Environmental Decline Of Disney's America
Anti Disney links [http://www.geocities.com/~jmgould/disney.html] [http://www.saneasylum.com/articles/124] The World According to Disney by John Sterling Trading in Fantasies {draw:rect} Earth Island Journal.
Summer 94
Vol. 9 Issue 3 p32+ {draw:rect} Few people would equate "Disney theme park" with "environmental threat." Most support Disney's wholesome brand of family entertainment because it offers people a respite from the stress of daily life. But Disney's friendly image has been under fire lately due to the financial woes of its Euro Disney park in France and over its current plans to build "Disney's America," an American history theme park, in rural Virginia. A careful look at Euro Disney and Disney's America reveals that …show more content…
the entertainment company is a surprising environmental enemy that covers open space with pavement, shopping malls, golf courses and hotels; creates traffic problems that increase air pollution; and encourages a psychological detachment from the natural world.
Despite its environmental transgressions, Disney has received billions of dollars in bank loans and government subsidies to support its recent theme park projects. Kansas State University architecture professor Gary Coates is one of a growing number of professionals who have identified theme parks as inherent agents of environmental decline. "When we are in Disney World... we are inside someone else's story; we cannot tell what is reality and what is not," said Coates in Jerry Mander's book, In the Absence of the Sacred. Coates argues that theme parks create a preprogrammed fantasy world that excludes nature's randomness and unpredictability. As such, these parks lead visitors to believe that an environment can be sustained within a vacuum controlled by technicians and engineers. Euro Disney's Failure Walt Disney Co. is expanding its empire. Inspired by its successful Tokyo Disneyland, Disney borrowed $3.7 billion from 63 different banks, kicked in a paltry $220 million …show more content…
of its own cash, and built Euro Disney, a theme park and hotel complex 20 miles east of Paris. Many French citizens protested the mere idea of Disney schlock on Gallic soil, but Euro Disney opened in April 1992-- and has been losing money ever since. Euro Disney is far more than rollercoasters and snack bars. Built on almost 5000 acres of sunflower and beet farmland, the complex includes a theme park, six hotels with a total of 5200 rooms, a convention center, swimming pools, tennis courts and an 18-hole golf course. Such a colossal operation requires an equally colossal attendance to remain afloat. With 11 million visitors a year, Euro Disney is now Europe's largest tourist attraction, but the park has consistently suffered a 45 percent hotel vacancy rate and per-visitor spending is 25 percent lower than expected, due in part to the ongoing recession. In addition, while warm sunshine graces its sibling parks in California and Florida, cold, rainy weather plagues Euro Disney. In its first fiscal year, Euro Disney lost $928 million and it has surrendered $90 million in each quarter thereafter. In January 1994, 18 months after opening, Disney appealed to its creditors to rescue the project by the end of March, saying it might close the park, handing huge losses to both the banks and the holders of 170 million shares of Euro Disney stock. The creditiors had little choice. After four months of negotiations, the banks and Disney agreed to pump another $1.05 billion into the ailing park. In addition, the banks agreed to waive 18 months of interest payments, worth $280 million, and to defer debt payments for three years. If a developing country defaulted on such a loan from the World Bank, that country would be cut off from any further foreign aid, claims Christina Cobourn, coordinator of the Campaign on Debt and Development Alternatives. But, with Euro Disney on the brink of bankruptcy, banks and shareholders, not Disney, had the most to lose. After the bailout, Euro Disney's stock plummeted to $5.60 a share, an 80 percent decline since its opening day high of $27.20. Disney's America Unfazed by its European failure, Disney now plans to build "Disney's America", a theme park interpretation of American history, on 3000 acres of land near Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Like Euro Disney, Disney's America would be built in a rural area within 30 miles of a major city (Washington DC). It would be a multi-purpose complex with a theme park, a 144-room hotel, a 27-hole golf course, 2500 private homes and two million square feet of office and retail space. Like Euro Disney, the setting is cold and wet for almost half the year. And, tempted by Disney's promise of 12,400 new jobs, the Virginia legislature has committed $132 million to subsidize highway improvements that will principally benefit the park, not local citizens. The state will spend another $31 million to finance a joint Disney-Virginia advertising campaign, build a state visitor center on the park site and fund a community college program to train residents in the tourism industry. When Disney first announced its plans for Disney's America, opponents quickly objected, saying that an amusement park could not accurately depict American history.
