The Connection with Christopher Lydon. September 28, 1999. Disney's brave new town may be America's best known attempt at a planned community. Painstakingly designed but shoddily built, Celebration hasn't been the dreamtown that many of it's inhabitants envisioned - straight from the Norman Rockwell sketchbook. It's been a bumpy ride, especially around the controversial school, but a mixture of civic pride and Disney magic seem to be holding it together.
Celebration offers one answer.
Homes in Celebration are packed close together and set up near the road. Most have front porches to encourage walking and neighborliness. Harvard consults on the schools to insure progressiveness. Main Street gets vacuumed to promote cleanliness, and the town s name is trademarked, to promote - well, just to promote. And there are problems.