Fans of Frontierland at Walt Disney World Resort are bidding farewell to beloved attractions as construction on the upcoming “Piston Peak National Park” accelerates — with much of the Western-themed land to be replaced.

Construction walls now dominate large sections, the “Inside the Magic” blog reported, notably around Big Al’s and the nearby Westward Ho area, where guests have been funneled through a narrow temporary walkway. 

That limited access may soon end. Based on permit filings and typical Disney timelines, the remaining pathway could close imminently, according to the blog.

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If access is cut off, several iconic elements could disappear from view. Big Al’s — one of the few structures tied to Magic Kingdom’s early years — is considered a piece of history, the “Disney Dining” blog said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Walt Disney World Resort for comment.

Some Disney lovers worry the small back walkway near Country Bear Musical Jamboree, a longtime sit-down attraction, could close as Frontierland shifts toward the Piston Peak setting, the blogs reported.

One of the most noticeable changes has been the loss of the Frontierland boardwalk shortcut, once a quiet bypass for guests during peak crowds, “Blog Mickey” said.

The Frontierland Walt Disney World Railroad station is closed, and the train is operating as a shuttle between Fantasyland and Main Street, U.S.A., “Blog Mickey” reported.

Several staples — including snack kiosks and merchandise locations — are being removed, disappearing from the park as Disney reworks the area, according to multiple reports.

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These updates follow bigger changes that have already reshaped Frontierland.

The Rivers of America, Liberty Square Riverboat and Tom Sawyer Island closed in July 2025, marking the end of a long-standing centerpiece of Frontierland, “Disney Dining” said.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad — famously the “wildest ride in the wilderness” — remains closed for refurbishment, though it is expected to return in 2026, the blogs said.

Right now, Frontierland feels less like the Wild, Wild West to many and more like a construction zone — with walls, detours and shifting pathways, the blogs reported.

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Disney’s Piston Peak National Park promises a very different experience, as it is inspired by the Rocky Mountains and the Pixar “Cars” franchise, the “Disney Castle Dreaming” blog said.

To create the new rides, Disney is seemingly rewriting a major part of its history.

Frontierland was rooted in America’s past.

Introduced by Walt Disney in California in 1955, it was designed as a tribute to pioneer spirit, with riverboats, wilderness trails and frontier towns. Magic Kingdom’s version opened in 1971 and expanded that vision into a fully realized Old West setting.

But some fans aren’t ready to say goodbye to elements of it.

“It’s a shame Magic Kingdom is losing its Rivers of America to ‘Cars,’” one Reddit user wrote last year after hearing about the changes.

Another agreed, saying, “I don’t think Magic Kingdom should lose [it] either. It’s such a beautiful area. Sure, Tom Sawyer could be updated, but keep the river.”

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Last June, Disney reported, “We are excited to share that Piston Peak National Park will continue the sweeping storytelling tradition that has crossed Liberty Square and Frontierland since opening day.”

The “Disney Parks” blog also reported, “At the heart of all these stories are heroic characters with a belief in themselves that helped forge a path to their dreams. To continue this journey in great American storytelling, Piston Peak National Park will be part of the largest expansion in the history of Magic Kingdom.”

SEATTLE — Seattle’s fentanyl crisis is impossible to hide from public view, with open-air drug use, rising overdose deaths and struggling addicts highlighting the challenges facing city leaders and community advocates.

Hector, an addict, told Fox News Digital that he has been having a “hard time” and that the most common drug used in the area is “Fetty,” and cautioned young people to stay away from it. 

“The younger people, don’t waste their lives on drugs,” Hector said. “It’s a waste of time, waste of money, waste of life.”

We Heart Seattle, an organization founded by Andrea Suarez in the fall of 2020 to clean up public spaces and offer resources to people in need, has tried to help Hector multiple times. 

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Suarez told Fox News Digital that she believes the city, which recently elected socialist Mayor Katie Wilson in November, is not doing enough to address the crisis.  

“We are the only outreach agency that’s actually advocating for people to be held accountable for their own safety and the safety of others,” Suarez said. “Because the culture here is very hands-off, live and let live. And drug users are people too, and we’re the problem. We caused the trauma because of systemic racism and poverty and capitalism and, like, all this ideology has just taken such a stronghold in Seattle, that it’s more of a do-nothing attitude by our politicians and that activists are so loud here that they will even bail people out of jail who are very harmful to the community because they are anti-incarceration of any kind.” 

