Married to the Mouse
Feb. 5th, 2023 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficI visited Disney World in November (and that post is still only half finished…I should get on that). Consequently, I read Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando by Richard E. Fogelsong. I don’t know how this made it onto my reading list—I’m guessing one of the youtube channels I’ve watched mentioned it.
This is a really excellent read. At least for me. I’ve already read quite a bit about urban planning and the Disney Corporation (including The Disney War), as well as watching a number of Disney history/Disney commentary youtube channels. Also—I’ve spent a lot of time in Florida. My parents moved there when I went to college, so I spent summers working at UF in Gainesville. My grandmother lived outside of Orlando (Winter Park) for fifteen years. That means I’m very familiar with Orlando, Disney World, Florida politics, and the Florida highway system. So the fact that the first chapter is about how Orlando business boosters made the interstate add 70 miles to its length by bending over to Orlando, rather than running straight from Jacksonville to Miami—that’s interesting to me. But might be offputting for someone else.
The author uses an extended marriage metaphor for the Disney-Orlando relationship that gets a bit forced at times. But his point is—once Disney got its Reedy Creek charter and started building, they were stuck with each other, and this has been a source of conflict ever since.
So let me give you some of the highlights of the total shit show that is Disney’s almost absolute power in Florida. Just to note, this book was written in 1999, and I would love nothing more than an update.
- The Orlando businessmen, when they brought the highway to Orlando, were trying to make Orlando a defense industry hub. The missile test center at Cape Canaveral (opened 1955) is a commutable distance from Orlando, and one of the first major businesses brought to Orlando by the highway was the Glenn Martin Company, an aerospace manufacturer. What a different central Florida that would have been.
- Disney bought up the land that makes up Walt Disney World secretly using a number of shell companies (and getting up to some shady shit). People initially assumed it was a major manufacturer buying the land, because the land ringed a lake people assumed would be used for industrial purposes.
- In talking about why Florida courted Disney once they found out they were the land buyer, a planning council executive said, “We thought growth was good because it produced new taxes. We didn’t consider the cost of the services that went along with it.”
- Florida has a law that allows land developers to create special improvement districts—this is not a thing that needs approval, just the right paperwork. This is what the Reedy Creek Improvement District is. Such a district gives the land owner the right to do basically any terraforming for water drainage on their land without further approval. As a Florida resident, this clicked for me—almost any housing you buy in Florida is part of one of these. Florida’s a swamp. The only way to build on it is through major drainage efforts. So Disney started asserting its power here—which also gave it eminent domain over the last few landholders that hadn’t sold.
- Disney then got a charter for Reedy Creek that gives Disney an exemption from all regulation over construction and land usage laws in Florida existing at the time or enacted in the future. It gave Disney the right, in perpetuity, to have its own police force (we’ll get back to this later), its own building codes and building inspectors, the right to levee municipal tax-free bonds (which makes their cost of capital enormously less than any other Orlando developer), no need to get zoning approval for anything, and an exemption from any future taxes levied on developers. This will be a sticking point later. They even have the power to build a nuclear power plant on the property should they ever want to. An internal Disney discussion called the plan here “an experimental absolute monarchy.”
- Florida gave Disney this because Disney said IT WAS BUILDING A CITY. And a city has residents, and therefore a democracy. They have the powers that a city does. But they never built a city. There are only 50 permanent residents in Reedy Creek, and they’re all Disney employees. There’s no democracy there. So a private corporation has the powers of a city in central Florida. To quote the book:
- If you’re thinking, isn’t there Celebration, they carved that out of Reedy Creek so they wouldn’t have to cede any power to a democracy. Also, their HOA bylaws there put Disney in permanent control of that city, which almost immediately caused enormous conflict with the residents and the creation of a parallel resident-run city council to oppose the Disney controlled one. Turns out people get pissed when you make unilateral decisions about the schools.
So now let’s talk about some of the abuses that this legal authority has let Disney do:
- Disney has killed multiple public transit projects onto the property, including a fully privately funded, pretty much a done deal, high-velocity maglev train from the airport to Epcot. Why? If it’s easy to get to Disney property, it’s easy to get off of it. And god forbid you go to anything not Disney owned on your trip to Orlando.
