Referendum Day Report, Part 2: Disney Plans to Make Tourists Cross As It Walks All Over the Littler Hoteliers

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Let’s put it this way: how many crosswalks are important enough to have their own label on Google Maps?

[Editor’s Note: Alert readers will note a slight change in the tone and style of today’s discussion — but sadly, no reduction in verbosity — as the affable Mrs. Cynthia Ward jumps into the conversation with some astute observations of her own.]

Disney has its own “blog” — although it lacks that certain something that we love here at OJB.  Also their floor is not nearly as sticky.  [Editor’s Note: We have no idea what Mrs. Ward is talking about there.]

Nice Day for a Long Walk, at Least for You!

Over at the Disney blog, they discuss the “flip side” to the hotel subsidy agreements — a side that was NOT advertised to the public when we discussed the subsidy agreements (or perhaps we should call them “hostage negotiations?) back in July. In fact, the powers that be would prefer that we not connect those projects in any way. They would also prefer that we not make any connections between them and the Streetcar — which tried to dump the cost of these projects onto the shoulders of taxpayers prior to Disney picking up its own tab — but there they are out of luck.  (We WILL be discussing THAT connection shortly.)

For now, let’s consider what APPEARS to be, at long last, a Disney project FINALLY paid for by DISNEY.  Now you, as a discerning reader, KNOW that is not going to happen — so let’s take a closer look and see why and how.  Welcome to the Disney Parks Blog!

Your source of the latest kleptocratic news in a pleasant, relaxing, yet exciting form!

“Thu, August 11, 2016

New Disneyland Resort Eastern Gateway Coming in 2018

by Erin Glover, Editorial Content Director, Disneyland Resort

Disneyland Resort is planning to break ground on our Eastern Gateway, a new arrival point that will provide guests even more choices for access and parking when it opens in late 2018. This project on the east side of the Disneyland Resort will include a new parking structure with 6,800 spaces, a new transportation facility and an elevated pedestrian bridge.

The largest infrastructure project in the Anaheim Resort Area in the last 20 years, the Eastern Gateway will make it even easier to get to the Happiest Place on Earth by providing an east-side entry point to the Anaheim Resort Area. The new transportation facility will be the arrival point for buses, taxis, bicycles and various shuttles that currently use the existing transportation facility located on the west side of Harbor Boulevard. The new pedestrian pathway and elevated bridge over Harbor Blvd. will directly link guests arriving at the parking structure and eastern transportation facility with the main entrance plaza.

We’ll bring you updates here on the Disney Parks Blog as this exciting project continues to take shape.”

[Click on the link above for more!]

First, please note the name of the Editorial Content Director. That would be Erin Glover, wife of Justin Glover, the Council Aide to Kris Murray.  (OJB readers, say hello to Erin. Come on, don’t be shy:  “Hi Erin!”)

So let’s just FORGET the whole notion that Murray doesn’t know what is coming from Disney’s underground secret labs.  If her gal pal Carrie Nocella didn’t tell her, what with Kris being known for being so warm and fuzzy to those she thinks may have blindsided her, do you really think that Erin doesn’t tell Justin, or that Justin knows and doesn’t tell Kris?  No: if Kris had to hear things like this for the first time when they appear on the Council agenda — you know, like the way the MAYOR finds out about the latest heists — you would hearing the shrieking from the 7th floor at City Hall all the way into Yorba Linda and Irvine and Westminster, and yes I may mean the abbey in London.

Now that we have established Disney has a big project they would like you to NOT connect to the subsidized hotels, and that Murray’s besties seem intimately connected to the project, let’s look at how they all fit in. (Because just because someone CALLS IT a conspiracy theory does not mean nobody is committing a conspiracy.)

The City overlooked a few key items that impact the 4-diamond hotel subsidy program when the bird’s eye view of the Resort is finally provided for us peasants on the ground.  You and I may not have that long-range view, largely by design on the part of Anaheim Staff and at least one or two Council members calling the shots behind the scenes.  That’s because by the time you get beyond the “view cone” that forbids tall buildings around Disney that can be seen from within Disney, you pretty much have to get to City Hall before a building is tall enough to let you see the “long view” of Anaheim, and the BEST place to see that view is where the power players really don’t want US:  in the City Hall 7th floor offices of our elected “public servants.”

Stop laughing.  Get off the floor, you are embarrassing yourself.  Do you think this is the office of the Disney blog where you can safely BE on the floor?  I’m pretty sure we have more Purell around here somewhere [Ed. Note: no, we don’t], and maybe something to get that stuff off of the pants you are wearing.  (I warned you the floor was sticky.)  Yes they ARE called “public servants.” Damn, there you go laughing again. Hey Vern, get some water, our guests are gonna get the hiccups.

An issue that integral to the TOT scam, but that was not made public until after its approval in July, is the new Disney parking garage and pedestrian bridge across Harbor Blvd.   (Yeah, that’s what Erin Glover was all worked up about.)  That project is going to skew the collection of TOT that benefits the City — and it will impact hotels and restaurants that almost surely had no idea what was about to hit them.