In an internal email obtained by Fox News Digital, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes wrote that “all charges related to drug possession and/or drug use will be diverted from prosecution to the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program,” but Wilson denied claims that her administration was changing drug enforcement policy.

Suarez said the city should pursue stronger policies to address the crisis.

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“So if you make that penalty stronger, and you can arrest a person for tenting and using narcotics in a park, suddenly six months or a year in jail may deter you from using in a public space and also accept help,” Suarez said. 

“As outreach workers, you know, why do we get burned out? Because we can’t make a difference without teeth, without law, without law enforcement,” she continued. “So better legislation and stiffer penalties around using in these shared spaces and holding the low barrier properties like tiny houses and hotels and permanent supportive housing that allow drug dealers and drug using within their properties, that if they are a nuisance to the community, they should be fined and would force a good neighborhood agreement.” 

Local outlet KOMO News reported on April 16 that the Syringe Services Program Health Survey found that in 2021, 93% of respondents reported injecting drugs. By 2025, however, 90% said they had smoked drugs in the previous week, while injections had dropped to 44%.

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The Roosevelt News, another local outlet, reported last year that King County recorded 1,067 drug poisoning deaths in 2023 due to fentanyl, a 47% increase from the previous year.  

According to the Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute at the University of Washington, opioid overdose death rates in King, Pierce, and Spokane Counties more than quadrupled between 2002-2004 and 2024-2025.

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported in November that the agency seized roughly 3.4 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl from the two drug trafficking groups targeted in investigations in the Western District of Washington.

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“Hardcore people that were big-time opioid users that ran the streets for years and years, if not decades, will tell you that drugs on top of drugs isn’t how you help a drug addict,” Suarez said. “Abstinence is how you help if you truly want to help, not thousands of dollars of medication. Often that ends up being a subsidy for the drug addict, only really just to kind of enable them and entrap them into addiction further, which we’ve seen firsthand as well.”

Suarez also stressed that the work of some local left-wing activist groups is making it more difficult to curtail homelessness and crimes committed by those looking for quick cash to get their next fix. She told Fox News Digital that these groups are often against incarceration of any kind, regardless of the alleged crime. 

The Northwest Community Bail Fund (NCBF) in Seattle, along with other similar groups, often pays bail for individuals unable to afford it, aiming to reduce the harms of the cash bail system. These groups, highlighted in a CBS News story, claim that cash bail disproportionately affects low-income individuals. 

Victims of violent crime have previously complained that these groups have bailed out people that are a danger to the public. 

Similar to Hector, Erica is another addict that Suarez and We Heart Seattle have been trying to help. 

“So this is a common barrier to accepting services and treatment is Erica doesn’t want to be separated from her dog under any circumstances,” Suarez said. “So even though we’ve offered to provide kenneling for her … we will pay for people to get their dogs kenneled while they go to treatment. And she was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ So she’s got two amputated fingers, living on a sidewalk, frostbitten nose.”

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Suarez said that the tearing down of a pavilion and picnicking area at Dr. Jose Rizal Park in Seattle is symbolic of the current drug crisis. 

“This pavilion is very, very bittersweet to talk about this, because this pavilion was recently torn down because it was untenable with drug use, fire damage. People were just filleted over here,” Suarez said. “It looked like a tombstone. And so the neighbors advocated for it to get demolished as the roof was burnt down. And so this is what’s left.” 

Only stubs of the pavilion and scorched cement remain.

“It really is very symbolic of what has become of our parks in Seattle with this type of a view, children’s playgrounds nearby, that drugs and fentanyl use and their civil liberties are really taking precedence and priority, really priority over the civil liberties,” Suarez added. “And so this was very, very hard to see this get demolished, just not even a couple months ago.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to Wilson and King County Public Health for comment but did not immediately receive responses.

For years, Asheville, North Carolina, marketed itself as a mountain escape known for breweries, boutique hotels and Blue Ridge views. But residents and critics say a different reality has taken shape in the wake of Hurricane Helene: panhandling at intersections, public intoxication, encampments and an unsafe downtown.

