The Celebration chronicles : life, liberty and the pursuit of property values in Disney's new town

"Scholar and iconoclast Andrew Ross set out to answer questions by spending a year living in the much scrutinized, and often demonized, Celebration - the picture-perfect town that Disney is building for 20,000 people in the swamp and scrub of central Florida. Lavishly planned with a downtown center and newly minted antique homes, and front-loaded with an ultra-progressive school, hospital, and high-tech infrastructure, Celebration would be yet another fresh start in a world gone wrong. Yet behind the picket fences, gleaming facades, and "Kodak moment" streetscapes, Ross discovered a real place with real problems, and not a theme park village cooked up by the imagineers." "In this account, based on his personal encounters and on several hundred hours of interviews with residents, employees, and county locals, Ross records what went right and what went wrong in this latest version of the American Dream."--Jacket. Scholar and iconoclast Andrew Ross spent a year living in the much scrutinized, and often demonized, Celebration--the picture-perfect town that Disney is building for 20,000 people in the swamp and scrub of central Florida. Lavishly planned with a downtown center and newly minted antique homes, and front-loaded with an ultraprogressive school, hospital, and high-tech infrastructure, Celebration was to offer a fresh start in a world gone wrong. Yet behind the picket fences, gleaming facades, and "Kodak moment" streetscapes, Ross discovered a real place with real problems, and not a theme park village cooked up by the Imagineers. Compelling and wide-ranging in its analysis, The Celebration Chronicles provides a startlingly fresh perspective on the link between contemporary urban planning and corporate bottom lines. From the Trade Paperback edition. Homeward Bound -- The Price of Tradition -- The New Geewhizzery -- Main Street Is Better Than Alright -- Our Much-Rumored Life -- Riders on the Storm -- The Siege of the School -- Oil and Water -- It Takes a Village -- Kinder, Gentler Government? -- God's Houses, a Picture of Health, and the Color of Our Minds -- Not an Island -- Learning from Celebration.