The new “eastern gateway” Disney has announced is a parking garage to be a “twin” to the Mickey and Friends parking structure.  Hopefully it won’t share enough DNA to also collect the kind of child support that Mickey and Friends structure pulls from taxpayers: 100% of its capital cost.   (Yes, Anaheim’s taxpayers own, but do not profit from, the massive garage — and we are paying off bonds for the structure until 2037.)

So far, the public is not on the hook for the eastern counterpart to the Mickey and Friends structure.  On the other hand, the year is not over yet — and Disney still has 3 votes in their pocket for a few more months.  So be on the lookout for some more creative accounting to justify that construction too.

The pedestrian bridge to carry Disney’s patrons over Harbor Blvd, to the ticket booths — where well-trained and smiling professionals will happily accept every major credit card — is slated to take out the “Carousel Inn”: a once shabby motel turned slightly NICER hotel that will soon be demolished now that it was bought by Disney.

POP QUIZ!  POP QUIZ!  POP QUIZ!

Q: Who owned the Carousel Inn prior to Disney’s purchase?

[Theme song from the old Carousel of Progress plays for several seconds: “It’s a great big beautiful tomorrow…”]

Give up?

A: The SAME investors who also own the Anaheim Plaza and Anabellla hotel!

Don’t take our word for it!   The OC Register reported last year:

Disney, through a limited-liability corporation, Carousel Holdings EAT, purchased the 131-room Carousel Inn & Suites on 1530 S. Harbor Blvd. from Good Hope International.

So: Disney paid $32 million for the Carousel Inn … while claiming to have no reason for the purchase.

Disneyland Resort spokeswoman Suzi Brown said the Carousel purchase was “a strategic parcel for us due to its adjacency to our east esplanade.”  … “Disney has no long-term plans for the property at this time,” she said.

The Carousel Inn has been (until now) a 131 room hotel, with great reviews online thanks to its proximity to the main gate.  As the Voice of OC wrote in its article, Disney purchased the hotel for a reported $32MM.

ANAHEIM – The Walt Disney Co. has purchased a hotel that sits directly across Harbor Boulevard from its two theme parks for $32 million, according to public records.

Yet when the acquisition budget of the Streetcar system was revealed, hotelier Paul Durand was quick to point out the ARC’s $30MM budget for “acquisitions” would be insufficient to cover the loss of his family’s property, as he expects to be compensated for the property AND the future earnings lost to the public works project.

If $30MM is not sufficient to purchase the (currently) 86-room Park Vue Inn from Paul Durand and his family, how did Disney get the 131-room Carousel Inn for $32MM in a private agreement that, one assumes, probably involved a lot more bargaining back and forth?

One gets the feeling SOMEONE compensated Good Hope International for its lost future earnings — in order to provide Disney with the flyover bridge to get their customers out of their parking garage.

(What was it we just said about the taxpayers funding Disney’s project?)

Let’s go back to Erin, who has been waiting so patiently for us.  A reader at her Disney blog picked up on a small detail about the bridge that has others all a twitter (not the 140 character cesspool of angry trolls.)

To reader concerns about getting across Harbor from the hotels and restaurants not on the Disney parking garage plan, Erin shared the following answer:

“Guests staying in the hotels on Harbor Boulevard will be able to access the Resort without going through the Eastern Gateway.”  Erin Glover on August 12, 2016 at 6:21 pm

And an alert reader responded:

“Hi Erin,

I know you have stated “Guests staying in the hotels on Harbor Boulevard will be able to access the Resort without going through the Eastern Gateway” but it seems a little vague. From the pictures I’ve seen it looks like the Ped Xing in front of IHOP will be gone. If those staying across the street have to walk all the way to Disneyland Way, cross the street and then walk all the way back again, local hotels are going to lose a lot of business from those of us who stay close due to mobility issues. Is that the plan? If so, it makes better sense to stay further at a discounted hotel rate and drive in – with the premier passes including parking and these transports you have described here for disabled persons. Thanks!”

Nicole McKay on August 16, 2016 at 1:03 pm

It seems that not only CAN guests on Harbor access Disney property without the bridge (but with hiking boots), but that they will HAVE TO, because the bridge is not designed to allow the unwashed masses ONTO IT!

This bridge … is not for you!  Despite spanning the PUBLIC THOROUGHFARE of busy Harbor Blvd. and despite making use of the public AIR RIGHTS that the taxpayers hold above Harbor Blvd. the bridge into the land of sugar comas and overdrafts is blocked from public access, unless the public is coming in through Disney’s revenue-generating parking garage.

For many tourists, this will be a kick in the hindquarters.  For some small hotels on the east side of Harbor, it may be more like an elephant stomp on the head.

