Ed Grier Speaks of Possible Third Park in Anaheim

DIS news today reposts a story from the Orange County Business Journal, in which new Disneyland President Ed Grier (formerly of Tokyo Disneyland) mentions the possibility of a third gate in Anaheim:

Grier also is involved in planning for a possible third Anaheim park.

First talked about in 2000, Disney wants a “third gate” on a 75-acre parcel near Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue. The land has been used for little more than employee parking since the 2001 tourism downturn.

Now that things are humming again—if not booming—the company is thinking about expansion.

“What’s important for us is to focus on what’s (going to be there) for the next 50 years,” he said.

Coming from Tokyo, where Grier was part of the masterplanning team, he has a grip on how the process works.

There’s no firm plan for the Anaheim land yet, he said, despite rumors of a Wide World of Sports-type complex.

“We probably have more ideas than we have room for,” Grier said.

Grier also talks about the importance of understanding the Cast Member point of view, having apparently spent a little time recently with third-shift workers — hooray for that! But of course he’s maintaining Disney’s stand against affordable housing in the area, which very well might benefit those same CMs that he needs to listen to.

Affordable Housing Plan Rejected in Anaheim

ocregister.com reports that an Anaheim planning commission rejects plan for homes next to Disneyland:

At a Planning Commission meeting, Disneyland and tourist-business officials spoke against the proposal to permit residential uses in the Anaheim Resort, saying it could hurt tourism expansion.

But affordable-housing and union officials praised the plan as a way to put low-cost residences near where resort employees work.

Housing for Cast Members vs. “tourism expansion.” Does anybody really think that the Disneyland area needs more support for tourism? Puh-leeze. Give the Cast Members decent, affordable housing near their place of work. Everybody wins.

Disney Union Negotiations Continue

The Orlando Sentinel has an update on Disney’s talks with the unions:

This round of talks comes soon after union frustration heated up late last year regarding Disney’s efforts to get private contractors to take over some work at Disney World and some hotels.

In the past 15 or 16 months, Disney World has transferred nearly 600 jobs, involving some hotel maids, park custodians, valet, bell-service and baggage-handling workers, and production technicians. To date the moves have eliminated only about 1 percent of Disney World’s nearly 60,000 jobs, and the company insisted that all its affected employees were offered other Disney World jobs at comparable pay.

The article goes on to mention a page on the union’s web site with a parody of Year of a Million Dreams. If anybody can find the right page, please post it here or mail it to me . . . I’d love to see the images, and Google isn’t being very nice to me.

Disney Strike of 1941: Lefty Newspaper Coverage Scans

Don’t we love boingboing? Don’t we love Cory Doctorow? We’ve all read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by now, right?

Cory’s blog entry from yesterday features a link to lefty newspaper coverage of the Disney strike of 1941. This should be excellent supplementary material for those of us working our way through Neal Gabler’s Walt Disney: Triumph of the American Imagination. (Yes, yes, I promise to post a review of it when I’m done!)

Disney Workers to Rally Today

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

The Service Trades Council Union, a coalition of six labor organizations at Disney World, plans to rally at noon today outside the Disney Crossroads gate. The union will protest Disney’s decisions to give custodial, valet, bellhop, baggage handler, rigger and video tech jobs to private contractors.

Some of these workers staff the WDW Magical Express, which transports guests to and from the Orlando Airport. So, the first “Disney” person you interact with may no longer be a Disney employee. Will this have impact on your experience as a Guest? I’m betting it will. Also, some jobs are in fact being eliminated:

The Transportation and Communications Union estimates that 219 jobs will be lost.

This is in contrast to the previous, recent outsourcings, in which Disney has repeatedly insisted that nobody has been laid off, and that affected workers are offered jobs with comparable benefits and wages through the outsourcer.

Another Bad Decision to Outsource WDW Jobs

The Disney Blog’s said it all, I’ve got nothing to add.

More Housing, or Pleasing Disney? (And Where Do Cast Members Live?)

The LA Times has an article today on a story that’s been making the various newswires and blogs for a while: Anaheim Weighs More Housing or Pleasing Disney.

The clutter on the edge of neatly groomed Disneyland was such an irritant to Walt Disney that when he went to Florida to expand his kingdom four decades ago, he bought 30,000 acres of swampland, in part to shield the future resort and its visitors from such an eyesore.

Now a proposed housing project in the midst of Anaheim’s resort quarters has unearthed those ancient concerns, leaving city officials to debate which is more important: pleasing Anaheim’s largest employer and biggest tourist draw or creating needed housing.

In all the major media outlets who’ve mentioned it, I haven’t once seen the question raised of where Cast Members are expected to live. With an Anaheim housing shortage, and a good number of CM’s no doubt in need of affordable housing (not everybody’s paid as well as the top Imagineers, ya know), it’s hard to feel much sympathy for Disney’s concern that building more housing might negatively impact the park experience.

“It’s like owning a wonderful house in a wonderful neighborhood,” said Ed Chuchla, Disneyland’s vice president of corporate real estate.

“You care about the house and what could impact it.”

Do I love the total immersion of Walt Disney World, where issues like affordable housing have been pushed off onto neighboring communities? Yes, I’ll confess I do. So perhaps I am a hypocrite. Nonetheless, my heart’s with those who want to increase the housing options in Anaheim, including the 200 affordable units that would be included in the new complex. And I’d be interested to hear from anyone with first-hand knowledge of how the Anaheim CMs are feeling about the debate.

Walt Disney World Outsourcing 125 More Jobs

The Bradenton Herald reports that Walt Disney World is cutting 125 more jobs, and outsourcing them to contractors. Some way to kick off the Year of a Million Dreams, eh? Did these Cast Members dream of someday having their jobs outsourced?

Most of the positions being cut have a base starting pay of $6.90 an hour, Disney’s minimum wage. Many are on the overnight shift and include a $1-per-hour incentive pay.

And this in a year that WDW raised ticket prices not once, but twice. Allears.net has an excellent set of pages on WDW ticket price history. I wouldn’t mind the ticket increases so much if I were happier about the way the Cast Members were being treated.