Spring 2008
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Other Issues: | Autumn 2007 | Winter 2008 | Summer 2008 |
Articles from this issue:
It's been almost 15 years since an unlikely band of concerned citizens defeated one of the world's largest corporations. But did they really win?
L
ike a ghost, Disney's America—the theme park that almost, but never, was—hovers over the mists and rolling landscape of the Virginia Piedmont. Now, almost 15 years since the Walt Disney Company announced its controversial plans to create the theme park outside Haymarket, sparks still fly in Prince William County and rest of the Piedmont over the outcome of that intense fight. Indeed, it informs and shapes virtually every land-use debate where history, natural beauty, and rural values are at stake—not just in the Piedmont but around the country.At the heart of the Disney dispute was whether Virginians really wanted their northern Piedmont to become like Orlando, the Florida city whose sprawling growth was ignited and fueled by Disney World. But, in retrospect, would the region have been better off with Disney than with the 3,200-home residential community called Dominion Valley Country Club that is now rising in its stead? How much more—or less—urban sprawl and congestion would there have been had Disney prevailed? Is the region better—or worse—off economically without the Magic Kingdom? Those arguments still linger as growth and sprawl continue to push relentlessly westward from Washington—bringing more of the very congestion that Disney opponents predicted would accompany Mickey Mouse. Read more... |
From Art Director to Artistic Baker The Piedmont has long been a favorite place for second homes. Increasingly, it’s for “second lives” too, as city folk follow their dreams.
T
he call of the green rolling farmland fifty miles west of my Washington, D.C., office was too persistent to ignore; it became a 24- hour siren in my head. I resigned my position early this year as the art director at Smithsonian magazine to follow an intense passion to launch a bakery in rural Virginia. So persistent was the call, I didn’t even have a site for the new business when I walked out of the magazine office for the last time. Read more...
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