lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Walt Disney World does house employees in the International Programs and College Program.
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New Disneyland Parking Garage and Transportation Hub
- Thread starter RMichael21
- Start date
D
Deleted member 107043
Stripes
Premium Member
I'm friends with the daughter of the folks that own the Tropicana. She's told me that Disney has approached her parents on numerous occasions to buy the hotel (and demolish it) with apparently very generous offers I might add. But, the owners always say no, because they actually live in one of the penthouses on the top floor of the hotel. The daughter's family frequently stays there with them and has invited us a few times as well. They are extremely nice and caring people.
Darkbeer1
Well-Known Member
and here is a piece of news that has direct relationship to parking and the city of Anaheim.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/platinum-732574-angels-city.html
>>
The team, which is in discussions with the city to repair the aging stadium, had cited game-day traffic, parking issues and environmental issues including noise and air quality among their concerns.
Councilwoman Kris Murray instructed city staff to conduct a traffic analysis in the Platinum Triangle and around Angel Stadium.
“We are pleased that LT Global worked with us in a timely and collaborative effort to address the impacts of their development on our fan experience,” Angels President John Carpino said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the city to finalize details on important transportation improvements for the Platinum Triangle in the coming weeks.”<<
http://ltplatinumcenter.com/
Currently, there is a parking structure for about 3,500 vehicles in the plans.
But still, the city isn't 100% happy with the situation, and why Councilperson Kris Murray has directed the city to work on an extensive traffic and parking assessment before the project moves forward.
So projects move on.
Also addressed at last night's city council meeting was the West Anaheim enhancements on Beach Blvd, and that the process is still in a very early age, and is currently dealing with taxing entities and school districts in looking into an agreement, and preliminary talks are just starting. So not much hope of using that large empty lot at Beach and Lincoln.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/platinum-732574-angels-city.html
>>
The team, which is in discussions with the city to repair the aging stadium, had cited game-day traffic, parking issues and environmental issues including noise and air quality among their concerns.
Councilwoman Kris Murray instructed city staff to conduct a traffic analysis in the Platinum Triangle and around Angel Stadium.
“We are pleased that LT Global worked with us in a timely and collaborative effort to address the impacts of their development on our fan experience,” Angels President John Carpino said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the city to finalize details on important transportation improvements for the Platinum Triangle in the coming weeks.”<<
http://ltplatinumcenter.com/
Currently, there is a parking structure for about 3,500 vehicles in the plans.
But still, the city isn't 100% happy with the situation, and why Councilperson Kris Murray has directed the city to work on an extensive traffic and parking assessment before the project moves forward.
So projects move on.
Also addressed at last night's city council meeting was the West Anaheim enhancements on Beach Blvd, and that the process is still in a very early age, and is currently dealing with taxing entities and school districts in looking into an agreement, and preliminary talks are just starting. So not much hope of using that large empty lot at Beach and Lincoln.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Fascinating. Thanks again for the updates on this @Darkbeer1.
A couple decades ago I was involved socially with the Provost of the University of Washington, a typically huge and wealthy Pac 10 (back then) school with 40,000 undergrads on a sprawling, drop-dead-gorgeous campus in Seattle.
When this gentleman was on his second cocktail, he used to half-joke that there were only three things that really mattered in his Provost job and that he constantly focused on and worried about;
1. Football. If the Huskies were losing, no one was happy, from Prospective Freshmen to Aged Alumni.
2. Food quality. In the dining halls secondly, but most importantly in the Faculty Club.
3. Parking. If there was not a parking space available for students, Faculty or Alums, there was heck to pay.
He could ignore the multi-Billion dollar financial endowment tied to the stock market, the latest grad school research up for a Nobel prize, the plunging or soaring SAT averages of incoming Freshmen, ladies lingerie hanging from the trees on Fraternity Row, and any other minor triviality of higher education. But if Football, Food or Parking became an issue, the alarm sirens went off, the hate mail and bad press came pouring in, and everyone panicked about the future of the institution.
I feel like the same could be said about Disneyland. Except the last 10 years of revolving-door Presidents in TDA don't have the vision or the skills to focus on those three things all at once. Football could be analogous to the "show" in the parks. Food is food. And Parking is parking. In the last decade, Disneyland has done a great job on the show, a mediocre job on the food, and a horrible job at parking.
But Michael Colglazier and Bob Chapek get to valet park at the Grand Californian when they deem it neccesary to visit the parks with friends or family. Idiots.