According to Disney's designers, the park would be divided into seven theme areas, each recreating a major historical event with a Disney twist. "'Native America' explores the life of America's first inhabitants and offers an exciting white-water river raft expedition," said a November 1993 Disney press release. The company did not say whether "Native America" would also reenact the Trail of Tears or Custer's slaughter of the Plains Indians. Other themes include a Civil War fort in which the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac will be recreated; a replica of Ellis Island intended to illustrate the immigrant experience; and "Enterprise, a factory town [that] highlights American ingenuity and features a high speed thrill attraction called the 'Industrial Revolution,'" said the press release. If charges of historical inaccuracy do not halt Disney's America, the park's potential environmental impact might. Bob Leuthy, a board member of Protect, a citizens' group based in Haymarket, VA, claims that Disney's America threatens the overall quality of life in Prince William County."Quality of life is an environmental issue. If Disney's America is
built, bungee jumping, go-carts, shopping malls and every conceivable variety of commercial garbage will be clamoring to get in," said Leuthy. Environmentalists claim that increased automobile traffic would be the principal problem posed by Disney's America. Disney estimates that the park would generate 77,000 new vehicle trips per day in Prince William County, doubling the average daily traffic on Interstate 66, the road linking the site to Washington DC. Congestion would be even worse during the peak hour when I-66 traffic would jump from 1260 to 5753 vehicles, according to a study conducted by traffic expert Robert Morris. A coalition of eight groups, headed by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), has urged that road improvements for Disney's America be stopped, because the increased traffic would make it impossible for the Washington region to comply with new federal clean air laws. "This kind of auto-dependent sprawl will pull development away from already developed areas," said Michael Replogle, co-director of EDF's transportation project. "It's a foolish location for a major new edge city." The Clean Air Act of 1990 prohibits a region from building new roads if the increased traffic would push air pollution levels beyond established limits. The Washington region, which includes northern Virginia, is already unable to comply with air-pollution regulations and is seeking ways to reduce vehicle emissions. With over two million new vehicle trips created by the Disney project each month, region-wide pollution levels could only rise. The Federal Highway Administration, which must authorize the Disney-related road improvements already approved by the Virginia legislature, has the power to require an environmental review of the construction. In April, after winning legislative approval for road improvements, Disney floated the idea of building a power plant on the park site. Disney, which built its own plant at Disney World in Florida, needs an estimated 12 megawatts per day to supply Disney's America with power. Though company officials did not offer details on the idea, Stan Feuerberg, president of the Northern Virginia Electrical Cooperative, said a Disney generator would probably run on natural gas, adding another clean-air threat to the park's plans. A 12-megawatt plant could release 180 tons of nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide into the air each year, estimated Rod Villanueva, an engineer with Pacific Gas and Electric. Building a power plant would likely fuel the tensions between Disney and the residents of Northern Virginia. "When it comes to air pollution at the expense of everyone else, [Disney] shouldn't be allowed to do it," said Ellen Penar, spokesperson for the Coalition of Gainesville District Residents (CGDR), a community group. *"Betther* Than New" Wetlands Environmental groups are also concerned about Disney's impact on the region's aquatic ecosystems. Included in the Disney's America proposal is a controversial plan to build a 28-acre artificial wetland on the park site. Called a "wetland mitigation bank" (one of about 100 nationwide), would require the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to a Corps spokesperson, such mitigation measures give their owners "wetland credits" that they may draw on to build on natural wetlands elsewhere. Protect attorney Robert Elliott filed a lawsuit in March to prevent the Corps and the EPA from approving the artificial wetland until Disney releases more specific building plans that may reveal natural wetland destruction elsewhere on the Disney site. The suit was settled in May after Disney agreed to detail its plans. "Any large development will impact natural wetlands," said engineer Mike Rolband, Disney's wetland consultant. Rolband claims that the artificial wetland will be an improvement on the site's natural wetlands, which have already been degraded by decades of