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Walt Disney World in Florida is a mecca for tourists now, but back in the early 1960s, it was just swampland. Walt had his choice of many locations, so why did he choose the Orlando area? An article at mental_floss has the answer. But even after he decided on the site, buying the land and building on it had their own problems.
Although he had solved the problem of where to build, a new dilemma cropped up: Walt knew if he was making queries about buying land under his own name, the insanely cheap swampland price of $180 an acre would immediately skyrocket. To avoid price gouging, he created a number of fake companies and purchased the land under their names instead. It only worked for a little while – the Orlando Sentinel caught whiff of the scheme and published a story reporting that Walt was the man behind the purchase of thousands of acres of land in Orange and Osceola counties. He was right about the money – in some cases, prices went up to $80,000 an acre.
Of course, the property now is worth its weight in gold. Link
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This is a neat idea: parking meters repurposed to collect change for the homeless. The program is now running in Orlando, FL, as well.
Donors drop coins into the meters, which are used only to collect contributions, not to regulate parking. City workers collect the change, which is given to the Central Florida Commission for Homelessness, a nonprofit group partly funded by the city.
The money will go to the commission’s Ten2End initiative, which aims to end homelessness in Central Florida within the decade by helping people become self-sufficient.
It was Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, Florida, last week, so you know what this means: Star Wars cakes over at our pal Cake Wrecks and Star Wars geekery at Epbot! Check out what Jen has lined up for your viewing pleasure.
Due to open in 2010, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be a theme park at Universal Orlando based on the world’s most famous scar-faced boy.
The 20-acre park will be located in Universal’s Islands of Adventure, which are themed "islands" built around a lagoon and currently comprises Seuss Landing, Marvel SuperHero Island, Toon Island, Jurassic Park and The Lost Continent.
Universal isn’t saying much yet about what the Wizarding World will include, but so far it looks like there will be a Hogwarts Castle, a village of Hogsmeade, and a Three Broomsticks Pub. I hope they serve butterbeer.
Link – via darkroastedblend
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