The Dog Ate My Hard Drive
Disney's going into the town-building business. Twenty-four years ago, I wrote about the "futuristic" model school in their first burg: Celebration, Florida.
This week, Disney revealed plans to build a series of towns that will lets residents “'be part of Disney all of the time.”
Twenty-four years ago, I wrote about Disney’s first planned community - Celebration, Florida - for Spin. Located minutes from the Magic Kingdom theme parks, it felt like The Truman Show for Disney freaks. The town looked like a Norman Rockwell fantasy with clean perfect homes on clean perfect streets. Mickey Mouse flags hung over the rocking chairs on the porches.
I was focusing on the grade school, which was supposed to be a high-tech model for the future: wired, and online. This was 1998, and there was a lot of excitement there about what the still larval Web would bring. But, during my visit, it all seemed to be bringing problems that the teachers were ill-equipped to manage. You can read my story, “The Dog Ate My Hard Drive,” archived here.
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