grazing and farming. In a separate lawsuit, Protect claims that Disney connived to undermine a tough state conservation law to ease building restrictions on the proposed artificial wetland area. Before releasing its development plans, Disney asked the US Geological Survey (USGS) to downgrade the protected status of a stream on the site because it did not flow year round. Such streams are not protected by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, which prohibits land development within 100 feet of streams. Protect's Elliott argues that the USGS approved the downgrade without adequate information about what was planned for the site. Disney's Magic: New Jobs? As it did in Europe, Disney has successfully pushed Disney's America by promising a flood of new jobs and tax revenues. Virginia Governor George Allen, tempted by Disney's estimate of 12,000 additional jobs and $40 million in annual tax revenues, predicted that Disney's America "will be the envy of the entire nation." But CGDR's Penar warned that, after the park is built, the majority of Disney jobs would be low-paying and seasonal. Disney has said that it would pay roughly 30 percent above minimum wage, or $5.27 per hour, according to Penar. She added that because Prince William County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country (only three percent), Disney would have to import workers to fill openings. Penar is concerned that, if the park closes for the winter, the flood of low-income workers would likely collect unemployment during the off season. "These are not jobs to build an economy on," said Protect's Bob Leuthy. Disney's opponents in Virginia have learned that it is hard to fight a major corporation with a gleaming public image. "Who in the hell is going to challenge Goofy, Mickey and Snow White?" said Leuthy. Disney has used this clean image to win support for risky commercial developments worldwide. In the wake of the Euro Disney fiasco, Disney is now asking rural Virginians to subsidize a venture that could harm the region's environment and permanently lower the residents' quality of life. Washington Post columnist Rudolph Pyatt called the Virginia legislature's decision to offer the project $163 million in improvements a "corporate welfare plan for Disney." Environmentalists agree, and hope to stop Disney's America by revealing the absurdity of offering millions of dollars to a wealthy corporation to help it build an environmentally destructive project that offers only speculative benefits. [http://d65.bu.edu/hootenanny/disney_rant/disney.html]
Summer 94
Vol. 9 Issue 3 p32+ {draw:rect} Few people would equate "Disney theme park" with "environmental threat." Most support Disney's wholesome brand of family entertainment because it offers people a respite from the stress of daily life. But Disney's friendly image has been under fire lately due to the financial woes of its Euro Disney park in France and over its current plans to build "Disney's America," an American history theme park, in rural Virginia. A careful look at Euro Disney and Disney's America reveals that …show more content…
the entertainment company is a surprising environmental enemy that covers open space with pavement, shopping malls, golf courses and hotels; creates traffic problems that increase air pollution; and encourages a psychological detachment from the natural world.
Despite its environmental transgressions, Disney has received billions of dollars in bank loans and government subsidies to support its recent theme park projects. Kansas State University architecture professor Gary Coates is one of a growing number of professionals who have identified theme parks as inherent agents of environmental decline. "When we are in Disney World... we are inside someone else's story; we cannot tell what is reality and what is not," said Coates in Jerry Mander's book, In the Absence of the Sacred. Coates argues that theme parks create a preprogrammed fantasy world that excludes nature's randomness and unpredictability. As such, these parks lead visitors to believe that an environment can be sustained within a vacuum controlled by technicians and engineers. Euro Disney's Failure Walt Disney Co. is expanding its empire. Inspired by its successful Tokyo Disneyland, Disney borrowed $3.7 billion from 63 different banks, kicked in a paltry $220 million …show more content…
