This weekend in downtown Orlando will be the first without a curfew since a mass shooting last week. It left two dead and multiple injured. The curfew was lifted a day early on Thursday night. It came ahead of a very busy Friday downtown: A Magic game, a soccer match, and Electric Daisy Carnival. “I was here last week when the curfew was in effect midnight last week,” said Jerome Tillman.But it’s a different story this weekend. The vice chair of the downtown development board, Kimberly Stewart, said the early end to the curfew gives businesses a chance to operate as normal on a busy Friday night. Related: Downtown Orlando businesses see slow weekend following deadly Halloween shooting”We are thankful and grateful that we were able to end the curfew a day early and allow the businesses to open up in time for EDC and to, you know, continue to operate as usual,” Stewart said.The curfew may have expired, but more changes are coming to downtown to try and make it safer, including slowly reopening Orange Avenue to traffic starting next weekend to end the street party atmosphere. Tillman says he is downtown fairly often. He thinks it could be hard to put enough protocols in place to prevent the tragedy that happened last week. “I don’t think there’s much more you can do. I can try and put in place as many precautions as I want, but at the end of the day, I can’t control what the next person does or how they react,” he said.
This weekend in downtown Orlando will be the first without a curfew since a mass shooting last week. It left two dead and multiple injured.
The curfew was lifted a day early on Thursday night. It came ahead of a very busy Friday downtown: A Magic game, a soccer match, and Electric Daisy Carnival.
“I was here last week when the curfew was in effect midnight last week,” said Jerome Tillman.
But it’s a different story this weekend. The vice chair of the downtown development board, Kimberly Stewart, said the early end to the curfew gives businesses a chance to operate as normal on a busy Friday night.
Related: Downtown Orlando businesses see slow weekend following deadly Halloween shooting
“We are thankful and grateful that we were able to end the curfew a day early and allow the businesses to open up in time for EDC and to, you know, continue to operate as usual,” Stewart said.
The curfew may have expired, but more changes are coming to downtown to try and make it safer, including slowly reopening Orange Avenue to traffic starting next weekend to end the street party atmosphere.
Tillman says he is downtown fairly often. He thinks it could be hard to put enough protocols in place to prevent the tragedy that happened last week.
“I don’t think there’s much more you can do. I can try and put in place as many precautions as I want, but at the end of the day, I can’t control what the next person does or how they react,” he said.
