Yes, in fact Disneytown San Antonio is built where Fiesta Texas was iOTL.Is there a Disneytown in San Antonio? Fiesta Texas opened up there around this time OTL.
TBH, Henson would be intrigued by the idea at first, but once he started to see the bylaws for residents and the lack of any voting power or say in their own homes and rules by the citizens and the general "Company Town" and "Human Zoo" atmosphere he'd chuck it in the bin. Personally, I'm certain that E.P.C.O.T. probably would have been a legal and financial nightmare to maintain once it was built at incredible expense. Sooner or later someone's going to want some control over what they do with their own house and the Industry Partners may be more hesitant about opening up factories on another corporation's terms.With the cash flow that Henson has been making lately, he probably has enough to try and pull off Walt's original plans for Epcot. The Whole ''City of Tomorrow'' thing. May need updating for the Y2K era and accounting for Jim's environmental views.
Seems a possibility.After taking one close look at Paperinik...
They did help renovate a theater on Broadway. Whether they spearhead a refurb is another story. TBH there was a lot of push to restore Times Square from a den of drugs and porn and return it to a tourism hub.Since we're talking about Times Square, I actually wonder whether Disney will help renovate that area or not. It would be wild if the ITTL Times Square was less of the commercialized shopping/tourist area it was now and more of a seedy underbelly, but perhaps it could happen under Henson, who has ties to New York thanks to the Muppet Workshop.
Turner at this point is still rather into Lost Cause mythology, so the UI don't really bother him, though times will change. The rest of the time, yea, empty fields and a few battlefield like areas (trenches, medieval walls, etc.) that can be toured or used for films or TV (there's a good business in renting them for TV productions or the flat fields for sports training or pee wee soccer tournaments and the like). Best use of space? Maybe not, but it's a cheap early use of expansion area.Potential unfortunate implications for featuring civil war reenactments aside, how would this even work?
Is it just an empty field most of the time?
Mostly film extras and employees. Most daily shows are rather small and limited with a few big "events" every year. A few reenactors have been hired full time or subcontract for certain Events.It's probably an empty field with some props for reenactments. I'm thinking professional actors are probably hired since there's no way hobbyists could do it unless these historical reenactments happen infrequently.
Stay tuned on what happens next for Columbia.