Rating: 
Summary: A cure for sleep loss
Review: This book is a definite cure for sleep loss. If you like hearing neighbors bicker about the town they live in then this is your book. I personally, can hear the same stories of sadness at my neighborhood town meeting for a lot less money. Don't waste your time unless you like reading boring, dry commentary about people squabbling inregards to nothing.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, with attitude
Review: This book stinks. It's written in a dry, technical manner, it's poorly organized, and worst of all, the author's liberal, elitist attitudes come through loud and clear. A book that is 1,000 times better is CELEBRATION, USA, by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins. Same topic, except that those authors wrote a clear, balanced book that is well-organized and a joy to read. In describing the town's various troubles, Frantz and Collins provided lucid explanations and analysis, unlike Ross' rambling, boring, confusing, attitude-ridden prose.
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Read
Review: THIS is a great book. I, like many Americans, struggle with corporate behavior. On the one hand large corporations offer us lots of benefits in the way of products and services, on the other hand, they are the greatest element in the increasingly offensive disparity of wealth.I was not expecting the insight that this book offered on Disney and I was most pleasantly surprised. It is an intelligent, honest book (I know I have friends in Celebration) and it presents compelling evidence of how big corporations, in this case Disney, exploit the environment, workers, and ultimately their consumers. I was also engrossed in the chapters that dealt with the school because these chapters brought up arguments relevant to anyone who has school age kids or cares about it. The writing style is quite fun and Ross provides wonderful anectodes.
Rating:
Summary: Why this is a phenomenal book
Review: This is an excellent portrayal of small town USA citizens and at the same time and earnest critique of Disney's capital appetite. Ross weaves these stories together to create a fascinating read. Celebrationites are a unique crew hailing from all over the country for reasons as varies as hoping the monorail system at Disneyworld could use a retired doctor as the conductor to expecting the cutting edge, progressive school to improve teenage grades and angst. Ross interviews the citizenry allowing them to tell their stories to an honest interviewer and fellow townee as opposed to their usual experience of giving five minute sound bite interviews from media folk in town for the afternoon. Celebration comes across as a town with incredible civic involvement and interesting inhabitants. Most citizen issues seem common to small neighborhoods, although some do have to do with the Disney Company and their poor construction of houses. Ross demonstrates how the Disney Co. established Celebration as an (overpriced) homestead for varied income level inhabitants and racial diversity. Unfortunately neither was accomplished and the town is largely white and upper middle class. Celebration was designed to combat the ills of the urban sprawl overtaking the central Florida region and to promote clean living, community sentiment and an alternative to the glare of franchise neon lights. Interestingly, Ross points out that at the same time the Disney Co. is daily recruiting underpaid labor from Florida's immigrant pool of Mexicans and Central Americans who are forced to squeeze into tiny apartments on the strip thus adding to the urban sprawl as well as exploited laborers. Ross relies on concrete data and solid interview to critique Disney's plans and true motivations for building celebration - 20 years worth of permits to develop their property holdings in Central Florida and continue to fortify their kingdom. An excellent book, I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Celebration Resident
Review: What a piece of liberal trash! My five year old found it useful to press flowers.
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