I've been going to Lake Eola on and off for about 30 years, and every time I come back I have such…read moremixed feelings about this place. I have beautiful memories here with my mother, my father, who has been gone for many years now, and my cousin, so I think that's part of why seeing this park now affects me as much as it does. I can still remember those different periods of my life here, but then I look at the lake and the wildlife and I keep thinking about how much better this place could be.
I actually had to go look up the facts about Lake Eola because I started wondering if I was being unfair or if I was simply seeing it differently because I've known this place for so long. What I found was pretty surprising. Lake Eola has had serious water-quality problems going back decades. By the 1980s, pollution and debris were entering the lake with rainfall, and the lake eventually had to be de-mucked and cleaned in 1992. Today, it's an urban lake that receives stormwater from a large portion of downtown Orlando, which means everything washing off those streets and surrounding areas can ultimately make its way into the lake.
What bothers me most isn't even the people walking around the park. It's the wildlife. There are swans, ducks, egrets, herons, fish, turtles and other animals living in and around this lake, and once you start paying attention to them, it's hard not to wonder what their environment is actually like. I see these beautiful animals swimming around, and then I look at the water they're swimming in and see the debris and the muck, and it really gets to me. Maybe I'm more sensitive to it because I've known this place for so long, but I can't just look at the swans anymore without looking at what's underneath them.
Then all those memories come rushing back. All these different versions of my life that somehow happened around this same lake, and now I'm standing here decades later looking at that water, watching the wildlife swimming through it, and thinking about how much has changed and how much of this lake is still dealing with the same problems.
And honestly, after all this time..... the City of Orlando needs to simply "DO BETTER"