University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2011 Placing Reedy Creek Improvement District in Central Florida: A Case Study in Uneven Geographical Development Kristine Bezdecny University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, Geography Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Scholar Commons Citation Bezdecny, Kristine, "Placing Reedy Creek Improvement District in Central Florida: A Case Study in Uneven Geographical Development" (2011). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3010 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Placing Reedy Creek Improvement District in Central Florida: A Case Study in Uneven Geographical Development by Kristine Bezdecny A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography, Environment, and Planning College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major professor: Kevin Archer, Ph.D. M. Martin Bosman, Ph.D. Rebecca Johns, Ph.D. Ambe Njoh, Ph.D. Steven Reader, Ph.D. Date of approval: December 3, 2010 Keywords: urban geography, Celebration, urban revitalization, tourism, Walt Disney World Copyright © 2010, Kristine Bezdecny Dedication Tra‟a – of all the accomplishments in my life, none is more valuable to me than you. Your growth and your support during this process has been an inspiration to me. I am honored and privileged to be your mom. Thank you, little love. Acknowledgements I want to begin by thanking my committee for being, well, my committee! I also want to thank Dr. Amen for his role as both professor and as defense chair, and Dr. Andrew Berish: your Place and Mobility in America class solidified the theoretical perspectives used throughout this dissertation. To my friends and former co-workers at the Center for Urban Transportation Research: you are amazing, and it has been a pleasure working and laughing with you. To my MobileWorld team at Esri, especially Alyson Smith and Violet Michniuk: thank you for your support of the insanity, and to Randy Worch, who never once blinked twice at doing whatever he could to allow me to finish this major step. Ivana Blankenship: I hope you understand how much your friendship has meant to me over the years. Your cynical humor helped me to weather many difficult moments during this process. You rock! Most importantly, to my family, Dick and Tra‟a, I love you very much. While there have been many rocky moments, you have done much more than I could ever ask for in allowing me to complete this dream. This endeavor began August 29, 2000, when I entered class at USF for the first time, on a whim. In swept a professor who would proceed to explain to the class the object of study of geography – and I have been hooked ever since. It is only fitting that I end this journey as I began it: thank you, Kevin, for your knowledge, wisdom, advice, humor, commiseration, and support throughout it all as my advisor. Je vous remercie! Table of Contents List of Tables iii List of Figures iv Abstract vii Chapter One: Introducing Uneven Geographical Development 1 Introduction 1 Geography as a Holistic Science 4 Uneven Geographical Development 8 Investigating Uneven Geographical Development in Central Florida 13 The First Condition 13 The Second Condition 14 The Third Condition 17 The Fourth Condition 20 Power and the Space-Place Relationship 21 Data Collection 24 Historical Data Collection 24 Secondary Data Collection 26 Primary Data Collection 28 Geographic Information Systems Representations 29 Data Analysis and Interpretation: Narrative Dialectics 32 Selecting Central Florida 36 The Flow of This Dissertation 38 Chapter Two: Intersecting Urban Revitalization, Tourism, and Globalization 40 Introduction 40 A (Brief) History of Urban Geography 40 Urban Revitalization 44 History of Federal Urban Renewal Policies 46 New Urbanism 52 Gentrification 57 Urban Revitalization and the Tourist City 60 Tourism and the Theming of the Urban Environment 62 The Global-Local Nexus and Urban Revitalization 65 Conclusion 68 Chapter Three: The History of Urban Development in Central Florida 70 Introduction 70 Creating Orlando 71 i Initial Tourist Development 74 (Re)Developing the City of Orlando 77 Postwar Urban and Tourist Development 81 Embedding Sociopolitical Processes into the Central Florida Space 83 Chapter Four: Developing the Reedy Creek Improvement District 86 Introduction 86 Reedy Creek Improvement District? 89 Walt Disney World as Themed Urban Environment 97 Walt Disney World and Social Imagineering 102 The World‟s Place in the World 106 Chapter Five: Celebration, Florida: Imagineering New Urbanism 110 Introduction 110 Revisiting EPCOT 112 Contemporary Celebration: A Model Community? 