The hotel guests that for years have enjoyed the proximity of the smaller hotels on Harbor Blvd. will now get shoved south to the crosswalk at Disney Way.  The smaller hotels that have thrived by providing clean affordable rooms closer to the Main Gate than Disney’s own lodging choices — which are geographically further away despite being “on property” — will no longer have any more advantage than will the nice new Anaheim Plaza hotel, which will greet those weary pedestrians in all its subsidized glory, right there where, with the elimination of the crosswalk, they are forced to cross anyway.

While hoisting a banner across the rooftop bar shouting “If you booked here you would be home already” might be a bit over the top, Disney’s new “no access to non-elites” bridge will make what are NOW the closest lodging choices in Anaheim into some of the LONGEST WALKS to the main gate, while boosting the Anaheim Plaza to become one of the CLOSEST to the closest permitting crossing of Harbor Blvd. up at Disney Way.  (Closer for you, that is, if you can afford four-diamond prices!)

Now what was it we were saying about the public NOT funding Disney’s bridge?

We are left to ask ourselves:

Did Disney pay market rate for the Carousel Inn?

$32MM for 131 rooms, when Paul Durand insisted $30MM for his SMALLER hotel was insufficient, is by no means a certified appraisal — but it is suggestive enough to QUESTION what Disney traded to the Good Hope International people in exchange for what looks like a better price devoid of compensation for future earnings.

If Disney paid below market for the Carousel Inn hotel, was part of the trade an “off-book” agreement to exclude Harbor Blvd hotel patrons from their bridge and create an advantage to Anaheim Plaza?

And we HAVE to ask it, because we are all thinking it…

Did our large rodent neighbor also influence the subsidy for the Anaheim Plaza hotel with the three Council members snuggled within the back pocket of the Mouse’s red shorts?

Hotels Get the Gold Mine, Taxpayers Get the Shaft

Now while City staff and Council members got all giddy about TOT as the Holy Grail of municipal revenue, they FORGOT a little detail about the BRIDGE. Taxpayers will now LOSE the TOT once generated at the Carousel Inn and its 131 rooms. I understand the units on Harbor Blvd. enjoy higher than usual occupancy BECAUSE of their proximity to the Resort’s main gate, via the convenient crosswalk currently gracing the front yard off Paul Durand’s property.

Calculate 131 rooms at 85% occupancy and even at the low bargain rate of $150 a night, at 15% TOT …

… carry the two … about $2,505 in taxes per night … 

About $915,100 a year in lost TOT.  From one hotel.  Taxpayers are taking a hit.

Now calculate the lower occupancy of the OTHER Harbor Blvd hotels that will become much further from the Main Gate by way of a round about walking pattern.  Anaheim loses even MORE of the TOT from those non-subsidized hotels, which we will NEED to backfill what we will NOT obtain from the subsidized units.

How long has Disney known they would tinker with the fortunes of their Harbor Blvd neighbors?

How long has staff known the crosswalk would be pushed further south?

Anyone have time to go check the Harbor Blvd hotels and see which ones have changed hands in the last year or so?

Ironically, had the public been footing the bill for the bridge as a PUBLIC WORKS project (streetcar) the public would be granted access. Since the project was dumped back onto Disney, where it belongs, they believe they are within their rights to hoard access to the bridge for themselves — even if it harms the patrons drawn to Anaheim by Disney’s siren sound.  Even if it harms the Harbor Blvd business neighbors who help contribute to Disney’s success by housing their less well-heeled guests.

I cannot help feeling this is the ultimate “UP YOURS!” to Paul Durand for standing up to the powers at Disney/OCTA/Anaheim Public Works (who are all really one and the same, just wearing different name tags by day.)  He refused to let them take his business, so they will run it under instead.  In their own minds they may well have determined they were doing him a FAVOR by paying him (with public funds) for a hotel that they COULD make useless if they chose — and apparently they DO now choose.

To those who think Disney holds the cards, I have two visions for our future:

ONE: Anaheim still owns the air rights over Harbor Blvd.  While Disney has some rights to construction (which we will discuss shortly), I think we could make life difficult, and potentially LENGHTY for them, if we chose to demand PUBLIC ACCESS to a bridge going over a PUBLIC STREET that eliminates EXISTING PUBLIC ACCESS.

Does City Hall have the political will to hold up such a project in exchange for public benefit? One would hope. (OK — maybe come November?)

TWO: Disney has the right to put a parking garage on their own Pumbaa lot, (as they have planned to do since the early 1990s) and the City of Anaheim forfeits the right to an entertainment tax on those parking spaces as leverage to demand public benefits from the company enjoying unimaginable public subsidy. Patrons must still maneuver their vehicles over public access roads to gain entrance to the new garage. Back east they have these little things call TOLL BOOTHS. Yeah I checked, NOT included in the agreements. Legal? Who knows? It makes me feel less impotent to imagine we might get SOMETHING back from the overly generous offers our public servants have shoveled to Disney of late.

Damn, there you go: onto the floor again.  Last time you RUINED those good summer weight wool slacks!  Get off the OJB blog floor quick!   God knows what is down there.

All right, sure — “Public servants.”  OK, that IS funny…