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What cities can learn from Disney World
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What cities can learn from Disney World

Concentrated ownership could help downtowns recover

Matthew Yglesias's avatar
Matthew Yglesias
May 07, 2025
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What cities can learn from Disney World
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I was thinking about Disney World and Disney Land recently as inspirations for urban developments, because while a big part of the appeal of these places is obviously the characters and the rides, it’s also the case that people1 seem to enjoy spending time there.

Disney theme parks are, of course, not real cities, but they have city-like characteristics that are worth thinking about. One of the most noteworthy, it seems to me, is that they have a single giant landlord who is in charge of the whole thing, which is not what actual urban neighborhoods are like, but which has a kind of compelling logic.

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