Orlando Unmasked

Walt Disney's utopian dream forever changed Orlando, Florida, and laid the blueprint for the new American metropolis.

1 minute read

February 26, 2007, 7:00 AM PST

"Everything happening to America today is happening here, and it's far removed from the cookie-cutter suburbanization of life a generation ago. The Orlando region has become Exhibit A for the ascendant power of our cities' exurbs: blobby coalescences of look-alike, overnight, amoeba-like concentrations of population far from city centers. These huge, sprawling communities are where more and more Americans choose to be, the place where job growth is fastest, home building is briskest, and malls and megachurches are multiplying as newcomers keep on coming. Who are all these people? They're you, they're me, and increasingly, they are nothing like the blue-eyed 'Dick and Jane' of mythical suburban America..."

FULL STORY: The Theme-Parking, Mega Churching, Franchising, Exurbing, McMansioning of America

Friday, February 23, 2007 in National Geographic

Community / Economic Development Florida

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