The Town that Mickey Built

Celebration, FL (taken with my cool Panorama option on my iPhone)

Everybody is familiar with Disney Land, Disney World, and Epcot, but did you know that in the '90s Disney built a town?  It's called Celebration and it's just south of the gates to Central Florida's Magic Kingdom.

Downtown Celebration

The idea was to build a master-planned community with the perfection of the Disney product.  The style is early 20th century.  According to Zillow.com, which measures real estate value, housing prices run from condos for $200,000 to single family homes in the millions.

Porches grace most of the single family homes.

  The community has a golf course, lots of parks, and churches (the Sunday evening Catholic Mass is contemporary, and it ROCKS...) in addition to its downtown area.  Stetson University also has a campus within the confines of the community.  You won't find gas stations or grocery stores, but you will find a bakery for dogs (Riley's favorite haunt).

At first glance, a visitor might think of that movie, "The Stepford Wives."  Everything IS pretty orderly. I was reminded of the play, "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder.  This is a place where people walk to go out to dinner and they talk to their neighbors.  People are genuinely friendly here.  Whether you're in line at the post office or the theatre, the locals will engage in conversation.

Post Office

Theatre

It's not all perfect, however. On a recent trip we noticed a marked change in downtown once the high school lets out for the day.  Hoards of teens make their way, on skateboards, to the brick paved streets of downtown Celebration.  It quickly puts a damper on strolling along tree-lined streets wishing for a bygone era.  The facade may change, but the problems of modern communities remain the same.

Never fear, however.  Unlike "Our Town" of Thorton's imagination, Disney Imagineers were savvy enough to include a Starbucks: it's the anecdote for anything that ails you.

Don't even think about the perfect town without a Starbucks.

Spinning Class: No Politicians Allowed

I joined the YMCA in a working class neighborhood of Osceola County here in Central Florida.  The Y is nestled between a local elementary school and the middle and high school on a quiet side street.  It’s away from the hustle and bustle of vacation revelers.  On any given morning, as I make my way into the parking lot, children from the local school walk over as a class in one straight line to get their swimming lessons.  For many of these children, this is their big chance to learn the lifelong skill of swimming.  Not only is it fun, but this generation has seen its physical education time dwindle. This is a chance to move.  

The majority of these children get free breakfast and free lunch at school.  For the time they are in the pool, they are free to float, dive, and splash: to be children without a care in the world.

Once inside the Y, I walk to the spinning class led by Patricia.  Patricia is from Bogota, Columbia.  At 5 feet, she is has the energy and enthusiasm of Minnie Mouse, and the drive and determination of a world-class Drill Sergeant.  In the class, I am the only gringo.  Patricia likes to go around the room and holler out country names to find out where people originated.  On this day, we represent Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil, and Portugal.  

Perhaps because I have been bombarded by political ads for the past few months, I suddenly realize I am surrounded by a political trifecta: they are women, they are Soccer Moms, and, most importantly this year, they are Latinas.  I chuckle to myself because there are two empty bikes in front of me.  I imagine Mitt on one and Barack on the other.  They’ll have to pedal hard to keep up with these women to make their promises of a better tomorrow.  This is NOT the spin of politics.

Before class, conversation was about the teenagers at home who wouldn’t get out of bed to come to the Y.  One was worried about a college-age daughter who couldn’t find a job worthy of her education.  Another woman worried that her job might go away in this unstable economy.  These are the concerns of any woman, any town, any color, in America.  We need not be categorized by pollsters.  We all want the same thing: a healthy country, safe from terrorism, in which we can be proud.