- The charter did not contemplate Disney becoming a hotel conglomerate. The unfair advantages given to the Disney hotels compared to their off-property competitors is unreal.
- It also didn’t contemplate the creation of Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs). The building of this almost immediately closed most of the restaurants and clubs in downtown Orlando. Orlando courted Disney in the first place to make Orlando thrive and, welp.
- Disney is a low-wage job-making machine. Yes, they create a lot of jobs, most of which are filled by drawing new people to move to the area. Most of them are low-wage. They pay almost no impact fees to the city of Orlando, so Orlando gets to foot the bill for all of the housing and public services these people need. A quote from the planning council of Orlando:
- One of the main sources of conflict is over roads. Disney pours enormous traffic onto city and county roads, and has historically refused to pay for expanding or maintaining those roads. For example, the road leading to the employee entrance was an old, windy road with no barriers on the sides. When an employee was killed in a car accident, the city council went to Disney to say, what a horrible tragedy, what are we going to do to improve this road. And Disney said, what do you mean “we.” It’s your road, you fix it. Even though Disney put their employee entrance there. Disney then ran a campaign against that commissioner by placing billboards on that road telling employees that the death was the county’s fault.
- Disney’s charter keeps it from paying a lot of taxes that are paid by other land owners in Orlando. Sure, it’s Orange County’s biggest tax payer. But that doesn’t mean it’s paying its fair share. To appease people, it gives a lot to charity. I mean, a fraction of what the taxes would be. And charity allows them to create patronage relationships that keep the local politicians compliant.
- Oh, should I mention the straight up bribes of free park passes to all Florida politicians? The politicians should be reporting them as campaign contributions…but they don’t always do that.
- Because of Disney’s municipal bonding power, there was one case in the eighties where they soaked up all available municipal bonds for Orange and Osceola Counties. They used them to build a sewage plant for their then under construction Hollywood Studios. Orange County had been planning to use the bonds for affordable housing.
- Speaking of, you know when Disney actually got into the housing business with Celebration, they built no affordable housing at all. Less than a fifth of Disney employees would have been able to afford even the cheapest house there. In a fight with the county over this (because remember, they disincorporated Celebration so they wouldn’t lose the stranglehold on Reedy Creek) they ended up paying off the county to let them go ahead with their plan. The money they gave the county went to a program that mostly helped middle class people with mortgages and only helped 7 low-wage families get housing.
As my final point, let me talk about the police on Disney property. There was an incident where a Disney security host (the actual job title they actually have) engaged in a high speed chase that led to a death. The driver was intoxicated and convicted of manslaughter for the death of the passenger. The family also sued Disney for wrongful death. The lawyers asked for the communications logs. Disney said they weren’t police and didn’t have to hand them over. The court backed them up.
ACAB, but you know what’s worse? Delegating non-delegatable powers to civilian security forces that have none of the requirements we place on police. Only police officers can pull you over or engage in a chase—but Disney security hosts do that every day.
This is a long excerpt, but trust me, it’s worth it:
Having just been to Disney World, there is a thing that Disney is doing that no one else is—and reading this book makes it clear that the reason for that is that Disney has been given unconstitutional powers to undemocratically control every part of the experience. You’ll never see a homeless person a Disney—the county is dealing with them. You’ll never even see the lowest wage workers in the kitchens and utilidors who are forced into mobile homes the county has to pay for. You never hear about crime or deaths on the Disney property, because if you called 911 you’d only be talking to Disney and they might decide they’d rather not get law enforcement involved. I mean, why would you ever go to a bar in downtown Orlando when you can go to Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs) and not have to look at any of the economic inequality created to give you your vacation experience?
The book doesn’t talk at all about the racial aspects of this, but having seen how white centrist the Disney World experience is, it’s hard not to read a longing for segregation into a lot of what Disney has done here and its enduring appeal.