of its own cash, and built Euro Disney, a theme park and hotel complex 20 miles east of Paris. Many French citizens protested the mere idea of Disney schlock on Gallic soil, but Euro Disney opened in April 1992-- and has been losing money ever since. Euro Disney is far more than rollercoasters and snack bars. Built on almost 5000 acres of sunflower and beet farmland, the complex includes a theme park, six hotels with a total of 5200 rooms, a convention center, swimming pools, tennis courts and an 18-hole golf course. Such a colossal operation requires an equally colossal attendance to remain afloat. With 11 million visitors a year, Euro Disney is now Europe's largest tourist attraction, but the park has consistently suffered a 45 percent hotel vacancy rate and per-visitor spending is 25 percent lower than expected, due in part to the ongoing recession. In addition, while warm sunshine graces its sibling parks in California and Florida, cold, rainy weather plagues Euro Disney. In its first fiscal year, Euro Disney lost $928 million and it has surrendered $90 million in each quarter thereafter. In January 1994, 18 months after opening, Disney appealed to its creditors to rescue the project by the end of March, saying it might close the park, handing huge losses to both the banks and the holders of 170 million shares of Euro Disney stock. The creditiors had little choice. After four months of negotiations, the banks and Disney agreed to pump another $1.05 billion into the ailing park. In addition, the banks agreed to waive 18 months of interest payments, worth $280 million, and to defer debt payments for three years. If a developing country defaulted on such a loan from the World Bank, that country would be cut off from any further foreign aid, claims Christina Cobourn, coordinator of the Campaign on Debt and Development Alternatives. But, with Euro Disney on the brink of bankruptcy, banks and shareholders, not Disney, had the most to lose. After the bailout, Euro Disney's stock plummeted to $5.60 a share, an 80 percent decline since its opening day high of $27.20. Disney's America Unfazed by its European failure, Disney now plans to build "Disney's America", a theme park interpretation of American history, on 3000 acres of land near Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Like Euro Disney, Disney's America would be built in a rural area within 30 miles of a major city (Washington DC). It would be a multi-purpose complex with a theme park, a 144-room hotel, a 27-hole golf course, 2500 private homes and two million square feet of office and retail space. Like Euro Disney, the setting is cold and wet for almost half the year. And, tempted by Disney's promise of 12,400 new jobs, the Virginia legislature has committed $132 million to subsidize highway improvements that will principally benefit the park, not local citizens. The state will spend another $31 million to finance a joint Disney-Virginia advertising campaign, build a state visitor center on the park site and fund a community college program to train residents in the tourism industry. When Disney first announced its plans for Disney's America, opponents quickly objected, saying that an amusement park could not accurately depict American history.
According to Disney's designers, the park would be divided into seven theme areas, each recreating a major historical event with a Disney twist. "'Native America' explores the life of America's first inhabitants and offers an exciting white-water river raft expedition," said a November 1993 Disney press release. The company did not say whether "Native America" would also reenact the Trail of Tears or Custer's slaughter of the Plains Indians. Other themes include a Civil War fort in which the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac will be recreated; a replica of Ellis Island intended to illustrate the immigrant experience; and "Enterprise, a factory town [that] highlights American ingenuity and features a high speed thrill attraction called the 'Industrial Revolution,'" said the press release. If charges of historical inaccuracy do not halt Disney's America, the park's potential environmental impact might. Bob Leuthy, a board member of Protect, a citizens' group based in Haymarket, VA, claims that Disney's America threatens the overall quality of life in Prince William County."Quality of life is an environmental issue. If Disney's America is
built, bungee jumping, go-carts, shopping malls and every conceivable variety of commercial garbage will be clamoring to get in," said Leuthy. Environmentalists claim that increased automobile traffic would be the principal problem posed by Disney's America. Disney estimates that the park would generate 77,000 new vehicle trips per day in Prince William County, doubling the average daily traffic on Interstate 66, the road linking the site to Washington DC. Congestion would be even worse during the peak hour when I-66 traffic would jump from 1260 to 5753 vehicles, according to a study conducted by traffic expert Robert Morris. A coalition of eight groups, headed by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), has urged that road improvements for Disney's America be stopped, because the increased traffic would make it impossible for the Washington region to comply with new federal clean air laws. "This kind of auto-dependent sprawl will pull development away from already developed areas," said Michael Replogle, co-director of EDF's transportation project. "It's a foolish location for a major new edge city." The Clean Air Act of 1990 prohibits a region from building new roads if the increased traffic would push air pollution levels beyond established limits. The Washington region, which includes northern Virginia, is already unable to comply with air-pollution regulations and