“It’s as if somehow we should feel fortunate that Walt Disney chose Anaheim,” said city council member Jose Moreno, who was elected in 2016 as part of what locals call the first “anti-Disney” majority. “Maybe we should, but they should be grateful for a city that has helped them grow.”
Direct from his mouth, that just confirmed my worst fears. I'm afraid Dr. Moreno is at best a man who doesn't think much beyond his tiny world, and at worst he's a nut.
If Walt had chosen Pomona instead, Anaheim in 2018 would be a clone of Stanton but with more freeway noise.
Without Disneyland landing in Anaheim in 1955 and almost instantly becoming an international driver of visitation and visibility, you could also easily lay out an alternate timeline for all of Orange County from 1960 to 1990.
- No Anaheim Stadium in 1966, instead delayed until the 1970's and landing in master-planned Irvine.
- No Anaheim Convention Center & Arena in 1967, instead delayed and split; Arena in Irvine in 1970's, Convention Center in Huntington Beach in 1980.
- John Wayne Airport expansion circa 1970 delayed at least a decade, smaller daily operation in 2010's, fewer daily flights from Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, Salt Lake, Phoenix.
- Does South Coast Plaza get built in '67? Does Welton Becket master-plan Newport Center in '65, or is that delayed a decade or more? Where does UC Irvine land in '64 if Orange County is less developed and less populated without Disneyland? Without Disneyland, does Children's Hospital of Orange County become one of the finest in the nation? Etc., etc., etc.
If Walt had chosen Pomona, or Rowland Heights, or San Dimas instead of Anaheim, you could easily see how the growth and expansion of Orange County from 1955 to 1990 would have taken a very different track, making the entire county look different in the 2010's. Perhaps that alternate timeline would have been better for Orange County, with Irvine as the de facto "downtown" for the county and with a less known presence on the American psyche and global marketplace?
But for a public official to make the statement
"It's as if somehow we should feel fortunate that Walt Disney chose Anaheim" tells me that public official has a very limited grasp on the positive impact Walt's choice made on Anaheim and all of Orange County. It also tells me he's not really a thinking man, but a man with limited scope and vision.
