It's a Small World, After All
I want to live in safety. I want to live in a place with
good neighbours and clean streets. I want to live somewhere
where the sun is always shining and the people are happy.
Where the sense of community is priority number 1 and no one
has heard of road-rage. I want to live where the local
school and hospital have the latest equipment to help me
through my life. Yes, I want to live in Celebration!
The town of Celebration in Florida, USA is currently being
built by the Disney Corporation (wouldn't ya just know it?)
and promises to provide all of the above. Families are
clamouring to live there and I can well understand why. The
town of Celebration will have that most rare thing in
American life: a community. There is to be a town hall,
sidewalk cafes, small individually owned shops (rather than
the bland franchise malls I hate so much there) and the
whole town will be walkable (if you can take the Florida
heat). Residents will be able to walk or cycle from their
homes to the town centre (yet another thing seldom seen in
the USA). No more driving for hours on concrete freeways
past garish advertising hoardings and neon signs just to get
to the local restaurant. Of course, to us in England and in
Europe, this is nothing new. Our towns and cities for the
most part are foot-friendly. We can walk to shops,
restaurants, bars, and we take the quaint bakery shop on the
corner for granted. Americans have none of this. What we
don't have in the UK, however, is safety, good neighbours
and sunshine. In Celebration, they're almost guaranteed.
If crime should raise it's ugly head, it'll be dealt with.
Fast. Undesirables won't even be allowed in through the
mouse shaped electronic gates that will undoubtedly guard
the entrance to the town. Everything will be hunky-dory,
peachy keen.
When I first heard about Celebration, I cringed. The
thought of living amongst all that Disney cheesiness seemed
too much to bear. I used to live close to Disneyland in
California and after visiting the place as often as I did
while living there, I feel nauseous every time I see that
big black mouse these days. I always felt pleased to leave
the theme park at the end of the day, and get back to the
real world, to people with facial hair and grumpy faces.
But now I've learned more about this new town in central
Florida, I'm hooked. Yes, I'd live there (that's if I could
afford it, which I can't). Yes, I'd send my children to the
Disney school (that's if I had some, which I don't). If
security, peace of mind, ease of life, great neighbours and
a strong community come at a price then I'm willing to buy
into it. And you know they will be good neighbours as
Disney organise seminars where the residents go along to
learn how to be that good neighbour, and find out what's
expected of them. Okay, so there may be rules to live by in
this corporate utopia but surely these guidelines can only
ensure the town of Celebration doesn't become a graffiti
covered, crack-smoking ghetto.
Demand to live in Celebration has been so great that a
lottery was held to determine which lucky families would
move into the first 500 houses being built. I `m full of
optimism for Celebration. I truly hope it works and that
the people who are fortunate enough to live there respect
the unique situation in which they're living. Somehow, I
get the feeling that they will.
Glenda Young is also the writer of the
weekly Coronation
Street Update on the net, and can be contacted at:
glenda@londonmall.co.uk
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