How Disney Changed Orlando

The Theme-Parking, Megachurching, Franchising, Exurbing, McMansioning of America.

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you.

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. More