I looked up some news stories about the current fight to dissolve Disney’s charter at Reedy Creek. It’s unclear to me from reading this if they even legally could. But if they did—they’d pick up a lot of tax money, yes. But they’d also have to take over all of Disney World’s infrastructure costs, from roads to water treatment to police. And they’d take on Disney’s debt. Because they’re municipal bonds, you know. They wouldn’t stick to the corporation. Having gotten themselves into this, it’s hard to see how Florida can get itself out.
I’ll have to see if there are similar books covering the last twenty years of Disney-Orlando conflict. But just, you know, keep this in mind next time you’re planning a family vacation.
This is a really excellent read. At least for me. I’ve already read quite a bit about urban planning and the Disney Corporation (including The Disney War), as well as watching a number of Disney history/Disney commentary youtube channels. Also—I’ve spent a lot of time in Florida. My parents moved there when I went to college, so I spent summers working at UF in Gainesville. My grandmother lived outside of Orlando (Winter Park) for fifteen years. That means I’m very familiar with Orlando, Disney World, Florida politics, and the Florida highway system. So the fact that the first chapter is about how Orlando business boosters made the interstate add 70 miles to its length by bending over to Orlando, rather than running straight from Jacksonville to Miami—that’s interesting to me. But might be offputting for someone else.
The author uses an extended marriage metaphor for the Disney-Orlando relationship that gets a bit forced at times. But his point is—once Disney got its Reedy Creek charter and started building, they were stuck with each other, and this has been a source of conflict ever since.
So let me give you some of the highlights of the total shit show that is Disney’s almost absolute power in Florida. Just to note, this book was written in 1999, and I would love nothing more than an update.
- The Orlando businessmen, when they brought the highway to Orlando, were trying to make Orlando a defense industry hub. The missile test center at Cape Canaveral (opened 1955) is a commutable distance from Orlando, and one of the first major businesses brought to Orlando by the highway was the Glenn Martin Company, an aerospace manufacturer. What a different central Florida that would have been.
- Disney bought up the land that makes up Walt Disney World secretly using a number of shell companies (and getting up to some shady shit). People initially assumed it was a major manufacturer buying the land, because the land ringed a lake people assumed would be used for industrial purposes.
- In talking about why Florida courted Disney once they found out they were the land buyer, a planning council executive said, “We thought growth was good because it produced new taxes. We didn’t consider the cost of the services that went along with it.”
- Florida has a law that allows land developers to create special improvement districts—this is not a thing that needs approval, just the right paperwork. This is what the Reedy Creek Improvement District is. Such a district gives the land owner the right to do basically any terraforming for water drainage on their land without further approval. As a Florida resident, this clicked for me—almost any housing you buy in Florida is part of one of these. Florida’s a swamp. The only way to build on it is through major drainage efforts. So Disney started asserting its power here—which also gave it eminent domain over the last few landholders that hadn’t sold.
- Disney then got a charter for Reedy Creek that gives Disney an exemption from all regulation over construction and land usage laws in Florida existing at the time or enacted in the future. It gave Disney the right, in perpetuity, to have its own police force (we’ll get back to this later), its own building codes and building inspectors, the right to levee municipal tax-free bonds (which makes their cost of capital enormously less than any other Orlando developer), no need to get zoning approval for anything, and an exemption from any future taxes levied on developers. This will be a sticking point later. They even have the power to build a nuclear power plant on the property should they ever want to. An internal Disney discussion called the plan here “an experimental absolute monarchy.”
- Florida gave Disney this because Disney said IT WAS BUILDING A CITY. And a city has residents, and therefore a democracy. They have the powers that a city does. But they never built a city. There are only 50 permanent residents in Reedy Creek, and they’re all Disney employees. There’s no democracy there. So a private corporation has the powers of a city in central Florida. To quote the book:
For legal reasons…the Disney Co. needed to say they were building a city. Only a popularly elected government could exercise planning and zoning authority and gain exemption from land-use laws. Having won that authority, they felt free to redefine Epcot—without renouncing the powers and exemptions derived from the original concept.
