Miceage Update: New Soarin film by 2015, DHS refurb on the way.

PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Ooh, a really good point there! The SunCal housing project that a few council members like Lorri Galloway were supporting (after getting some $ commitment from SunCal) was a direct threat to the zoned Resort District set up in the 1990's for the expansion. That was definitely a factor in getting 1 Billion in expansion approved for DCA in late '07.

The blessing of size at WDW means that type of local government pressure could never exist for WDW, especially their theme parks.

Although I must say, the constant bad PR that Al Lutz and a few others were giving DCA, and getting quoted in the Wall Street Journal or USA Today for, certainly helped push the whole thing forward a bit.

The reality is that it was a series of various factors that all converged around 2004-07 to push it all forward. And the result in 2013 is an amazingly revitalized property at the Disneyland Resort.
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That's interesting. I didn't know they had to have Anaheim do some re-zoning. Besides the property that CL now sits on, what else was re-zoned?
 
PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
doctornick said:
I agree with you regarding the prequels, especially Episode 1. That said, I think there are some real solid reasons for doing Pod Racing....

(1) it would allow for theming the area to Tantooine (along with almost certainly Mos Eisley Cantina as well as other options like maybe something themed to Jabba the Hutt or Jawas or a Land Speeder), which is the probably the best planet to use. It has such a central role in the public consciousness of the franchise.
(2) Pod racing, as silly as it was in the movie, is a great foundation for a ride. You could have 4 or 5 different style ride vehicles, which would help with repeat-ability. And it certainly makes perfect sense for a race a la RSR.
(3) I think according to the expanded universe for SW, that the Boota Eve Classic is still run in the era of the OT. So, the date of the ride could be themed to circa Ep IV-VI. This might allow for some connections to the OT (maybe Han and Chewie in the crowd or even the Skywalker family or a secondary character like Biggs being involved). Also, making it pre-Episode VI would allow you to have an AA Jabba involved which, well, would be awesome.

As a complete aside, if WDI wanted to do a ride based on something not well described in the movies, but still somewhat know, maybe a ride themed to the Kessel Run would be cool. There would be a lot of freedom to develop that.
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You have to think outside the pod. What makes sense is that they will build an attraction around something planned for episode 7, 8, or 9!
 
Cosmic Commando

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
PeterAlt said:
That's interesting. I didn't know they had to have Anaheim do some re-zoning. Besides the property that CL now sits on, what else was re-zoned?
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The entire area around DLR was rezoned in the 90's so that it could only be used for theme parks, shops, restaurants, hotels, and other tourist-related things. This is when the area began to get cleaned up. Then there was this timeline of events regarding these parcels at the center of this map East and across the street from the Toy Story parking lot:

Late 2006(?) - Developer SunCal proposes to build 225 low-income apartments (and 1275 market-rate condominiums). There was was originally a hotel component that was later dropped. I don't know when the original proposal happened, but probably around late 2006.

Spring/Summer 2007 - Disney sues the city of Anaheim for this first time in history to keep residential development out of the resort district. Proponents of the development frame it as Disney being against low-income housing.

October 2007 - DCA makeover is announced. I think there were also noncommittal commitments from Disney around this time that a third park would be built on the Toy Story parking lot in the mid-term future (which was still strawberry fields at the time, I believe). Disney makes it clear that it will be investing major money in the resort district in the future.

By Christmas 2007, the project was dead. Keep in mind, at this time DCA was still a loser of a theme park that no one would be seen in. Disneyland was spruced up for the 50th, but hadn't (still hasn't) seen a big splashy expansion in some time. From the outside, it may have looked like the resort district was as big as it was ever going to get. Plus, these parcels are on the edge of the resort district next to I-5. With the announcement of more than $1B of investment and wispy promises on the wind of a third park on a plot of land right next to the proposed development, Disney reasserted its economic hegemony over the area. I don't mean that in a negative way, either: they showed that they weren't done investing in the resort district and that there was still growth to be had and good reason to save the land for more tourist-related development. Personally, I think the resort district is actually pretty small. I don't think it's a big deal to keep residential development out of that small area.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
The Universal parks already have a lot more planned for at least the next 8 years. That will happen irrespective of anything WDW plans to add.
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Let's not forget that Disney has yet to respond to Universal's announced spending spree of $1.5 billion. Disney can do the following:

1. Do nothing.
2. Respond in moderation (so that it appears to guests that Disney is keeping up with the competition) and not excalate things to the point where Universal feels it must counter-strike.
3. Declare all-out war and announce a spending spree out-doing Universal's $1.5 billion.

I think we will be lucky if they choose the second option. I don't think picking a fight with them is that wise since they have Comcast to help back them up with whatever a counter-strike may require, but, then again, Comcast has already declared war on Disney...
 
PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
Cosmic Commando said:
The entire area around DLR was rezoned in the 90's so that it could only be used for theme parks, shops, restaurants, hotels, and other tourist-related things. This is when the area began to get cleaned up. Then there was this timeline of events regarding these parcels at the center of this map East and across the street from the Toy Story parking lot:

Late 2006(?) - Developer SunCal proposes to build 225 low-income apartments (and 1275 market-rate condominiums). There was was originally a hotel component that was later dropped. I don't know when the original proposal happened, but probably around late 2006.

