Celebration (Florida)

Osceola County

12-11285

Celebration is a planned city and a census- designated place (CDP ) in Osceola County in the U.S. state of Florida with 7,427 inhabitants ( 2010). The place was realized in 1994 by The Walt Disney Company. It is located near to Walt Disney World Resort.

Geography

Celebration is located about 10 km west of Kissimmee and about 20 km south of Orlando. The CDP is from Interstate 4, from U.S. Highway 192 (SR 530 ) and by the Florida State Road 417 (Central Florida Greeneway, toll road) crosses or touches.

History

Celebration was built on the site of The Walt Disney Company; the area was broke before.

Osceola County was except close to the Walt Disney World Resort also chosen for tax reasons. Urban maxim was to create a replica of a historic city such as Savannah, Charleston and Nantucket.

The first settlers arrived in 1996. Residents have any perks for the Walt Disney Company. Your life is governed by a 70 -page " pattern book". Also, the school system is guided by the Disney Corporation. In 2004, the city center was sold by the Disney corporation to a private real estate investor from New York. 2008, the financial crisis hit the then 11,000 inhabitants community. In the first half of the year 2010 106 families were forced to sell their homes. The local movie theater had to close.

Demographics

According to the 2010 census, the then 7,427 inhabitants distributed to 4,086 households. The population density was 269.1 inh. / Km ². 91.0 % of the population were white, 1.5% African American, 0.2% Native American and 3.2% Asian Americans. 1.7% were members of other ethnic groups and 2.2% in different ethnic groups. 11.2% of the population were Hispanic or Latino.

In 2010, children under the age of 18 and 17.7 % of all households lived in 36.6 % of all households with persons at least 65 years. 71.5 % of households were family households (consisting of married couples with or without offspring or a parent with offspring ). The average size of a household was 2.61 persons and the average family size is 3.08 people.

27.7 % of the population were younger than 20 years, 23.6% were 20-39 years old, 32.4 % were 40-59 years old and 16.3 % were at least 60 years old. The median age was 39 years. 47.6 % of the population were male and 52.4 % female.

The average annual income was $ 92,670, while 4.1% of the population lived below the poverty line.

In 2000, English was the mother tongue of 93.85 % of the population spoke Spanish 4.30% and 1.84 % spoke Italian.

Historical Architecture Relevance

Already in 1965 Charles Willard Moore described in an article by " Perspecta ", the architectural magazine of Yale University, the original leisure center Disneyland as "the most important cohesive piece of architecture of recent decades " in the American West. In particular, the car-free idyll of Main street, USA impressed in the fully oriented to the individual traffic Los Angeles as a nostalgic counterpart humane urbanity. The discussion has been updated through the realization of Celebration in the sense of New Urbanism, the influential architecture magazine Domus devoted Celebration around November 1996, a special issue (No. 787), the Architecture Biennale 1996 in Venice presented the planned city of the Disney Group prominently in the American Pavilion.

The Disney Town offers similar Seaside, Florida, ( the location of The Truman Show ) or Port Grimaud (France) the example of a high-tech small-town idyll for the upper middle class and so documented as traits of postmodernism.

Walt Disney's idea of the perfect city

Mid-1960s, designed with Disney Epcot (Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow ) an ( ideal ) City of the Future, which was, however, so never realized, but has only been implemented as a theme park. It should not only be a planned city, but can also be controlled from the Disney corporation city. Concomitantly meant Disney's plan, the privatization of a large number of government functions. The plans for Epcot saw a complete urban infrastructure - in economic, social and technical aspects. The goal was "to create private-sector model of the social organization of the community [ to ] " a. In addition to the intention of letting control the city as an economic project by the Disney Corporation, Disney introduced a comprehensive regulation of the community to rules on dress and behavior before and curtailment of democratic rights of citizens Epcot. About Epcot Disney said:

"It will be a Planned, controlled community, a showcase of American industry [ ... ]. There will be no country THEREFORE owners and no voting control. People will rent houses instead of buying them, and at modest rentals. There will be no retirees. Everyone must be employed. One of our requirements is did the people who live in Epcot must help to keep it alive " (quoted by Thomas, Walt Disney - An American Original, p 349 )

Celebration as a utopian city model

Celebration animated Walt Disney's vision again. Conceptually, being considered as " ideal city " Celebration is planned as a small town in the style of Main Street USA, which will have a maximum of 20,000 inhabitants according to Disney performances. For the design of the houses, there are strict requirements, from which no derogation is possible. The small town idyll is to be ensured by visual harmony.

In contrast to the futuristic plans for Epcot to Celebration oriented more to the past. The city conception embodies a return to all-American values ​​of neighborhood and community, so there is no fencing as in the gated communities. The community in Celebration is extensively regulated by the Disney Corporation, a democratically elected citizens' representation in the form of a city council with mayor does not exist, and the administrative tasks are partly privatized. Each new resident must contractually agree to accept Disney's rules, which include, among others, a nine-month compulsory attendance. Furthermore specifies the Group Code of Conduct, which prohibit about modifications to the homes or require the design of the garden and the curtains color.

Criticism of Celebration

At the conception of Celebration, the absence of democratic structures is always criticized, which is flanked by Disney's regulation of citizens in private by the contractually agreed rules of conduct aggravating. Claus Leggewie stated: " The " public discourse. " In Celebration is also durchorchestriert as the house and garden architecture " also criticized Frank Roost generally Disney's desire an ideal city of the future with the associated community that is subject to the control of the Group, subject to want.