Product Description

What is it like to start a new community-not a suburb or a subdivision, but a town, intended to be a self-supporting community that combines the best of the new technological innovations and the most cherished nostalgic elements of American towns? In 1997, six months after the first residents relocated to Celebration, Florida--Disney's "model" town--Doug Frantz and Cathy Collins and their two children moved in to participate in and report on this new venture. Their account, which The Richmond Style Weekly called a "fascinating and evenhanded" report from the trenches, follows the ups and downs of the two years the family lived this experiment firsthand; the new afterword details their surprisingly difficult transition back to a "normal life" in Westport, Connecticut. Their experience tells us as much about ourselves and our hopes and dreams as it does about the daily reality of building a community from the ground up.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #619666 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Celebration, Fla., is the much-ballyhooed Disney effort to build a walkable hybrid suburb near its Orlando theme park to serve as a showcase for the most cutting-edge ideas about urban planning. In 1997, journalists Frantz and Collins (Teachers: Talking Out of School) moved to Celebration with their two younger children to write an account of one year in the early life of the town. They participated fully in the community and found their neighbors willing to talk, discovering the ups and downs of Disney's well-calibrated logistics, from the pedestrian-friendly town plan to the housing standards and innovative K-12 school. Among the complications were the bewildering array of pedagogical strategies adopted by the school, which drove families away; the homogenous town population, which was almost entirely white and middle class; and the proliferation of rules (residents are forbidden, for example, to park recreational vehicles on the street and to complain about the mosquitoes). But the authors avoid excoriating Disney and its developers, emphasizing that the town still offered a promising model for a "better" kind of American community: they found it "a lovely place physically," whose design did indeed foster a neighborliness lacking in most of suburban America. Readers may wish that the authors had investigated their Disneyphile neighbors more closelyAe.g., only at the book's end is it revealed that almost none of their houses have bookshelves. Nonetheless, this even-handed and thorough account of one family's experience in helping to build a new community from the ground up taps provocatively into a pioneering spirit in American life. (Sept.) FYI: In October, Ballantine will publish The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Property Values by the cultural critic Andrew Ross, who also spent a year living in Celebration.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In 1997, New York Times staffer Frantz and wife Collins did a brave thing: they moved into Celebration, FL, created by Disney to serve as a model town of the future by drawing on the best of the past. Something for both Disney fans and bashers.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

USA Today
"[An] eminently readable account."

Customer Reviews

Loved It![.]
I read this book AFTER visiting Celebration, Florida. I was interested in more background info and details. We walked down the Main St of town and thought "this is nice" but not very practical. Practical is shopping in [local store] and buying groceries in[local store]. The days of the corner grocer and little hardware store on Main St are long gone so I was curious about the opinions of the author and his neighbors. This is a great story - it seems to be unbiased and does provide good background info on the town without making it boring. The author nicely weaves little stories about the town or tales of the neighbors into this "documentary" to keep the story moving. I know this book is not for everybody but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It's also a great commentary on planned communities in general although I'm not sure that was what the authors intended.

Not as hostile as some think
Unlike some of the earlier reviewers, I didn't think this was anti-Disney or anti-Celebration. After reading it, I almost wanted to move to Celebration myself! (If it had decent transit connections to Orlando it could be paradise). The authors' love for the place showed through, and the only thing that mystified me was why they left.

The authors do discuss the very real problems with Celebration's schools and construction; this part of the book could have benefited from a comparison with traditional suburbs, to show readers that Celebration's problems exist in typical suburban sprawl as well -- as anyone who saw what Hurricane Andrew did to Miami's sprawl houses knows!

well written, but not too deep
Earlier this year, i was going to be in Orlando for a conference and wanted to visit Celebration as i have an interest, both personal and professional, in urban design. I read Celebration, U.S.A. before i went. I think that my visit was enriched by having read this book before i went.

I found the book provides an interesting and useful introduction to Celebration and New Urbanism. Frantz and Collins provide an narrative history of the development of Celebration as well as an interesting introduction to New Urbanism, etc. We experience alot from the personal leve. They write very well and the book moves readily along. They describe numerous problems with Celebration as well as how the expectations of many residents shaped their reaction to Celebration. It is a fairly fun book, though a little too upbeat at times.

On the other hand, the depth of analysis isn't there and, given the market that this book is directed at, probably wasn't intended to be there.

As an introduction to Celebration and an alternative approach to urban design, this book is worth it. Just don't expect too much.