A couple decades ago I was involved socially with the Provost of the University of Washington, a typically huge and wealthy Pac 10 (back then) school with 40,000 undergrads on a sprawling, drop-dead-gorgeous campus in Seattle.
When this gentleman was on his second cocktail, he used to half-joke that there were only three things that really mattered in his Provost job and that he constantly focused on and worried about;
1. Football. If the Huskies were losing, no one was happy, from Prospective Freshmen to Aged Alumni.
2. Food quality. In the dining halls secondly, but most importantly in the Faculty Club.
3. Parking. If there was not a parking space available for students, Faculty or Alums, there was heck to pay.
He could ignore the multi-Billion dollar financial endowment tied to the stock market, the latest grad school research up for a Nobel prize, the plunging or soaring SAT averages of incoming Freshmen, ladies lingerie hanging from the trees on Fraternity Row, and any other minor triviality of higher education. But if Football, Food or Parking became an issue, the alarm sirens went off, the hate mail and bad press came pouring in, and everyone panicked about the future of the institution.
I feel like the same could be said about Disneyland. Except the last 10 years of revolving-door Presidents in TDA don't have the vision or the skills to focus on those three things all at once. Football could be analogous to the "show" in the parks. Food is food. And Parking is parking. In the last decade, Disneyland has done a great job on the show, a mediocre job on the food, and a horrible job at parking.
But Michael Colglazier and Bob Chapek get to valet park at the Grand Californian when they deem it neccesary to visit the parks with friends or family. Idiots.
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NobodyElse
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the update. I saw that LT Platinum Center story this morning. I know that spot at St. College/Orangewood has been earmarked for this project for a while, but part of me wishes they could have situated it somewhere roughly between the stadium and ARTIC. Working out a land swap, I would have liked to see them use the green section instead of the blue section in the picture below. (Ideally, they would incorporate the Grove theater.)
Oh well. We should start some sort of pool where people can predict who will reach 90% occupancy first, and when - them or AGW.
Oh well. We should start some sort of pool where people can predict who will reach 90% occupancy first, and when - them or AGW.
Darkbeer1
Well-Known Member
First off, the Carousel is officially closed...
http://www.carouselinnandsuites.com/
OK, while who knows what the city council will be like in January, 2017. Let's look back in history.
Orange County in general has always cared about transportation and roads, look at the difference between Orange County and Los Angeles County in amounts spend on better freeways and roads.
Since Orange County was widening and improving the I-5 at about the same time as Disneyland being converted to a resort, the access was well designed, such as the Carpool lane exit from southbound 5 to Disneyland Drive and the flyover over Ball Road.
But almost every request that Disney has made to city, the city responds with "What about traffic and parking?", and as we can see, not just Disney, but any project in Anaheim (Such as the special Carpool lane exit for Gene Autry Way and Angel Stadium.).
As mentioned earlier, the special facility that Anaheim built to deal with "live" traffic control in the area was money well spent.
And the focus continues today. As this thread has discussed in length, the "City" wants better traffic flow, and that includes Harbor Blvd and reducing the amount of vehicles and pedestrians to other areas as best they can. Will that impact some of the guests staying current on Harbor between Manchester and Katella, yes, it will, but it is a minor issue in the eyes of the city, as they are looking at the overall situation.
And so is the county (Harbor Blvd is a main thoroughfare thought the area), OCTA, etc.
The last item at last night's council meeting was a Taxi cab issue. Amazing that the city requires a green fleet, and a certain percentage of vehicles to be ADA accessible. So it is amazing that these companies that have to follow all these regulations, verify their drivers with security checks and special licensing, and many other things that systems like Uber/Lyft are bypassing. No wonder they are cheaper, but as they say, you pay for what you get. A week doesn't go by without multiple news stories about Uber/Lyft drivers and the problems they cause.
So yes, TDA has majorly dropped the ball, and the city has forced them to make short-term fixes, but they can't make them do the long tern investments, except when projects like this one come up for city review.
Buena Park and Anaheim are looking at improving the traffic issues on Beach Boulevard currently, which is a good thing.
But you keep adding things like new areas at the Disneyland Resort, additional space for the Convention Center, now the LT Platinum project, and the possible redoing of Angel Stadium. (And one of the main goals by the Angels owner is to get more rights to develop the current parking lot, basically building parking structures and then use the remaining land to buy more shops/restaurants and housing, which of course, requires more parking overall.)
Looks like we will be playing Super Jumbo Jenga in the area for awhile.
http://www.carouselinnandsuites.com/
OK, while who knows what the city council will be like in January, 2017. Let's look back in history.
