Disneyland

In a city that long ago hitched its wagon to Disney's star, it was a rare and sobering rejection. Over the fierce objections of the entertainment giant, the Anaheim City Council cleared the way for low-cost housing right across the street from where Disney someday plans to build a third amusement park. The classic battle between housing advocates and tourist officials, simmering for nearly a year, is likely to dominate city politics for months to come and spill into next year's elections.

Just one day after suffering a stinging rebuke at the hands of the Anaheim City Council, a coalition of business and community leaders siding with the Disney company announced plans Thursday to pursue a referendum aimed at overturning the city's decision to allow a controversial housing project near Disneyland.

It isn't nearly as vast or publicized as the controversial proposal to build lower-cost housing just down the street from Disneyland, but there is another looming residential project drawing Disney's wrath. And it too comes with lower-income worker housing in an area of town that the entertainment giant says should be confined to tourism and the financial windfall it brings to Orange County's second-largest city.

It was short in length -- but long in its reach. The Grizzly Flats Railroad's steam engines traveled for 70 years along a 500-foot-long stretch of rails next to the San Gabriel home of Betty and Ward Kimball. Along the way, the Kimballs' picturesque narrow-gauge line helped inspire Walt Disney to build the famous passenger train system that circles Disneyland.

Two girls in a youth music group that was performing at Disneyland's Magic Music Days were hospitalized Sunday for heat exhaustion, fire officials said. Authorities were called to the park about 11:45 a.m. after the group, consisting of about a dozen 13- and 14-year-old girls from Woodland, Calif., complained of being overheated, Anaheim Fire Department spokeswoman Maria Sabol said. The teens were wearing costumes with at least three layers, which might have contributed to dehydration, she said.

Walt Disney Co. believes Anaheim should have more affordable housing -- but not as close to Disneyland as some local officials and developers propose, Chief Executive Robert Iger said Monday. Speaking before a group of journalists at Disneyland Hotel, Iger called the theme park the "best neighbor Anaheim has ever had." Iger noted that the city's resort area occupied less than 5% of the land in Anaheim but generated 50% of the city's revenue.

Supporters of a Disney-funded referendum that would prevent a 1,500-unit housing complex from being built near Disneyland said Monday they had gathered enough signatures to place the issue on the February ballot. A coalition of business and community leaders said it delivered 21,243 signatures to Anaheim City Hall on Monday, three days before the deadline.

Like dozens of children before him, Porter Oglesby waited his turn before stepping up to the wooden pump. With his aunt on one end, they cranked it, draining water until the pirate treasure chest appeared from the briny deep. "Look at the gold!" he yelled. The 4-year-old from Iowa and his family joined thousands of visitors to Disneyland and hunted for buried treasure on the old Tom Sawyer Island, which reopened Friday with a Pirates of the Caribbean theme.

A developer whose project was expected to set the tone for sprucing up Anaheim's entertainment district has decided those plans are no longer economically viable, adding fuel to the debate about what types of development belong in the resort district. The Harbor Boulevard project was initially pitched as a luxury high-rise condo-hotel.

It was an underwater battle of epic proportions, pitting the creative types against the cost-cutting suits. But after nearly 10 years, Disneyland's classic Submarine Voyage has been resurrected from the deep. Reinvented as the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, the long-dormant and eagerly anticipated attraction immerses riders in a 12-minute journey through a coral reef, exploding volcano and shark-infested wreck as they search for the orange-and-white clown fish of movie fame.