Somewhere in my personal papers is a folded, torn poster of Mickey Mouse commemorating his long reign as the world's most famous rodent. It shows scenes from some of his iconic short films – 'Steamboat Willie', 'The Band Concert', 'Brave Little Tailor' – above the legend 'Thanks Mickey for 60 years!'
Signed, Disneyland.
My fourth-grade classmates and I received the posters in the fall of 1988 at Patrick Henry Elementary School in Anaheim, along with a T-shirt of Mickey in a tuxedo with sneakers and a free trip to the Happiest Place on Earth for his birthday party . We cheered along with children from all over the world and rode into the evening. I can still hum parts of the joyfully upbeat song from the parade in Mickey's honor. (A quick search on YouTube confirmed that I got the melody right.)
The poster hung on my wall in high school, even though I was more of a Donald Duck fan. It was a symbol to me that a company whose products and productions I loved cared about us Anaheim kids. How cool was it that one of the most popular theme parks in the world was in my hometown? And how cool was it that they let us kids hang out with Mickey for free on his birthday?
I hadn't thought about my souvenir for decades until yesterday, when the Anaheim City Council passed yet another Disneyland-friendly ordinance. Zoning rules will be relaxed to allow Disney to build new attractions and hotels on the 490-acre campus, and three public roads will be sold to Disney for $40 million.
In return, Disney promises to invest nearly $2 billion in construction over the next decade, donate $30 million to a yet-to-be created public housing trust run by Anaheim, donate $8 million to improve city parks and 45 million dollars to be paid for 'transportation'. improvements,” according to the website of DisneylandForward, the name Disney has given to its plans.
A Disney-funded study by Cal State Fullerton's Woods Center for Economic Analysis and Forecasting predicted that the company's most ambitious proposals — a full build-out of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, and a new hotel — will create tens of thousands of jobs and $244 million in annual tax revenue.
Who could possibly be against this windfall of money and fun? Me of course!
The Anaheim City Council unanimously approved the agreement, despite Disney's lack of concrete plans. All that's being revealed at this point are “possibilities” inspired by attractions from theme parks around the world, according to the DisneylandForward website. There may be more details in Woods Center's forecast, but both city officials and the public can only see a nine-page summary because Disney claims it contains proprietary information.
This cryptic mouse long ago replaced the Mickey of my childhood memories. By the time I became a reporter, I knew that Disney has long treated Anaheim as a political villain, looking to squeeze as much as it can out of Orange County's largest city.
Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger at “Mickey's 90th Spectacular” at the Shrine Auditorium in 2018.
(Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)
In 1996, the city paid for a $108.2 million parking building — the largest in the world at the time — which it leased to Disney for a dollar a year, allowing the company to keep all the revenue and eventually take ownership. A 2017 Times analysis found that Disney had secured “subsidies, incentives, rebates and protection from future taxes” worth more than $1 billion over the past two decades. Disney has repaid that goodwill with millions of dollars in donations to political action committees pushing pro-Mickey candidates.
Two years ago, FBI agents and city-funded independent investigators characterized a Disneyland Resort lobbyist as part of a “cabal” with undue influence over city politics. Meanwhile, the cost of a day ticket to the Mouse House has risen from $43 in 2000 to $194 last year. Nighttime fireworks at the resort scare dogs, set off car alarms in working-class neighborhoods and turn the 5 Freeway into a smoky mess.
But to paraphrase the most famous quote from “The Usual Suspects,” the greatest trick Disney ever pulled was convincing Anaheimers that the bad side doesn't exist. The few DisneylandForward skeptics have been easily drowned out by supporters.
Labor unions? Leaders showed up in support of DisneylandForward when the Anaheim City Council voted on it for the first time in April. The Council? From Republican Stephen Faessel to progressive Carlos Leon and independent Jose Diaz, they hardly asked any hard questions. The millions of visitors to the Disneyland Resort, half of whom seem to be my cousins and friends? They celebrate like Ewoks at the end of “Return of the Jedi” at the thought of more attractions to enjoy and swag to grab.
Few of us point to the environmental impact statement which finds that construction noise and permanent change in air quality as a result of the expansion would be 'significant and unavoidable'. Or you can pull out a calculator to calculate the numbers in the Woods Center report.
For example, the study says that if Disneyland maximizes its acreage and builds a new hotel, it will create 28,352 jobs, which translates to $1.8 billion in revenue for those workers.
Sounds nice and big. But it does not say what type of jobs and whether they would be permanent or full-time. Those jobs' $63,487 average annual salary is considered low income for a single-person household in Orange County, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development. These are certainly not the jobs Anaheimers need to live here, let alone live a good life.
I still remember when Anaheim was a city with factories and blue-collar jobs that allowed my immigrant elders and my cousins to buy homes. Near the granny flat where I lived before moving to Patrick Henry, there was a sawmill, a Kwikset factory and a truck depot where my father picked up freight containers.
All those places disappeared decades ago. Now there are hipster hangouts, beer gardens, and expensive apartments, because Anaheim's leaders took their cue from Disney and transformed my hometown into a giant tourist trap, with longtime residents little better than an afterthought.
Which brings me back to that Mickey Mouse 60th anniversary poster. I ended up taking it down because the edges were fraying, and I thought it might become a collector's item one day. I thought Disneyland had given me another wonderful prize.
I recently looked up the poster on eBay. I can get one for $20. But hey, at least I used to get something for free from Disney.
In 2016, the company promised to give all Anaheim sixth-graders free Disneyland tickets in honor of its 60th anniversary if they did community service projects.
The promotion was supposed to last for ten years but was halted in 2021 during the pandemic. It has yet to recover, even though Disney just announced that its theme park division increased revenue in the second fiscal quarter to $8.39 billion.
Stay stylish, Mouse House!
