The city — which relies on Disneyland Resort tourism for a large portion of its income — has been struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic and Governor Gavin Newsom’s strict theme park reopening guidelines, which were finally released last week after a lengthy delay.
“We welcome the plan to expand,” said a statement provided by a spokesperson for the city of Anaheim. “Short of a hospital, what’s been done at Downtown Disney to keep visitors and employees safe is the most extensive we’ve seen in Orange County. It is also a model for how the parks can safely reopen with significant safeguards.”
“We certainly have seen what the impact is on our city. We have a budget deficit of $75 million to $100 million and there is no doubt that is caused by the unprecedented closure of the parks for nearly seven months now [now over seven months]. Also contributing to that, we have a convention center and the Honda Center and Angel Stadium are not doing what they typically do either, but the parks are the big driver, drawing about 25 million visitors a year.”
Mr. Lyster also shared some information about the Anaheim’s current unemployment rate with us. He said:
“It is unprecedented. We have unemployment in our city of 12%. That is about 20,000 people and that is on par with what we saw during the Great Recession.”
Credit: Disney
Undoubtedly, heading into the holiday season with the majority of Disneyland Resort employees still furloughed — or part of Disney’s recent round of layoffs — did not bode well for the Anaheim area.
The partial reopening of Disney California Adventure theme park — officially as an extension of the Downtown Disney District — has already resulted in hundreds of unionized Disneyland workers being recalled to work.
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