Disney announce business plan to develop residential communities

I know Disney’s first residential development, Celebration, FL got mocked relentlessly for being a “fake place” but I think that’s incredibly misguided.

If you’ve visited Florida, you know that almost all new development is subdivisions with a name like “Olympus” and an entrance with a grand signage and sometimes even a gatehouse. There are 4 or 5 house plans that are repeated throughout the enclosed development. There is nothing except endless repeating houses. For any shopping to schools or coffee or libraries or anything else, you’ll have to dump out onto the 6 lane semi-highway outside and find your way to strip mall wrapped in a sea of parking.

They are 100% as ”fake” as Celebration, but the real problem is they are built at a non-human scale. They are built for cars and maximum isolation.

Celebration was built on a human scale, tucking cars away behind buildings, making sure houses were built around mini parks and within walking distance of stores and shops and schools.

The idea that building mixed use urbanism is fake and somehow strip malls and isolated subdivisions are real… I don’t understand that line of argument.

All large scale developments are “artificial” in the sense that they are planned, but why not use that moment of planning to plan something for humans?

As I recall this was part of Walt's visions and plans for Epcot and never really came anywhere because everyone thinks Disney is a nice place to visit but almost nobody would want to live there.

Corporate control of communities is bad. This is basically softcore introduction to fascism under Mickey mouse ears.

Kick corporations out of community centers out of neighbourhood associations and out of government. It's not worth having your community or city be controlled in any way by the Disney board of shareholders.

It’s worth a shot. Let’s see what they can do. Nobody will be forced to choose that lifestyle if they don’t want to. Some people love The Villages, while the mere idea of such a place gives others the willies. Vote with your pocketbook.