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1999
Kokopelli County
in the heart of the Arizona Sonoran Desert
will host Disney's most ambitious theme
park effort to date according to theTucson
Weekly newspaper. The Kokopelli County Board
of Supervisors is in negotiations with Disney
to set up an "Entertainment Improvement
District" (EID) covering over 600 square
miles of the county.
Disney AZ is expected
to cost over $6 billion and include the
classic attractions such as the Matterhorn,
Pirates of the Caribbean and Main Street
USA. New attractions for the park will include:
an animatronics Anasazi grinding corn and
weaving baskets; Duckville, a frontier town
so expansive that if it were real, it would
be the seventh-largest city in Arizona,
complete with covered-wagon monorail and
a complex municipal stagecoach system; and
a simulated Colorado River adventure, featuring
raft-like carts which travel on submerged
rails through a 1/4-scale fiberglass replica
of the Grand Canyon. The plans also include
the construction of 250 golf courses.
If this weren't enough,
surrounding the theme park will be an "UrbanMocks™"
of specific metropolitan areas. According
to a spokesperson referenced in a memo inside
the Tucson Weekly article, "We have
a unique opportunity to recreate the best
elements of our country's greatest cities
in an environment where the sun shines nearly
every day. Imagine a Manhattan with the
Empire State Building, Radio City Music
Hall, a thriving theatre district and an
outstanding collection of ethnic restaurants,
but no wailing car alarms, no muggings,
no ethnic population, no urban woes."
Again, according
to the article, "In a revolutionary
marketing agreement with fast-food giant
McDonald's, each UrbanMock™ is slated
to feature a series of drive-thru restaurants
iconically shaped for the leading landmark
of its model city: Fenway Park for McBoston,
the Statue of Liberty for McYork (a.k.a.,
the Big McApple), the Space Needle for McSeattle,
and so on. (McAngeles was cut from the list
when Anaheim-based Imagineers expressed
doubts that L.A.'s "unique nature"
could be recreated in the project.)"
For more details
and the full story, check out this link:
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/04-01-99/feat.htm
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