General (2)
Susana Barrios
From:Michael Pappas <michaelgeorgepappas@gmail.com>
Sent:Thursday, March
To:Public Comment
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] Build a Tunnel for Disneyland Drive
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Hi,
DisneylandForward is likely to be underwhelming, because it's not continuous land from the theme parks. I'm all for the
expansion, but the theme parks drive the entire economy in the local area. If we are trying to do what's best for the
local community (creating jobs, adding more travelers to potentially serve in order to make more money), we need to
add theme park capacity. What I'm afraid of is Disney is likely trying to add more retail and hotels (where they really
make their money) and not theme park expansion. Adding capacity into their theme parks would be financially accretive
to the local community, because so many of those theme park guests need a place to stay, eat, etc. Even just adding
more jobs at Disney betters the entire community.
I saw that Magic Way (the tiny street only used by theme park guests and Disney employees), may be used for
DisneylandForward. That's fine, but I don't think that is going to change anything. It's too small. The width of the
parking lot between Disneyland Drive and Walnut is not that big.
Anaheim needs to force Disney to take over Disneyland Drive. This is a massive street that would connect the current
theme parks and DisneylandForward, so Disney could have continuous land to add capacity inside the theme parks. This
would bring more theme park guests and therefore more commerce (jobs) to the local community.
Disney would likely need to build a tunnel from Mickey & Friends parking structure to Katella (less than 0.7 miles), where
Disneyland Drive is today. Airports and stadiums do this all the time. Most professional league stadiums cost ~$2B,
which is what Disney has already promised to spend on the expansion. Building a tunnel would allow the public who
uses this street to continue using this street, but this would also benefit the public by adding more jobs.
If Disney wants to add more retail or hotels, they need to do it on land that is not continuous, like where the Toy Story
parking is currently located (southeast of Katella & Harbor). They can build another monorail to connect to the park
entrances or figure out their own transportation.
Once Disney builds something, it will be like that for 50-100 years from now. There won't be a 2nd chance to rebuild
what's already there. They may "re-theme" some parts to make it look different, but the structures and what's in place
never change. If we don't look to the future, our future selves will regret it forever.
"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
I've heard a lot of fellow Anaheim residents complaining about Disney's expansion. It sounds a lot of anti-corporation
rhetoric that is disconnected from reality. Many of these people don't realize how lucky we are to have to have such a
great employer and commercial asset in our own backyard. My entire family has worked for Disney at one point in their
lives, and it's without a doubt the reason we live in Anaheim. We would not live here if it wasn't for Disney.
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We need continuous land from the theme parks to DisneylandFoward for them to add more capacity to their theme
parks, not for retail and hotels. If Disney wants to build more hotels, they can do it on land that's not continuous from
their theme parks.
Thank you!
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