- If you’re thinking, isn’t there Celebration, they carved that out of Reedy Creek so they wouldn’t have to cede any power to a democracy. Also, their HOA bylaws there put Disney in permanent control of that city, which almost immediately caused enormous conflict with the residents and the creation of a parallel resident-run city council to oppose the Disney controlled one. Turns out people get pissed when you make unilateral decisions about the schools.
So now let’s talk about some of the abuses that this legal authority has let Disney do:
- Disney has killed multiple public transit projects onto the property, including a fully privately funded, pretty much a done deal, high-velocity maglev train from the airport to Epcot. Why? If it’s easy to get to Disney property, it’s easy to get off of it. And god forbid you go to anything not Disney owned on your trip to Orlando.
- The charter did not contemplate Disney becoming a hotel conglomerate. The unfair advantages given to the Disney hotels compared to their off-property competitors is unreal.
- It also didn’t contemplate the creation of Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs). The building of this almost immediately closed most of the restaurants and clubs in downtown Orlando. Orlando courted Disney in the first place to make Orlando thrive and, welp.
- Disney is a low-wage job-making machine. Yes, they create a lot of jobs, most of which are filled by drawing new people to move to the area. Most of them are low-wage. They pay almost no impact fees to the city of Orlando, so Orlando gets to foot the bill for all of the housing and public services these people need. A quote from the planning council of Orlando:
A large number of tourist industry employees remain out of sight, occupied as kitchen help, chambermaids, maintenance workers, janitors, watchmen and the like. Many of these workers are not highly paid. They can remain invisible at a tourist attraction, but they must reside in the community and, as residents, they are not invisible.
- One of the main sources of conflict is over roads. Disney pours enormous traffic onto city and county roads, and has historically refused to pay for expanding or maintaining those roads. For example, the road leading to the employee entrance was an old, windy road with no barriers on the sides. When an employee was killed in a car accident, the city council went to Disney to say, what a horrible tragedy, what are we going to do to improve this road. And Disney said, what do you mean “we.” It’s your road, you fix it. Even though Disney put their employee entrance there. Disney then ran a campaign against that commissioner by placing billboards on that road telling employees that the death was the county’s fault.
- Disney’s charter keeps it from paying a lot of taxes that are paid by other land owners in Orlando. Sure, it’s Orange County’s biggest tax payer. But that doesn’t mean it’s paying its fair share. To appease people, it gives a lot to charity. I mean, a fraction of what the taxes would be. And charity allows them to create patronage relationships that keep the local politicians compliant.
- Oh, should I mention the straight up bribes of free park passes to all Florida politicians? The politicians should be reporting them as campaign contributions…but they don’t always do that.
- Because of Disney’s municipal bonding power, there was one case in the eighties where they soaked up all available municipal bonds for Orange and Osceola Counties. They used them to build a sewage plant for their then under construction Hollywood Studios. Orange County had been planning to use the bonds for affordable housing.
- Speaking of, you know when Disney actually got into the housing business with Celebration, they built no affordable housing at all. Less than a fifth of Disney employees would have been able to afford even the cheapest house there. In a fight with the county over this (because remember, they disincorporated Celebration so they wouldn’t lose the stranglehold on Reedy Creek) they ended up paying off the county to let them go ahead with their plan. The money they gave the county went to a program that mostly helped middle class people with mortgages and only helped 7 low-wage families get housing.
As my final point, let me talk about the police on Disney property. There was an incident where a Disney security host (the actual job title they actually have) engaged in a high speed chase that led to a death. The driver was intoxicated and convicted of manslaughter for the death of the passenger. The family also sued Disney for wrongful death. The lawyers asked for the communications logs. Disney said they weren’t police and didn’t have to hand them over. The court backed them up.
ACAB, but you know what’s worse? Delegating non-delegatable powers to civilian security forces that have none of the requirements we place on police. Only police officers can pull you over or engage in a chase—but Disney security hosts do that every day.
