Comments on: Disney's Private Government

Disney's Private Government

TheOnlyCoolTim — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:37:28 -0800

The Reedy Creek Improvement District's goal "is to provide effective and efficient services to the public and our taxpayers." The taxpayer is Disney, and the taxes are used to provide services for Disney by contracting the services to Disney. The RCID is a county-like entity in Florida, composed of the cities of Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake, which are also controlled by Disney. The government of the RCID is elected by the landowners - Disney executives who own five-acre plots, the only non-corporate and non-government landowners. The governments of the cities are elected by the residents - about 40 Disney employees split between Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista. The Rotten Library (SFW article on a NSFW site) discusses the district, which is administered from a SimCity 2000 construction site.

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 04:12:39 -0800

The mind, she boggles. I'm pretty sure it's how you-know-who intended Germany to be like.

By: pax digita

pax digita — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:03:22 -0800

Here's a review of Carl Hiaasen's book of yore on this very subject, Team Rodent. on preview: oxford blue, I'm imagining Mickey saying "Nur so gewinnen wir den Lebensraum, den wir brauchen" in that high-pitched squeaky voice of his.

By: maryh

maryh — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:18:54 -0800

Thanks, TheOnlyCoolTim. I look forward to reading these links. I first heard about this whacked out situation when a friend of mine briefly moved to Celebration, Disney's corporate governed planned community. And thanks for the link to Team Rodent, pax digita, it sounds like a must-read.

By: mkb

mkb — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:22:05 -0800

By: pax digita

pax digita — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:23:00 -0800

maryh, anytime. Hoping misslynnster sees the FPP and drops by -- she was a cast member (what Disney calls employees).

By: nofundy

nofundy — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:48:03 -0800

The mouse that ate Florida.

By: rikschell

rikschell — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:51:08 -0800

I'm in UR metafilter, Godwining UR posts.

By: SirOmega

SirOmega — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:06:57 -0800

Disney: the only corporation with its own legal police dept.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:44:22 -0800

I think you'll find that many private universities are both legal corporations and have their own real, no-shit police departments. Their officers are AFAIK usually a different sort of county deputy.

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 08:40:22 -0800

An interesting thing about Celebration is that it was removed from the RCID and the two cities, ensuring that the people there don't get voting rights as landowners/residents.

By: ThatSomething

ThatSomething — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:17:08 -0800

Richard Foglesong's Married to the Mouse is another great book on the relationship between Disney, Orlando, and the rest of the state. Disney doesn't control Celebration anymore, but they do still have a lot of offices over there; mostly sales and the cruise line.

By: [expletive deleted]

[expletive deleted] — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:21:23 -0800

This struck me from the Wikipedia article:

The District, as with any municipal corporation, can issue tax-free bonds for internal improvements. This became a point of contention when a 1985 law limited the amount of tax-free bonds in Florida. The eligible bonds were chosen randomly, causing the District to beat out Orange County, which had planned to build low-income housing, in 1989.

If this is true, it makes me want to vomit. So bonds were chosen randomly, and an entity created and entirely controlled by a for profit corporation won out over bonds needed to build subsidized housing for the poor? Where the fuck is the state government in this? I guess the Florida legislature decided that corporations that don't want to pay taxes have as much right to this fundraising power as actual municipal governments using the money to help the poor. Give Disney whatever it wants, it's good for the economy. What have the poor ever done for Florida's economy? Fuck the poor. Fuck them.

By: box

box — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:44:17 -0800

If you like Team Rodent, you'll also likely enjoy Richard Schickel's The Disney Version.

By: nofundy

nofundy — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 10:34:04 -0800

You forgot to delete your expletive. (but I agree with the sentiment)

By: Elsbet

Elsbet — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:35:23 -0800

Also, no one owns land in Celebration. You lease the land and own your house/condo/whatever.

By: grouse

grouse — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:27:30 -0800

RCID has long fascinated/weirded me out. Thanks for this post.

By: serazin

serazin — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:47:50 -0800

Facinating. This is all news (although not terribly surprising news) to me!