Streetcars Land

Art imitates life, and life, it seems, imitates art with the announcement that Los Angeles plans to reintroduce streetcars. What, you may wonder, does this have to do with theme parks?

Disney California Adventure is wrapping up the final phase of its five-year, $1.1-billion (an unconfirmed, but widely believed price tag) makeover and will debut the highly anticipated Cars Land in a few weeks. One of the less heralded pieces of the expansion, however, will be the transformation of the front section of the park into Buena Vista Street, an idealized re-creation of the circa-1920's downtown Los Angeles that a young Walt Disney encountered when he first came to California to pursue his dreams. When it also opens shortly, visitors will be able to hop aboard the Red Car Trolley, an homage to the famous streetcars that used to crisscross LA and were removed in the early 1960s. According to the Associated Press, the city hopes to bring streetcars back to a four-mile loop along Broadway by 2016 as part of a larger urban revitalization plan.

• Soarin' Over California- Review of the Disney California Adventure attraction.

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Photo: Disney 2009. Used with permission.