115 Intersecting Urban Development and Urban Theming in Celebration 120 Urban Development, Theming, and Uneven Geographical Development 139 Chapter Six: Uneven Geographical Development in Contemporary Central Florida 143 Introduction 143 Tourism‟s Economic Impacts in Central Florida 143 Demographics of Urban Development in the Region 153 Celebration and Urban Revitalization in Central Florida 175 Defining Central Florida 187 Chapter Seven: It‟s an Uneven World After All 191 Introduction 191 The Theory of Uneven Geographical Development 193 Conclusions 200 References 203 About the Author End Page ii List of Tables Table 4-1. Reedy Creek Improvement District Demographics. 100 Table 6-1. Total Population in Central Florida by County, 2000. 154 Table 6-2. Age Distribution by County, 2000. 167 Table 6-3. Income and Home Values by County, 2000. 171 iii List of Figures Figure 1-1. Location of Orlando, Florida. 2 Figure 1-2. The Object of Study of Human Geography. 5 Figure 1-3. The Four Conditions of Uneven Geographical Development. 9 Figure 1-4. Study Trialectics. 35 Figure 3-1. The First Condition of Uneven Geographical Development. 71 Figure 4-1. The Reedy Creek Improvement District. 87 Figure 4-2. The Second Condition of Uneven Geographical Development. 88 Figure 5-1. Celebration, Florida. 111 Figure 5-2. The Third Condition of Uneven Geographical Development. 112 Figure 5-3. Founders Square, Celebration. 122 Figure 5-4. Market Street, Celebration. 123 Figure 5-5. Gooding‟s, Market Street, Celebration. 125 Figure 5-6. Front Street, Celebration. 127 Figure 5-7. Lakeside, Celebration. 127 Figure 5-8. Post Office and Town Hall, Celebration. 129 Figure 5-9. Celebration Town Hall. 130 Figure 5-10. Celebration School, Building Corner. 131 Figure 5-11. Celebration School, Side of Building. 132 Figure 5-12. Town Houses, Campus Street, Celebration Village. 133 Figure 5-13. Single Family Homes, Celebration Village. 135 iv Figure 5-14. Alleyway, Celebration Village. 137 Figure 5-15. Selling a Home in Celebration. 138 Figure 6-1. The Fourth Condition of Uneven Geographical Development. 144 Figure 6-2. Top 15 Theme Park Attractions in the World. 145 Figure 6-3. Top Ten Employers in Central Florida (not single-site). 145 Figure 6-4. Total Visitors to the Greater Orlando Region. 147 Figure 6-5. Total Theme Park Attendance, in Millions. 147 Figure 6-6. Large Employers in Central Florida. 150 Figure 6-7. Annual MSA Unemployment Rate for Central Florida. 151 Figure 6-8. Unemployment by County, 2000-2007. 151 Figure 6-9. Total Population in Central Florida by Census Tract, 2000. 156 Figure 6-10. Total Population in Central Florida by Block Group, 2000. 157 Figure 6-11. Total Population in Central Florida by Block Group, 2006. 157 Figure 6-12. Population Density in Central Florida by Block Group, 2000. 158 Figure 6-13. Population Density in Central Florida by Block Group, 2006. 158 Figure 6-14. Racial Composition of Central Florida, 2000. 160 Figure 6-15. African-American Population in Central Florida by Census Tract, 2000. 161 Figure 6-16. African-American Population in Central Florida by Block Group, 2000. 162 Figure 6-17. African-American Population in Central Florida by Block Group, 2006. 162 Figure 6-18. Hispanic Population in Central Florida by Census Tract, 2000. 164 Figure 6-19. Hispanic Population in Central Florida by Block Group, 2000. 165 Figure 6-20. Hispanic Population in Central Florida by Block Group, 2006. 165 Figure 6-21. Age of the Population in Central Florida, 2000. 167 v Figure 6-22. Population under Age 18 in Central Florida by Census Tract, 2000. 168 Figure 6-23. Population under Age 18 in Central Florida by Block Group, 2000. 169 Figure 6-24. Population under Age 18 in Central Florida by Block Group, 2006. 169 Figure 6-25. Household Income in Central Florida, 2000. 171 Figure 6-26. Median Household Income in Central Florida by Block Group, 2000-2006. 172 Figure 6-27. Median Owner-Occupied Home Values by Block Group, 2000-2006. 172 Figure 7-1. Weather.com Search Gazetteer Example. 191 Figure 7-2. The Four Conditions of Uneven Geographical Development. 194 vi Abstract This study is primarily about the theory of uneven geographical development. In an era when it is proclaimed that, through globalization, the world has become flat, the unevenness of economic and social development is often overlooked or suppressed. As the nexus between global and local processes, the urban space often becomes