The LA Times' Chris Reynolds has this neat photo essay (and story) comparing Disneyland's Main Street, USA to its "inspiration": that of Marceline, MO, where Walt grew up. (Although as one commenter helpfully points out, Disneyland's Main St. may owe more of its design to legendary imagineer Harper Goff and his hometown, Fort Collins.) Anyway it's an interesting contrast in comparative themes across very different socio-spatial realities.Marceline is a classic Midwestern grid-plan railroad town. It has a (2000 census) population of about 2,500 - apparently the same as it was within a few months of being founded in 1888. It has a population density of 787 people per mile in its 3.3 square miles, surrounded by pastoral Linn County farmland. Disneyland, meanwhile, has an average daily attendance of around 40,000 (variable to date, day of the week, and weather). That gives it an average population density of 307,692 people per mile in its 83 public acres (0.13 square miles), surrounded by pastoral Orange County sprawl.
(these google images are at an identical scale; click to zoom)From an earlier article on Marceline:
“Since the trains don’t stop here anymore, it’s kind of been a dying little town,” said Vicki Lodder, 57, a lifelong Marceline resident and owner of the recently opened Ma Vic’s Corner Cafe. “So many stores have closed. Marceline needs things on Main Street.”The train stopped stopping in Walt's hometown years ago. But on the bright side, Disneyland had record-setting annual attendance in 2009.
In 2000, Marceline had a median household income of $25,000 (and a per capita income of $15k). It was 98.2% white, although the Times reports there is a Mexican restaurant. Meanwhile, Disneyland's demographic makeup is uncertain, if rather fascinatingly discussed here (fascinating in that most commenters claim not to notice anything about race while in there). We do know that the population of Toontown is, of course, about seven hundred million, a lemon, and screw.
See also my somewhat similar photo essay comparing the built environments of Detroit and Phoenix.
