Walt Disney Suburb

Remember that time when you went to Disney World (or any other Orlando park, for that matter) and stayed in that "resort hotel" through the night, full of swimming toddlers, late night firework gazing, and the unfortunate infiltration of the sun at 7AM signaling the close to the chatter in the hotel as the real day was beginning?

Well, imagine a suburb that functioned just like Disney. Where all community heralds together before the sun rises a certain angle, after which the squad shatters into shards causing joyous pain to the various theme parks. Only this time, the park of parents and children alike would be split off to their schools and offices, strikingly repelled through the effects of recent suburbia. My old family friend now moved to Irvine, CA, which was a resort town model for an entire life-to-death community (shown below).

Upon meeting this friend, I immediately noticed the children running through the flat, cookie-cutter streets toward the Woodbury Park (in the center of the town). Joyous toddlers swam in the lap pool, played ball-sports, and even had that occasional capture the flag tournament that was on the edge of irking the more retired age. But just beyond the park edge boulevard, an array of identical homes was deserted, with (the lack of) humanity as pallid as the homes themselves.

Don't get me wrong, some of these homes put the eastern USA's gable houses to shame. Yet, at the same time, they are all the same house, same hotel room, same condominium, same. In a way, Irvine is like State College almost in that both mold that combination of today's cookie-cutterness and yesteryear's town center concept. All Penn State freshman live in the dormitories, which, in some way or another, have that same red brick pallet we are all getting tired of. Yet, during the off hours, we frequent the downtown's shops, including H&M, and yes, MacLannahan's.

Yet, unlike the traditional town setting, both Penn Staters and Irviners do not work within the downtown, but rather repel from the real action to get their brains in gear. In the center of Irvine lie a community center, shopping center, and all the parks I previously discussed, but no school or office is within sight! In principle, we are all fleeing each other just to make a group of people from another nearby town our friends. In effect, our Instagram followers number will increase, but overall likes may actually decrease, because of the soul fact that our tape connecting the many friends will be more like Scotch and less like Duct.

In essence, such a planning in communal spaces resembles my ancestral homeland, Konkan Maharashtra, especially in the urban sectors.

For example, the community of Magarpatta, Pune (where my mom's direct sister lives) is in a way based off this same principle: identical apartment towers, a green full of its skirmishes and chants for cricket matches, yet lacking of any place most non-retired or toddler people go throughout the actual day. Such a feature is an increasing phenomenon in the global suburbia, but its drains of humanity are slowly becoming apparent.