Orange County in general has always cared about transportation and roads, look at the difference between Orange County and Los Angeles County in amounts spend on better freeways and roads.
Since Orange County was widening and improving the I-5 at about the same time as Disneyland being converted to a resort, the access was well designed, such as the Carpool lane exit from southbound 5 to Disneyland Drive and the flyover over Ball Road.
But almost every request that Disney has made to city, the city responds with "What about traffic and parking?", and as we can see, not just Disney, but any project in Anaheim (Such as the special Carpool lane exit for Gene Autry Way and Angel Stadium.).
As mentioned earlier, the special facility that Anaheim built to deal with "live" traffic control in the area was money well spent.
And the focus continues today. As this thread has discussed in length, the "City" wants better traffic flow, and that includes Harbor Blvd and reducing the amount of vehicles and pedestrians to other areas as best they can. Will that impact some of the guests staying current on Harbor between Manchester and Katella, yes, it will, but it is a minor issue in the eyes of the city, as they are looking at the overall situation.
And so is the county (Harbor Blvd is a main thoroughfare thought the area), OCTA, etc.
The last item at last night's council meeting was a Taxi cab issue. Amazing that the city requires a green fleet, and a certain percentage of vehicles to be ADA accessible. So it is amazing that these companies that have to follow all these regulations, verify their drivers with security checks and special licensing, and many other things that systems like Uber/Lyft are bypassing. No wonder they are cheaper, but as they say, you pay for what you get. A week doesn't go by without multiple news stories about Uber/Lyft drivers and the problems they cause.
So yes, TDA has majorly dropped the ball, and the city has forced them to make short-term fixes, but they can't make them do the long tern investments, except when projects like this one come up for city review.
Buena Park and Anaheim are looking at improving the traffic issues on Beach Boulevard currently, which is a good thing.
But you keep adding things like new areas at the Disneyland Resort, additional space for the Convention Center, now the LT Platinum project, and the possible redoing of Angel Stadium. (And one of the main goals by the Angels owner is to get more rights to develop the current parking lot, basically building parking structures and then use the remaining land to buy more shops/restaurants and housing, which of course, requires more parking overall.)
Looks like we will be playing Super Jumbo Jenga in the area for awhile.
Darkbeer1
Well-Known Member
Well, here is the big player that we all love and hate in regards to parking in SoCal and Theme Parks.
http://www.gibsontransportation.com/index.html
The company was mentioned during Tuesday's city council meeting.
http://www.gibsontransportation.com/index.html
The company was mentioned during Tuesday's city council meeting.
NobodyElse
Well-Known Member
I dropped by the North end of AGW today. There is work going on, and there is noticeable progress from my last visit. It looks like much of the interior framing is being completed, with some areas of sheet-rock already installed. There's plenty of work to be done, but at least they seem to be (mostly) done with the demo of the theater.
I'll try to post some not-very-glamorous photos later today.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Thank you! I also drove by just this evening after leaving DTD, and it appears McFadden's Pub has closed, on the ground floor beneath House of Blues. The lights were off and no one was home on a Thursday evening at Happy Hour time. GardenWalk can't catch a break.
NobodyElse
Well-Known Member
Here are some photos. (Second attempt if you happened to see an earlier post.)
Overview of the HOB project. Note the new "Coming Spring 2017" graphics.
More of a close-up of some of the new interior dry-wall.
A quick, sloppy shot through the open construction wall door.
The back-side of HOB. Note the large hole in the wall (with roll-up door) and two new large beams running up the side and into the building.
The hole.
One of the beams.
That's it for now. I hope these help some of you visualize what's going on. (I'm really curious about those beams. It must have been determined that the project needed substantially more support than the original theaters.)
Overview of the HOB project. Note the new "Coming Spring 2017" graphics.
More of a close-up of some of the new interior dry-wall.
A quick, sloppy shot through the open construction wall door.
The back-side of HOB. Note the large hole in the wall (with roll-up door) and two new large beams running up the side and into the building.
The hole.
One of the beams.
That's it for now. I hope these help some of you visualize what's going on. (I'm really curious about those beams. It must have been determined that the project needed substantially more support than the original theaters.)
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Very nicely done @NobodyElse! Thanks for sharing that.
I enjoy that they've now changed the sign to "Spring 2017" from Summer 2016". I think your hunch is correct that the new steel beams offer a clue why this is taking so much longer; there was likely structural issues to be designed around.
