The New York City politicians who organized the event were beaming. Earlier in the week, Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern bed surveyed the construction scene. Giant orange cranes stacked shipping containers the size of freight-train cars on top of one another to form the screens. Forklifts and trucks buzzed about, cutting muddy tracks through the field. Stern said Disney was donating $1 million to the Parks Commission to clean up after the event and aid other city parks. Did the city give Disney any restrictions? “No tomahawks!” quipped Stern. “No people scalped!” But seriously: “They’ve given us a no-trace bond. There will be no trace of them having been here.” Deputy Mayor Fran Reiter pulled up in a mini-motorcade. A stocky woman with a thick New York accent, she marched around with her hands on her hips. “Wild!” she barked. “Wild!” Someone asked if the city’s willingness to surrender the space had any-thing to do with the fact that Disney is also involved in a $300 million hotel and amusement complex on 42d Street. Reiter said no. “This is something we were always going to want to do,” she said. “We want a relationship with the Disney company. We want to bring things to New York that are magnets for other investment and development, and this company can do that.”
A lone voice of public dissent last week was former mayor Ed Koch. “I never would have allowed Disney to do this,” he told The New York Times. Disney, of course, had no complaints. “Pocahontas” got the kind of media attention advertising dollars can’t buy. And as promised, afterward New York went hack to being its grouchy old self. Some natives even breathed a sigh of relief.
