in disney one mouse reigns supreme and
if you step foot on our disney world
property that mouse is now your
sovereign this is the story of how
disney world became its own government
the mid-1950s were a turbulent time in
america the korean war had just ended
and it wouldn't be long before the us
would find itself mired in another in
vietnam the u.s was also in the middle
of a cold war with the soviet union that
looked like it could turn hot at any
moment while elvis presley was shaking
his hips on national television leading
to millions of parents having to cover
their children's scandalized eyes it was
right in the middle of this time of
upheaval that a man named walter elias
disney opened his very own theme park in
anaheim california it was a place where
the public could go to truly get away
from it all and see their favorite
animated heroes from the screen come to
life it was a place where their wildest
dreams could come true for a price of
course disneyland was incredibly
successful so much so that walt was soon
looking for a location for a second park
one that he would make even bigger
grander and more importantly more
profitable because even though the park
had been a huge achievement walt knew
that it had a flaw surveys of visitors
to disneyland showed that only five
percent of the park's guests were from
the eastern half of the us apparently
even the happiest place on earth wasn't
good enough to convince new york
travelers to spend their hard-earned
dollars in california this meant that
disneyland was missing out on 75 percent
of the nation's population and with it
the largest pool of tourists in the
country but walt had a plan to fix that
his big idea was an even grander park a
whole self-contained world of happiness
and whimsy all infused with that disney
magic of course a disney world if you
will but this place was going to be
different from the first park in anaheim
disney wanted far greater control over
the surrounding areas as he intensely
disliked the businesses that had popped
up around disneyland which he felt
attracted from his vision of what the
disney theme park experience should be
he needed the land and a lot of it but
more importantly he needed it to be in a
place where he could wield ultimate
authority and where no pesky local
officials would try to disrupt his grand
plan for the world's greatest theme park
disney turned his eyes to florida and
found what he considered to be the
perfect location sure at the time it was
nothing more than a stinky steaming
swamp but walt could see past that and
recognize the potential for his walt
disney world resort he found a site
inhabited only by skunk apes and
alligators and which had the added
benefit of being very close to the
planned interstate 4 as well as the
florida turnpike in addition mccoy air
force base which would become orlando
international airport was also near the
planned construction site this placed
disney world in a spot with easy access
to major transportation hubs which
suited disney's plans to bring that
other 75 percent of the country to his
new resort there was just one problem
the 30 500 acres of land disney was
eyeing was cheap for now but if word got
out that the disney corporation was
looking to buy lands to build a new
resort prices would undoubtedly surge
potentially adding tens of millions of
dollars in cost to the project thus
disney world would have to be planned in
absolute secrecy no one outside of the
organization could know about the park
that meant that even internally no one
was allowed to utter the words disney
world and the project was referred to in
house only as the florida project any
leakers knew that they would face the
wrath of the most powerful mouse in the
world in order to keep the land prices
down the disney corporation created a
slew of shell corporations that it used
to acquire the land in question these
corporations bore more exotic names such
as i-4 corporation latin american
development and management corporation
and reedy creek ranch corporation this
tactic successfully kept landowners and
the government unaware of disney's slow
takeover of 48 square miles of florida
but they soon ran into another problem
mineral rights in the area belonged to
tufts university which could invoke its
right to mine for minerals at any time
and could force the removal of personnel
equipment and even buildings this was
obviously not gonna work for disney
since cinderella's castle isn't exactly
mobile luckily for disney they
eventually managed to negotiate the
mineral rights away from tufts acquiring
them for just fifteen thousand dollars
now with the land for the park secured
nothing could stop disney from making
their dream come true of building the
place where dreams come true sadly for
walt disney he wouldn't live to see his
dream fulfilled he died in 1966 after a
battle with cancer just one year after
the public announcement of disney world
his brother roy o disney took over the
park's construction and he too would
make sure that this wasn't your ordinary
run-of-the-mill theme park as walt had
himself said before he died disney world
would only stop growing when imagination
ran out such a massive planned theme
park would require more than just hotels
restaurants bathrooms and even
transportation it would need all the
same services as a small city but for
the disney corp trying to negotiate and
plan the administration of city services
on such a massive scale with the florida
government wouldn't just be a
bureaucratic nightmare it would also
dramatically add to operational costs
and it would mean disney wouldn't have
near absolute authority over its own
massive property something that the
mouse couldn't and wouldn't tolerate to
successfully control their own land
disney would need to negotiate with bay
lake and lake buena vista municipalities
essentially taking over the role of
government disney sought to effectively
govern itself free of any outside
influence but it's no surprise that this
idea came with a fair number of
detractors critics of the plan argued
that if disney was granted absolute
sovereignty it could for all intents and
purposes regulate itself dictating
things like the local minimum wage and
even what is or isn't illegal disney
pushed ahead though and petitioned hard
for the creation of a special district
that would essentially be under its
control while landowners in both bay
lake and lake buena vista would still be
able to vote on governance within the
disney district as a major landowner
itself disney would have incredible
power to enact statutes and measures
finally after persistent lobbying disney
got its wish and suddenly disney world
was free of the restraints forced it
upon your average joe theme park owner
in the rest of america well not quite
disney did win the right to control its
own infrastructure largely free of
statewide regulations and any associated
fees for public services this meant that
disney would be allowed to build its own
sewage and water systems as well as
roads however the company would still
have to follow federal safety guidelines
and environmental regulations you know
if they felt like it because honestly
nobody was really checking for a long
time this special disney district would
be named the reedy creek improvement
district it's governed by a five-member
board of supervisors which are elected
by landowners of the district since
disney is by far the largest landowner
it's no surprise that senior disney
executives are routinely elected in
landslide victories reedy creek
improvement district is a democracy like
the rest of the us only here every
choice is disney the district is
completely free of county and state
control except in the payment of
property taxes and elevator inspections
for this though disney would need to
provide its own fire medical and
environmental services in addition while
it operates a small army of security
staff disney must still rely on county
law enforcement and the florida highway
patrol to make arrests disney is free
however to enact its own building codes
and ensures the buildings are able to
withstand 110 mile per hour winds due to
florida's habit of getting in the way of
hurricanes for utilities disney uses a
subsidiary reedy creek energy services
to collect and manage wastewater as well
as dispose of its own trash and generate
its own electricity while disney
basically owns the district most roads
in the district are still public save
for a small number of minor and dead-end
roads which lead to disney attractions
the reedy creek fire department
basically subsidized by disney is
responsible for responding to fire and
medical emergencies throughout the
district though disney also keeps a
large number of on-site medics for park
emergencies disney world has been a huge
economic boon to the area though and
employs 62 000 people at the park itself
not to mention the millions and millions
of dollars that get brought to the area
and spent at other businesses by the
millions who visit the park each year
however it's believed that the disney
corporation owes the florida government
untold millions in property taxes by
pumping money into the election
campaigns of officials who promised to
keep taxes low disney has managed to
evade large sums in tax revenue for the
state recently however disney world
property has been reassessed and the
company's tax bill has increased enough
to warrant a slew of challenges and
lawsuits filed by disney corp against
florida disney's self-regulating special
district is pretty unprecedented and as
the company continues to grow and expand
it might be looking at similar
strategies in other places around the
country so you never know one day you
might wake up to find the mouse planting
his flag on your front lawn and with his
trademark giggle he'll inform you that
you and your whole family now belong to
disney too now go watch the video disney
doesn't want you to see totally messed
up things that have happened at disney
world or click this other video instead
viva la mas resistance