Spring/Summer 2007 - Disney sues the city of Anaheim for this first time in history to keep residential development out of the resort district. Proponents of the development frame it as Disney being against low-income housing.

October 2007 - DCA makeover is announced. I think there were also noncommittal commitments from Disney around this time that a third park would be built on the Toy Story parking lot in the mid-term future (which was still strawberry fields at the time, I believe). Disney makes it clear that it will be investing major money in the resort district in the future.

By Christmas 2007, the project was dead. Keep in mind, at this time DCA was still a loser of a theme park that no one would be seen in. Disneyland was spruced up for the 50th, but hadn't (still hasn't) seen a big splashy expansion in some time. From the outside, it may have looked like the resort district was as big as it was ever going to get. Plus, these parcels are on the edge of the resort district next to I-5. With the announcement of more than $1B of investment and wispy promises on the wind of a third park on a plot of land right next to the proposed development, Disney reasserted its economic hegemony over the area. I don't mean that in a negative way, either: they showed that they weren't done investing in the resort district and that there was still growth to be had and good reason to save the land for more tourist-related development. Personally, I think the resort district is actually pretty small. I don't think it's a big deal to keep residential development out of that small area.
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So, did they assume that Disney would purchase more land other than the strawberry field?

Also, I saw they decided not to build the people mover but to built an electric street car instead. Some of its route will be on dedicated rights if way and other parts will be on shared rights of way with automotive traffic. Even though I would have liked for them to build a people mover, I would have been sold on the street car if it used only exclusive rights of way and elevated over road crossings.
 
Animaniac93-98

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Cosmic Commando said:
You couldn't tell by the panda reference? :p I swear, if they ever get pandas in DAK, he'll be one of those people who gets mauled because he hops the fence to try and hug the panda bear.
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Police: Sir, what made you think you had the right to disobey trespassing laws and invade those panda's personal space?

RSoxNo1: I wub pandas...IS THAT SUCH A CRIME?!
 
Cosmic Commando

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
Animaniac93-98 said:
Police: Sir, what made you think you had the right to disobey trespassing laws and invade those panda's personal space?

RSoxNo1: I wub pandas...IS THAT SUCH A CRIME?!
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You think they're going to talk to him? Those pandas are property of the Chinese gov't... they're just gonna snatch him like they did to Jack Bauer!
 
Cosmic Commando

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
PeterAlt said:
So, did they assume that Disney would purchase more land other than the strawberry field?

Also, I saw they decided not to build the people mover but to built an electric street car instead. Some of its route will be on dedicated rights if way and other parts will be on shared rights of way with automotive traffic. Even though I would have liked for them to build a people mover, I would have been sold on the street car if it used only exclusive rights of way and elevated over road crossings.
Click to expand...

I had not heard anything about that project since it was just a "we should", so I did some quick reading...
-it will supposedly use only dedicated ROW around DLR, so that should help the line move quickly there.
-Disney is insisting that the power cables be buried for aesthetic reasons... but they put up fake wires inside DCA?!?!?
-I think they're really missing the boat with the route. I'm not super familiar with Anaheim the city, so I don't know all what else they're connecting to other than the Gardenwalk, the Intermodal station, the Angels Stadium and the Honda Center, but I would've extended the line further down Harbor Blvd to Chapman. Right now it ends at the Convention Center. There are literally 2,000 hotel rooms/suites at the corner of Harbor/Chapman that are not really included in the line. Plus, it would "catch" more of those hotel guests on Harbor further south of the convention center and encourage development along the route. The problem is that those 2,000 hotel rooms I mentioned are in Garden Grove, not Anaheim, so they don't pay taxes to Anaheim or the resort district. Still, I think Anaheim would have ROW to build up to the intersection and lure those potential customers in... maybe even be profitable. Often, when people get a big pile of money to play with, they build what they want or what sounds good rather than what they need. It seems like they're building a line so that people can take Amtrak and a bullet train to DIsneyland and the convention center, when I think they should be building a commuter line to reach as many hotels as possible and shuttle people from there to the DLR and convention center... that might actually make money.

Keep in mind that this is separate from whatever Disney decides to do when they build a parking garage on the Pumbaa lot or the third gate... you might get your Peoplemover then.
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
NoChesterHester said:
It's the worst counter service food in a park of bad counter service.
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A challenger appears...
electric-umbrella.jpg
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Virtual Insanity said:
This! One difference between the DLR audience and the WDW one is that those voting for change at WDW complain on a message board while those wanting change at DLR vote with their wallet. Disney was forced to re-invent DCA, they are not forced to re-invent any of WDW parks because people still go.

To give a sports analogy, the Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series in over 100 years, yet continue to sell out. Where is the incentive to put a winning product on the field?
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The only correlating factor for attendance at Cubs games is the price of beer.
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Cosmic Commando said:
You couldn't tell by the panda reference? :p I swear, if they ever get pandas in DAK, he'll be one of those people who gets mauled because he hops the fence to try and hug the panda bear.
Click to expand...

Animaniac93-98 said:
Police: Sir, what made you think you had the right to disobey trespassing laws and invade those panda's personal space?

RSoxNo1: I wub pandas...IS THAT SUCH A CRIME?!
Click to expand...
 

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