美国佛罗里达州立法取消迪斯尼乐园的经营特权

05/08/22 • 5 min

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Friday that would eliminate the special legal setup that allows Disney to operate as an independent government around its Orlando-area theme parks.
The move comes as Florida's Republican-led government has taken aim at Disney -- the largest single-site employer in the state -- for its opposition to a law restricting education on LGBTQ issues in schools.
Yet the elimination of Disney's special purpose district, known as Reedy Creek, could have much further implications for the company and for state taxpayers. Here's a look at the history of Reedy Creek, why it became a focus in this special legislative session, and what removing its special status would mean for Disney and for Florida taxpayers.
What is Reedy Creek?
Reedy Creek is the name for the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special purpose district created by state law in May 1967 that gives The Walt Disney Company governmental control over the land in and around its central Florida theme parks. The district sits southwest of Orlando.
At the time, the land was little more than uninhabited pasture and swamp, according to Reedy Creek's website. With the special purpose district, Disney took over responsibility for providing municipal services like power, water, roads and fire protection -- but were also freed from dealing with legal red tape or paying taxes for services that benefited the broader public.
According to Richard Foglesong, the author of the book "Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando," Disney had previously had issues with the government of Anaheim, California, at its Disneyland park, completed a decade earlier. With those issues in mind, Disney pushed for a special purpose district in Florida that would give the company the ability to self-govern.
In exchange, Florida became the home base for Disney World and its millions of tourists."Florida needed Disney more than Disney needed Florida," Foglesong told CNN.
Today, the Reedy Creek special district encompasses about 25,000 acres in Orange and Osceola counties, including four theme parks, two water parks, one sports complex, 175 lane miles of roadway, 67 miles of waterway, and the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, its website says.
"The cooperation and commitment between the Reedy Creek Improvement District and Walt Disney World Company is as strong today as it was when the District was created in 1967," the Reedy Creek website states. "The result is an example of how a working partnership between business and government can be prosperous for both sides."
Why is this an issue now?
The bill passed by Florida's legislature is a form of political retaliation against Disney for its criticism of the "Parental Rights in Education" bill, which critics have termed the "Don't Say Gay" bill.
That state legislation, signed into law last month, prohibits schools from teaching children about sexual orientation or gender identity "in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate." The legislation also allows parents to bring lawsuits against a school district for potential violations.

上一集

只有大海有潮汐吗？内陆湖有没有潮汐？

The question 'does Lake Ontario have tides' has a few correct answers. No, yes, and it depends are all acceptable choices, but the actual answer is a bit more complicated.
Take a trip to any oceanfront resort town, and you're likely to notice the changing tides as the sun and moon's gravitational pull forces large bodies of water to 'bulge' in and out twice a day.
Tides generally don't occur on freshwater bodies, but when you're dealing with systems as enormous as the Great Lakes, it's a bit harder to determine what exactly is and isn't considered a changing tide.
Especially when the water level seems to fluctuate so greatly.
If you're going by the definition of a true tide, or variations in water level caused by gravitational forces, Lake Ontario does indeed have a tide, but you'd have to be the size of an insect to notice it.
While you can find outrageous tide changes of over 15 metres on the Bay of Fundy in the Maritimes, Lake Ontario's tide changes the water level's height by no more than five centimetres, even when gravitational forces are strongest in the spring months.
Certainly not enough to leave boats hanging dry from their moorings, but definitely enough to be called a tide in the technical sense. Despite technically having a tide, the Great Lakes are considered to be non-tidal bodies of water.
But this minuscule tide isn't the only factor causing water levels to rise and fall on Lake Ontario and others in the Great Lakes system.
These massive bodies of water can experience a phenomenon known as a seiche, a wave that oscillates around the lake, similar to water sloshing in a circular motion within a bowl.
While not caused by the same conditions as the lake's 'true tide,' a seiche is something boaters and beachgoers are much more likely to notice.
Instead, wind and weather conditions like barometric pressure can cause these oscillating waves to reach heights of a few metres on Lake Ontario, alternating between highs and lows that follow similar time patterns as a true tide.
It can get even worse on Lake Erie, where seiches can drive water levels up by as much as seven metres.
A tide will roll in and out in six-hour intervals, while a seiche falls within a span of four to seven hours, making it very easy to mistake the lesser-known seiche for a tide.
So even if you're sure you've noticed a tide change on Lake Ontario, that was almost certainly a seiche.

下一集

历时777天！多伦多结束COVID19的紧急状态限制令

Toronto Mayor John Tory has announced the end of the city of Toronto’s COVID-19 emergency declaration, which was first imposed on March 23, 2020.
The city had been under an emergency declaration for 777 days.
“There is no doubt that our collective efforts have been successful in getting us to a better place,” said Tory at a COVID-19 briefing Monday morning at Nathan Phillips Square with Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s medical officer of health.
“The state of emergency gave us flexibility with respect to the public servants and being able to put them where they were needed the most,” said Tory, noting some 1,700 city workers were redeployed to effectively respond to the pandemic.
All but 40 of the workers who were redeployed at the start of the pandemic have returned to their original roles, Tory said, adding that he is grateful to city staff and the unions for agreeing to the emergency redeployment.
Jason Chan, acting president of CUPE Local 79, which represents more than 20,000 city workers, said in a statement to the Star that city staff deserve to be recognized for their courageous efforts.
“When asked, city of Toronto staff stepped up quickly to learn new roles, accepted redeployments that put them on the front lines of combating the pandemic and kept city services operating through a very difficult time,” he said.
Tory also cited the city’s high vaccination rates — the city had recently surpassed seven million vaccine doses administered — as to why the city is lifting the emergency declaration, which was the first issued in the city’s history.
The emergency declaration gave Tory broad powers, including the ability to issue emergency orders related to the COVID-19 crisis and pass bylaws related to the crisis — without the approval of council.
The mayor’s emergency orders at the start of the pandemic included a bylaw making it illegal for people not from the same household to get within two metres of each other in parks and public squares.
The emergency powers were set to expire after 30 days but were extended by city council on April 30, 2020 until the city’s COVID-19 municipal emergency had ended.
The lifting of the state of emergency signals the city has reached another stage in the management of the pandemic, Tory stated at the press briefing. However, he noted the end of the declaration does not change current COVID-19 regulations, which are still in place.
The decision to end the emergency declaration was made in consultation with de Villa, city manager Chris Murray and the city’s strategic command team, Tory said.
De Villa said the team met regularly throughout the pandemic, and that the decision to lift the declaration was based on several considerations.
“It’s a series of things taken together that really look at whether we have the resources we need in place and whether we have the ability to move those resources effectively in order to provide a good and effective response,” de Villa said.
She also noted Toronto’s COVID-19 indicators are either decreasing or holding stable. According to the latest Toronto data from last week, wastewater signals at all four wastewater treatment plants in the city are decreasing.
“These are positive signs that coupled with this warmer weather, give us hope that COVID-19 activity in the city will continue to decrease,” she said at the briefing.
However, she stressed that Torontonians must ensure they are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations, noting that evidence suggests natural protection provided by a previous COVID-19 infection may be evaded by the Omicron variant.
Since the start of the pandemic, the city has recorded more than 324,000 confirmed cases of the virus and more than 4,200 deaths.
Though the emergency declaration has lifted, Tory said the city’s fight against COVID-19 has not ended. “We know that COVID-19 is still active in the city. The work that we have been undertaking will not stop,” he said.