is seeking ways to reduce vehicle emissions. With over two million new vehicle trips created by the Disney project each month, region-wide pollution levels could only rise. The Federal Highway Administration, which must authorize the Disney-related road improvements already approved by the Virginia legislature, has the power to require an environmental review of the construction. In April, after winning legislative approval for road improvements, Disney floated the idea of building a power plant on the park site. Disney, which built its own plant at Disney World in Florida, needs an estimated 12 megawatts per day to supply Disney's America with power. Though company officials did not offer details on the idea, Stan Feuerberg, president of the Northern Virginia Electrical Cooperative, said a Disney generator would probably run on natural gas, adding another clean-air threat to the park's plans. A 12-megawatt plant could release 180 tons of nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide into the air each year, estimated Rod Villanueva, an engineer with Pacific Gas and Electric. Building a power plant would likely fuel the tensions between Disney and the residents of Northern Virginia. "When it comes to air pollution at the expense of everyone else, [Disney] shouldn't be allowed to do it," said Ellen Penar, spokesperson for the Coalition of Gainesville District Residents (CGDR), a community group. *"Betther* Than New" Wetlands Environmental groups are also concerned about Disney's impact on the region's aquatic ecosystems. Included in the Disney's America proposal is a controversial plan to build a 28-acre artificial wetland on the park site. Called a "wetland mitigation bank" (one of about 100 nationwide), would require the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to a Corps spokesperson, such mitigation measures give their owners "wetland credits" that they may draw on to build on natural wetlands elsewhere. Protect attorney Robert Elliott filed a lawsuit in March to prevent the Corps and the EPA from approving the artificial wetland until Disney releases more specific building plans that may reveal natural wetland destruction elsewhere on the Disney site. The suit was settled in May after Disney agreed to detail its plans. "Any large development will impact natural wetlands," said engineer Mike Rolband, Disney's wetland consultant. Rolband claims that the artificial wetland will be an improvement on the site's natural wetlands, which have already been degraded by decades of grazing and farming. In a separate lawsuit, Protect claims that Disney connived to undermine a tough state conservation law to ease building restrictions on the proposed artificial wetland area. Before releasing its development plans, Disney asked the US Geological Survey (USGS) to downgrade the protected status of a stream on the site because it did not flow year round. Such streams are not protected by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, which prohibits land development within 100 feet of streams. Protect's Elliott argues that the USGS approved the downgrade without adequate information about what was planned for the site. Disney's Magic: New Jobs? As it did in Europe, Disney has successfully pushed Disney's America by promising a flood of new jobs and tax revenues. Virginia Governor George Allen, tempted by Disney's estimate of 12,000 additional jobs and $40 million in annual tax revenues, predicted that Disney's America "will be the envy of the entire nation." But CGDR's Penar warned that, after the park is built, the majority of Disney jobs would be low-paying and seasonal. Disney has said that it would pay roughly 30 percent above minimum wage, or $5.27 per hour, according to Penar. She added that because Prince William County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country (only three percent), Disney would have to import workers to fill openings. Penar is concerned that, if the park closes for the winter, the flood of low-income workers would likely collect unemployment during the off season. "These are not jobs to build an economy on," said Protect's Bob Leuthy. Disney's opponents in Virginia have learned that it is hard to fight a major corporation with a gleaming public image. "Who in the hell is going to challenge Goofy, Mickey and Snow White?" said Leuthy. Disney has used this clean image to win support for risky commercial developments worldwide. In the wake of the Euro Disney fiasco, Disney is now asking rural Virginians to subsidize a venture that could harm the region's environment and permanently lower the residents' quality of life. Washington Post columnist Rudolph Pyatt called the Virginia legislature's decision to offer the project $163 million in improvements a "corporate welfare plan for Disney." Environmentalists agree, and hope to stop Disney's America by revealing the absurdity of offering millions of dollars to a wealthy corporation to help it build an environmentally destructive project that offers only speculative benefits. [http://d65.bu.edu/hootenanny/disney_rant/disney.html]