On the EPCOT film

The EPCOT film was very interesting. The community was to be laid out in the shape of a wheel – the “radial plan” – with a commercial center and “a network of transportation systems [radiating] from the central hub”. The center was to be surrounded by “high-density apartment housing,” which in turn would be surrounded by a greenbelt, and finally “the low-density, neighborhood residential streets.”

In Death and Life, Jane Jacobs talks about the importance of diversity: a well-balanced mix of residences, offices, shops, restaurants, et cetera – resulting in a steady flow of people on the sidewalks, which makes a city safe and connects people to each other.

EPCOT is partitioned into zones, with shopping centers and restaurants (as well as offices) at the center; schools located in the greenbelt – all connected to the low-density residential area using “WEDWAY people movers” (small electric powered cars on rails) and footpaths. I wonder what Jacobs would say about EPCOT. She seems to be against zoning, but the radial plan and the fact that people would had moved to and from the hub, along the radials, would, it seems, had ensured such a steady flow of people.

One thing I wonder is how an EPCOT community would have grown. It seems that there would be critical maximum size that a community could handle before beginning to function poorly. And what about economic growth of businesses at the center of the community? The film mentions that larger cities would be composed of many such communities, located apart and probably connected with highways. This seems strange to me. It wouldn’t be a steady growth. How would a newly built community function until enough people and businesses had moved there? It seems that the entire “wheel” would have to be allocated at once, and the infrastructure put in place, before people could start moving in.