My aunt and uncle live in Aurora. When I was a kid, my brother and I use to come here for a week or so and stay with them. We’d do the Sea World and Geauga Lake thing. The Premium Outlet was more like a flea market then. It wasn’t really any buildings there like today. People just brought in their stuff.
Geauga Lake closed. Sea World was the main attraction, and it’s gone now too. Everything in that area is gone now except the water park. People recognized Aurora as, oh, Sea World. Shamu.
Sunny Lake Park is where they host the fireworks. That started up a few years ago. Aurora didn’t do them because Sea World and Geauga Lake used to do them. Now we started them up in Aurora. It’s a big to-do.
The prime thing that pulls people into Aurora now is the Aurora Premium Outlets. People come there and spend hours.
Anything new is really welcome, especially restaurant-wise and entertainment-wise, because Aurora doesn’t have that much. There is no real nightlife.
The Polar Bear Plunge supports the Special Olympics. People usually wear costumes. This year, myself and a couple of other police officers dressed up as doughnuts. Go figure: cops, doughnuts.
It takes your breath away at first. Then, before you know it, your lower extremities are frozen, and you can’t feel them.
In the time I’ve worked here, definitely many more developments have gone in. There are numerous homes, condos and apartments. It seems they keep multiplying.
There are also a lot of new shopping complexes, like the Barrington Town Center.
They are adding on to the high school again. They can’t seem to keep up with the demand. They keep adding on to the schools because there are so many families coming. It seems nonstop.
The reaction is mixed. For those who are not affected by the development, that is if it’s not being built in their backyard, it’s accepted. Those who are saying, “I like looking out my backyard and seeing just grass,” they don’t want to see building complexes.