I enjoy that they've now changed the sign to "Spring 2017" from Summer 2016". I think your hunch is correct that the new steel beams offer a clue why this is taking so much longer; there was likely structural issues to be designed around.
D
Deleted member 107043
What time of day were the photos taken? Why aren't there workers inside?
NobodyElse
Well-Known Member
This was roughly lunchtime (between noon and 1:00). There were workers inside, as well as coming and going to and from the site and construction office. I was actually doing my best to avoid taking their pictures. (BTW, that's part of the reason the pictures of the back-side are at somewhat awkward angles. There were guys up in the opening, as well as down below doing clean-up and I didn't want to be right on them while shooting.)
NobodyElse
Well-Known Member
Here are a few AGW bonus photos regarding the previously mentioned graphic window coverings.
Example 1, featuring "Mojito" and "Taverna".
Example 2, featuring "Grasslands Meat Market".
The above locations are on the East side of the North end of AGW on what they call the Main Level, across the courtyard from "Billy Beez", which you can somewhat see in one of my previous photos. There is no evidence of any development going on here, and even less on the barren wasteland of storefronts on the level above.
But, back across the courtyard, across from the (former?) McFadden's, under HOB we find this (indicating that Grasslands may someday be a real thing):
And to it's right, we see this:
So, at least those are actual construction walls. And (take it for what it's worth) the AGW site mentions this:
"Exciting happenings are well underway with the addition of House of Blues Anaheim, Rumba Room Live, Grasslands Meat Market and Mission Escape Games, soon-to-be opened."
And one last observation, Apparently MOJITO LATIN CUISINE AND BAR is a real place in West Palm Beach, FL. So, it might not be as purely fictional as we might think. (Side note: I can't help thinking there's a bit of chicken/egg going on here. Who would want to open up a shop or restaurant in a center void of customers, but why would customers show up to a center void of compelling locations?)
Example 1, featuring "Mojito" and "Taverna".
Example 2, featuring "Grasslands Meat Market".
The above locations are on the East side of the North end of AGW on what they call the Main Level, across the courtyard from "Billy Beez", which you can somewhat see in one of my previous photos. There is no evidence of any development going on here, and even less on the barren wasteland of storefronts on the level above.
But, back across the courtyard, across from the (former?) McFadden's, under HOB we find this (indicating that Grasslands may someday be a real thing):
And to it's right, we see this:
So, at least those are actual construction walls. And (take it for what it's worth) the AGW site mentions this:
"Exciting happenings are well underway with the addition of House of Blues Anaheim, Rumba Room Live, Grasslands Meat Market and Mission Escape Games, soon-to-be opened."
And one last observation, Apparently MOJITO LATIN CUISINE AND BAR is a real place in West Palm Beach, FL. So, it might not be as purely fictional as we might think. (Side note: I can't help thinking there's a bit of chicken/egg going on here. Who would want to open up a shop or restaurant in a center void of customers, but why would customers show up to a center void of compelling locations?)
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Again, @NobodyElse, thank you for getting these shots. I can't bring myself to park and get out of the car whenever I drive by GardenWalk.
The "coming soon" restaurants and their signs have been there for at least two years, if not approaching three years now. But the chicken and the egg dilemma is probably real for these places. It would be such a huge surprise to have House of Blues open next April, and by June have several new restaurants and nightclubs open directly adjacent to them. Talk about rising from the ashes!
The "coming soon" restaurants and their signs have been there for at least two years, if not approaching three years now. But the chicken and the egg dilemma is probably real for these places. It would be such a huge surprise to have House of Blues open next April, and by June have several new restaurants and nightclubs open directly adjacent to them. Talk about rising from the ashes!
Darkbeer1
Well-Known Member
OK, folks, I can't make this stuff up, here is a top 10 list from USA Today, Shopping Centers in Orange County.
Look who is Number 1, and it isn't either South Coast Plaza or the Irvine Spectrum Center..
http://www.10best.com/destinations/california/orange-county/shopping/shopping-centers-districts/
Have a great weekend!!!
Look who is Number 1, and it isn't either South Coast Plaza or the Irvine Spectrum Center..
http://www.10best.com/destinations/california/orange-county/shopping/shopping-centers-districts/
Have a great weekend!!!
NobodyElse
Well-Known Member
Oh my goodness. None of us would dare try to pass off something that outlandish as news or truth.
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Old Mouseketeer
Well-Known Member
Well, consider the source: USAToday--the paper for people with 50 cents! I wonder how much AGW paid for that placement.