3. Walt would have had to give the citizens more rights

In the plans Walt Disney outlined, citizens of the city would have ZERO rights to either vote or own land. The idea that people in the city wouldn’t own any land isn’t terribly hard to imagine today, as renting is becoming more and more common in a lot of different areas of life, but the inability to vote for laws and their representation definitely wouldn’t fly.

With the municipal rights to EPCOT mentioned above, everyone living in the Community of Tomorrow would have essentially been an employee of Disney or another EPCOT participant. As such, they wouldn’t necessarily be involved in many of the decisions being made from the top. Walt’s reason for this was so that he’d be able to quickly make decisions that would revolutionize EPCOT, especially in regards to advancing the technology to keep the city ahead of the curve. Possibly back in the 60s but especially now, that kind of justification wouldn’t hold enough water to allow a city to be run like something more akin to a dictatorship than a democracy.

4. Walt would have probably had to be more open to automobiles

As brilliant as the monorail and WEDWay PeopleMover forms of transportation were when Walt envisioned EPCOT and still are now, it would be even harder to get people to rely solely on them to get around today. Automobiles are now owned by most adult Americans, and many would be hesitant to give them up, even if that meant sacrificing the opportunity to live in the futuristic new city. Walt intended for cars and trucks and vans to mostly operate underneath the city in 1966, like the underground areas at some Disney parks, mainly to deliver supplies. Residents’ cars were to be used “only for weekend pleasure trips.” Now that private transportation is extremely common in the United States, Walt probably may have had to make some major compromises and allow citizens of EPCOT to drive around independently if it were being made today. However, Walt wasn't one to compromise - so he may have pushed through this vision even now.

What do you think? Do you agree that there are things that would have to be different about the original EPCOT concept if it was designed now? Let us know on Facebook and in the comments!