This is a long excerpt, but trust me, it’s worth it:
Asked in court to describe their uniform, Susan Buckland called it a “costume” and said they were Disney “cast members” (just like Mickey and Pluto). The costume—with shields, caps, name tags, belt-holstered radios, and other indicia of police authority—matched their assigned duties. Relating to traffic control, they were authorized to issue traffic citations to Disney and Reedy Creek employees for moving and nonmoving violations without notifying law enforcement; to issue traffic accident reports for purposes of auto insurance claims; and to utilize revolving red bar lights (aka police takedown lights) when making traffic stops. For this they were given security vans with markings like the Orlando Police Department; radar speed-measuring devices; and the flares, traffic control wands, and chalk commonly used by traffic cops. Relating to criminal investigations, security hosts receive and disseminate BOLO bulletins, perform surveillance, conduct investigations, and interview witnesses regarding crimes against both persons and property.
There was even a special arrangement between local law enforcement and Disney Security hosts regarding traffic tickets. If an Orange County deputy sheriff stopped a Disney or Reedy Creek employee on Disney property, including the four-lane “public roads,” the office radioed a security guard who issued what was called a “driving record.” Security host Buckland explained how this arrangement worked during her fifteen years at Disney: “They [sheriff’s deputies] would tell me that they stopped the vehicle in question, what he was doing wrong, about how fast he was going, and where they pulled him over.” Buckland then issued a driving record, which looked identical to a Uniform Traffic Citation. The driving record was placed in the employee’s personnel record but was not sent to the state, and did not add “points” against the individual’s license. In addition, security guards investigated traffic accidents on Disney property and issued accident reports, the same blue accident reports used by public law enforcement. This occurred even though Florida law requires that accidents be reported immediately to the nearest law enforcement agency.
[…]
In deferring to Disney Security on theme-park property, Florida Highway Patrol was only treating Disney like other “municipalities” and other “law enforcement,” said an officer. [FHP district commander] Flemming offered this assessment as if Reedy Creek were a municipality and security hosts were really police officers.
In other respects, Disney runs their police force to serve their corporate interests rather than the public interest. One example is their operation of the 911 system. Calls to 911 on Disney property go to a Reedy Creek “public” employee, who refers calls involving a reported crime to the Disney Co. Communications Center. A Disney employee rather than a Reedy Creek official decides whether to call outside law enforcement. … Orange County undersheriff Rick Staly is generally happy with the 911 arrangement, which saves his agency from responding to unnecessary calls, though he admitted that “they sometimes miss on forwarding 911 calls.” Incident reports regarding serious crimes—including burglary, rape, and robbery—have been generated by security hosts but not reported to any law enforcement agency.
Having just been to Disney World, there is a thing that Disney is doing that no one else is—and reading this book makes it clear that the reason for that is that Disney has been given unconstitutional powers to undemocratically control every part of the experience. You’ll never see a homeless person a Disney—the county is dealing with them. You’ll never even see the lowest wage workers in the kitchens and utilidors who are forced into mobile homes the county has to pay for. You never hear about crime or deaths on the Disney property, because if you called 911 you’d only be talking to Disney and they might decide they’d rather not get law enforcement involved. I mean, why would you ever go to a bar in downtown Orlando when you can go to Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs) and not have to look at any of the economic inequality created to give you your vacation experience?
The book doesn’t talk at all about the racial aspects of this, but having seen how white centrist the Disney World experience is, it’s hard not to read a longing for segregation into a lot of what Disney has done here and its enduring appeal.
I looked up some news stories about the current fight to dissolve Disney’s charter at Reedy Creek. It’s unclear to me from reading this if they even legally could. But if they did—they’d pick up a lot of tax money, yes. But they’d also have to take over all of Disney World’s infrastructure costs, from roads to water treatment to police. And they’d take on Disney’s debt. Because they’re municipal bonds, you know. They wouldn’t stick to the corporation. Having gotten themselves into this, it’s hard to see how Florida can get itself out.
I’ll have to see if there are similar books covering the last twenty years of Disney-Orlando conflict. But just, you know, keep this in mind next time you’re planning a family vacation.
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Date: 2023-02-06 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-10 12:56 pm (UTC)