We’ve owned our home in Celebration for two years now, and I snicker over supposed “facts” about our community. We’re not even close to Walt’s vision of Epcot, although I guess it makes a quaint story. I have a blog at http://celebrationfl.blogspot.com that gives my take on life in the “Disney Town.” It’s probably as skewed as anything else, but I like to think it gives a more genuine portrait of our community.

To be honest I actually found the place a little spooky. The whole place is so regimented, there is no opportunity for self expression or artistic licence, in some cases I can see how this would be a good idea i.e. no cars parked on the lawns being worked on and no ghastly neon pink or electric blue houses.

However one thing I found especially odd was the fact that every house has had sudo windows placed into the roof to make it look like the perfect American house. Yet there are no rooms behind the windows in fact apparently the windows are just stuck onto the outside of the houses to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

Is this not just the furthering the image consciousness of society? Here in the UK young children are obsessed with looking older and like pop stars before they are grown. Yet another step in the wrong direction its like sending a message to all the Americans who live below the poverty line “look another piece of the American dream you can’t hope to attain”. Also I wonder if you live in a utopian town which has a utopian community if you think much about what is going on outside your town, state dare I say it Country?

Just my two peneth worth

Nice Blog
Jx

Assumptions are funny, huh?

BTW, I was on DC last August. I’d be more than happy if our cities were a tenth as organized as Washington, though I like San Francisco best.

Funny thing about that… Washington is one of the few master-planned cities in America. Pierre L’Enfant was recruited by George Washington himself to design the city, but then “fired” before he could finish. Later, his plan was re-adopted and continues to be used today in planning development in the city.

From what I remember of such article, it talked a lot of how the development process went, and how Disney’s idealistic vision of a perfect community “done right in all counts” clashed with the realities of an imperfect world.

Coming to think of it, our capitol city would make good use of a great fire like Chicago’s — it is such an unsolvable urban mess that best bet should be being able to start from scratch. Honestly.

On that note, it’s a good thing the Great Fire of 1871 occured, otherwise Chicago wouldn’t have been restructured the way it is today.

here.

It’s interesting to see examples along the planning spectrum — from unplanned cities like Old Boston to overplanned cities like Celebration. The right way, as always, is somewhere in between.

The trick is to provide enough structure and guidance that it’s easy for people to build smart. With no planning or guidance whatsoever, you get chaos. At best, when there are geographical constraints (like in Boston), this turns out to be lively and interesting. At worst, with no constraints, you get big box retail.

A great example of doing it the “right way” is Chicago. After the Great Fire in 1871, the city was rebuilt with a new opportunity for good planning. Apparently, the pre-fire Chicago was chaotic and disorderly, only minimally constrained by the location of the lake. After the fire, a new set of guidelines helped direct future development and as a result Chicago is one of the best-planned cities on a fundamental level. (More recent planning, including public transportation, is another story…)