerts.
- All the manatees.
- The Milk District for launching a retail incubator in an empty storefront to help launch new retail brands. Brilliant idea.
- Orlando Museum Art for announcing a new rooftop garden in their upcoming downtown venue.
- Parliament House reopening in downtown Orlando.
- Plans finally being submitted for the redevelopment of Orlando Fashion Square Mall.
- Preliminary plans were released for the redesign of Lake Eola Park.
- The Bach Festival Society Choir for popping-up in a Winter Park parking garage for a rehearsal and scaring this guy who just wanted to get his car.
- Orange County Library System for releasing a special beer with Ivanhoe Park Brewing Company in recognition of Captain Albertson who helped found the first library in the region.
- This local writer who was inspired by posts on the Nextdoor app and wrote a collection of stories about them.
- The suspiciously handsome officer who found a stolen dog and uncovered an entire puppy “chop shop” operation.
- The people who installed lights in the massive tree at Weltin and Hardy so Orlandoans could better see this year’s night-blooming cereus cactus blooms.
- Whiskey Lou’s for adding a fried chicken window and going smoke-free.
- White Castle for parking their food truck at our pop-up screening of “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” in the Mills 50 District.
- The City of Winter Park for having some progressive COVID-19 policies and programming that set the bar for local municpalities
- Whoever put out this free stick box at a Milk District public park.
Naughty:
- Moving scammers.
- Mad Cow Theatre … we’ll just leave that there.
- Creative City Project for considering a move out of downtown.
- Bucs wide receiver Antonio Brown, for “misrepresenting” his vaccination status.
- That guy who got banned from an airline for wearing a thong as a mask.
- The team behind the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit for hyping us up saying they’d be downtown in a historic building only to announce they were hosting the event at the Orange County Convention Center.
- Invasive lizards at Lake Eola Park.
- Fancy food halls opening up before they test their fancy chairs and charging too much for soup.
- The sale of Orlando Sentinel to Alden Global.
- The folks who defaced a new mural on Orlando Urban Trail.
- The Orlando Police Department for messing up their fancy new building with a gnarly fence to keep out protesters.
- Winter Park Fish Co. for building out their dining room without a permit.
- The owner of Grill’s Seafood saying God told him not to get a vaccine.
- City of Winter Park for doing the Henderson Hotel dirty and not approving what would have been a gorgeous addition to Lake Killarney.
- City of Orlando randomly cracking down on the “street party atmosphere” in downtown Orlando and officials pointing the finger at street cafes for a rise in crime.
- Orange County Government for giving A La Cart a tough time opening their second location because they don’t know how to zone for food trucks.
- Richard Newell Harger, who not only stole swan cygnets from Lake Eola, but hit one of the parent swans with a cooler when it started to charge him.
- Whoever was operating this crane at Advent Health.
- Winter Park Commission for wanting to pave over Austin’s Coffee in order to add a travel lane to Fairbanks Avenue.
- The driver who crashed into a historic clock by the former Orlando Sentinel building.