Why Disney World is in Florida

Disney World really is a kingdom.

Have you ever wondered why Disney World is located where it is? Or how it came to be such a massive, self-contained universe? It’s a story that involves secret land deals, special districts, and, now, a corporation and a government locked in a feud.

The story of why Disney World is in Florida marries business and governmental concerns about the creation of the massive property. The engineering ranges from unique physical construction (like the creation of a lake) to unique legal construction (like the creation of a self-running government that could even build its own sewer system).

Further Reading:

Disney news is also vibrant on YouTube. Mickey Views provides good perspective on the current battles.

[Vox]

Before deciding that year-round warm weather was a requirement, Disney considered two other East Coast locations: New Jersey’s Meadlowlands and a site near Washington DC.

Thanks for watching!
—Phil

[ByrdNick]

Is it weird that the conservative dream of a privately owned city with minimal government may be ended by people who call themselves conservative?

[WDSimp]

I wonder how Epcot would look today if they had continued making it a futuristic city as opposed to a part of the theme park.

[rig-zag]

You missed one big thing- Walt Disney originally wanted Disney World to be in Daytona Beach. However the city voted it down, as it wasn't wholesome enough, which is hilarious given what Daytona would become synonymous with.

[BenjamintheTortoise]

Interesting... I'm a native Floridian and local to the area, and I wasn't entirely clear on the politics involved that were highlighted in recent headlines. I also didn't truly realize just how flippin large the land was!! (Us locals avoid that area as much as we can... Far too much traffic) 😄 Great video, thanks!! 💕

[DeepDeepSpace]

Fun fact. Walt Disney's parents were married in central Florida, 50 miles north of the land Walt Disney World was built on.

[MustyMouse]

It's almost comical that Florida has no idea how much they need Disney. Classic Florida-man right there

[hugazo]

So basically Walt Disney was playing Cities Skylines IRL.

[iReima]

Walt Disney would have been a great antagonist for a Bioshock game

[ak]

It's funny how corporations control municipalities. In Japan, the city where Toyota's headquarters is located was renamed from Koromo City to Toyota City.

[peachywink]

My mom’s family moved to Orlando in 1959 and my parents still live there. It feels like he is spitting on town history. Disney World is something generations of my family are proud of, they remember it being built my mom was employed there as a teen in the 60s and drove the monorail, myself, and my cousins worked summer jobs. My uncle was a full-time employee. I just want him to leave Orange county out of his simple bumpkin soundbite seeking mind. People like Disney more than politicians, and he needs to get over it.

[alexluciano]

They actually considered New Orleans at one point. Imagine if they got that economic boost like Florida did

[schumanhuman]

One of the things Walt learned from Disneyland was how hotels were popping up miles out to capitalise on demand for the resort, the scale of Dsineyworld was explicitly to capture the externalties. Because of the scale however the land purchases had to be kept secet as long as possible to stop owners or land speculators from holding the land titles in expectation of the massive value the investment would create.
However though Disney did unusually create a large amount of local land value (and this argument is sometimes used to discredit land value tax despite being a total outlier), the sites were not chosen at random but to capitalse on exisiting and new public goods, as wiki entry explains
'. After witnessing the well-developed network of roads and taking the planned construction of both Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike into account, with McCoy Air Force Base (later Orlando International Airport) to the east, Disney selected a centrally located site near Bay Lake.'
So the state should still capture that value via a land tax or equivalent methods of value capture.

[AmaraJordanMusic]

I wished this went into more of the feud going on, but when I looked back at the title, I realized it may need its own video for that. This video did a great job of explaining what the title promises, and that’s all I can ask for!

[mariaholmstead]

As a former disney world employee, the only thing we're told as to why it was built in Florida was due to it being warm all year round, and it had lots of open areas which was good for building a big theme park. I knew Disney was a Republican but I had no idea him building the parks involved politics. Definitely makes sense though.

[nlpnt]

The two big issues Walt had with the Anaheim location, which are still true today, are that out-of-towners could stay "off property" at completely non-Disney-affiliated hotels which are easy walking distance from the main gate and locals (particularly) could see traffic on I-5 from the top of the Ferris wheel and strategically time their exit based on that.

[edl]

Epic battle between two cartoon rodents: Rat vs. Mouse.

[ej_tech]

"Don't mess with the mouse"

[purinpat]

I watched a documentary about Disneyland before. I think it was at Disney family museum. What happened with California Disneyland was that he wanted to whole area to be kid friendly. A lot of businesses nearby started to do whatever to benefit from the popularity of Disneyland that it started to become not so kid friendly. He bought a larger land in Florida to make sure that the surrounding areas will be Disneyland property in case he wants to expand and also to prevent businesses that will build things surrounding the park that will ruin the “fantasy” world that he wanted to build.

[whipsplash]

I'm glad Governor Ron Disaster showed us who he is before running for president.