Carl Mumpower, a private practice clinical psychologist, lifelong Asheville resident and former City Council member who served from 2001 until 2009, said the city’s current challenges stem from decisions made over decades.

“Asheville began its efforts to address homelessness at least three decades ago. This effort accelerated in the early part of this century with the first ‘Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness,’” Mumpower told Fox News Digital.

“That plan was ill advised but passed with a super-majority. At the time, I suggested to the council that any plan that removed personal accountability from the helping equation was doomed to fail.”

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Mumpower said the city has continued down the same path ever since.

“That plan and subsequent plans have failed with equal enthusiasm. Homelessness, drug abuse, and related crimes have increased relentlessly under the watch of local homelessness experts and a governing body that is dominated by liberal Democrats and those with an even more extreme view to the left. That lack of balance — the last conservative on the council was in 2009 — has led to a myopic repeat of errors.”

He also argued that city leaders relied on ideas that were not grounded in practical solutions.

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“As regards homelessness, Asheville has a persisting history of pursuing fantasized interventions over more realistic, measurable and trackable solutions.”

The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care, the local, government-supported coalition responsible for coordinating federal homelessness planning and services in Asheville and Buncombe County, said homelessness in the region is at its highest level on record in its latest count.

Data from the group’s 2026 Point-in-Time survey found 824 people experiencing homelessness, a 9.1% increase from 2025. That included 334 people living unsheltered, up 1.8% from the prior year. Nearly 500 others were in shelters or transitional housing, a rise the Continuum of Care attributed partly to expanded emergency shelter and transitional housing capacity.

These “fantasize interventions,” Mumpower said, were accompanied by the city’s pursuit of defunding the police department.

“The council’s political dismantling of the police department — resulting in a 40% reduction due to retirements and resignations — has had a dramatic impact on crime in Asheville,” he said. “Most ‘smaller’ crimes are no longer enforced or realistically tracked, and return on investment costs have skyrocketed. We have officers who earned over $150,000 in overtime last year due to manpower shortages. Enforcement is not possible without adequate, motivated personnel.”

“The direct impact on residents is increased and unenforced crime, direct exposure to intoxication and violent street behaviors, and burdensome taxes and fees to chase the recycled program pretenses.”

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Mumpower said many local residents have simply stopped going downtown.

“The single most common phrase uttered by county and surrounding area residents is ‘I don’t go downtown anymore – it’s nasty, crazy, and scary,’” he said.

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He said tourism also suffers when disorder becomes more visible in the city center.

“Tourism is impacted, and those we attract are often coming here not as families, but as partiers seeking to join the fray.”

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The issue has taken on added urgency in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of western North Carolina in September 2024.

Michael Whatley, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, said the storm worsened hardship in the region and exposed failures in the government response.

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“The biggest issue set that we’ve been dealing with, obviously, is the hurricane relief coming on the heels of Hurricane Helene and the fact that the Biden administration and Roy Cooper, when he was governor, failed miserably to help that situation in terms of following the hurricane,” Whatley told Fox News Digital.

Whatley said that the administration’s clearance of relief funds will assist residents to get back on their feet.

“As part of President Trump’s government response, $1.4B was made available by HUD for housing relief,” Whatley said. “And there also has been over the last month or so a lot of movement with FEMA in terms of the disaster relief that they’re providing to homeowners there.”

“We’re certainly not ready to hang up a mission accomplished sign by any stretch of the imagination. But federal relief that has been put into Western North Carolina is substantially more than has ever been given into North Carolina as a result of any storm by the federal government.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the City of Asheville said that officials continue to focus on public safety.

“This month we launched the Asheville Police Department’s Downtown Plan which will essentially double police patrols downtown – increasing day and overnight patrols and, in some cases, responding along with trained mental health counselors. Our REST Team program is an operational response to mitigate the effects of homelessness,” the city said. “It uses specially trained Asheville Fire Department staff to engage with concerned residents and people experiencing homelessness to problem-solve and connect them to resources.”

A city spokesperson also noted that officials expanded their panhandling ordinance and continue working with community partners like the Asheville Downtown Association and its ADID program.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Cooper’s campaign, the Asheville’s mayor office and the police department for comment.