[Peachie]

Originally Posted by senior citizen

With regard to the "outsiders" who do not pay amenity fees or "belong" in The Villages.......I'd like to play Devil's Advocate for a moment.......


In hindsight, whether the "outsiders" are tourists from another state, visitors from another country, or just local folks from another 55+ retirement community who chose differently for their own personal reasons (thinking differently is not inherently right nor wrong), good citizens welcome folks to their "town". Good citizens are hospitable.


Having left New Jersey in 1970 for a more rural and tranquil place to raise our family, we have put up with decades upon decades of tourists who clog our roads and our Main Street during the summer months , plus the autumn months of September and October with their huge recreational vehicles or homes away from home bus type large r.v.'s. We put up with it.


They bring in revenue to our town by eating in our restaurants, shopping in our craft shops and retail establishments and touring our museums and monuments. We are the "Gateway to Vermont" and a popular stop before they head over the mountains or north to Lake Champlain. Not only tourists stop here or weekend here, but the parents of the kids who go to our two colleges in town do visit here.


We put up with bumper to bumper backed up traffic from one end of town to the other end of town as they come in and then exit..........it's not a highway, just a narrow road with a caravan of huge R.V. buses.


Merchants and business owners are HAPPY to see all of these visitors; it dropped off a bit after 911......but a lot of the past visitors to Vermont chose to relocate here, believe it or not. We still get plenty of tourists.


Out of staters perceived us to be a safe haven following the horrors of what befell New York City and the aftermath of fear.


Many of these out of staters bought property in our Green Mountains and weekly "come down into town" and would stop in our store. We didn't tell them they "didn't belong" or that their cars were blocking parking places on Main Street that a local family might use. When my husband retired, all of these "mountain transplants from the city" brought him nice gifts and said they'd miss him. We had been city folks once ourselves as well.


We also get summer visitors. All summer long. They are also welcome; as Vermonters love to share the beauty of the Green Mountain State with all of these tourists; they bring in revenue to our small state.


In the winter time we get the rich executives with their snow bunny trophy girlfriends heading for the ski slopes.......they stop in our town to eat and shop. We also get the young ski enthusiasts from N.Y. and N.J., likewise heading for the mountains and the snowmobile trails..............


From my perspective...........it does not seem hospitable to complain so much about a handful of residents of a neighboring 55+ retirement community, of which many here have said they are actually friends of.

O.K. I do get the golf carts on the golf trails or paths.

BUT, what about all of our Vermont out of state tourists with those big oversized R.V.'s on our narrow town streets and winding mountain roads???? A lot bigger than a golf cart, I'd say.


We might gripe a bit when it's slow going trying to get from one side of town to another, but we would never become hateful nor insulting to these visitors who supply the livelihood of many in our town. Mostly, we stay "in" over the Columbus Day Weekend or other times we know they will be here enmasse..........or we find ways around the congestion.


We simply put up with it. They are really all nice people. When we had our store, all of these travelers would stop in, buy a Vermont item, ask where to go for lunch or dinner...or whatever. Our staff was always hospitable. That's the word.......hospitable.


Definition:
treating visitors well: friendly, welcoming, and generous to guests or strangers agreeable: pleasant, agreeable, and providing what somebody needs to live comfortably



p.s. Florida tourists were a large portion of our visitors; they'd come in the summer months. Not everything nor every business is air conditioned in Vermont and when we get a "heat wave" in the 90's it might last for a week.......so naturally, they'd all be complaining about the heat and humidity.........and not stating , "We didn't realize how HOT Vermont is".


Funny when I now think about it. So, it takes all kinds.


I'm sure there are many Villagers who realize that those who visit as a renter in TV do have to get a guest pass from the owner of the home they are renting.........we had one and never even used it as our home had a pool under the birdcage. So, for everyone who is abusing this "amenity" thing, there are others spending money in TV and NOT using a single ammenity.


Plus we used our automobile primarily to go everywhere as the air conditioning was more comfy to go long distances in to view the various villages, which was our main reason for staying; to see all the different villages. Only a few times did my husband (and then our son and his wife) use a golf cart path or tunnel........just around where our rental home was. All the other times we took the car to go out to a restaurant, etc......as we had the baby.


I believe in the old saying, "Live and let live".......plus be hospitable.


God only knows that Vermonters have had to be hospitable to lots of folks from away.


Plus, everyone WE MET IN THE VILLAGES DURING OUR VISIT was super hospitable.
I'd say the complainers about the golf carts from Stonecrest are in the minority.




　

Apples and oranges; the residents of The Villages welcome all of the surrounding subdivisions to their main, public streets, not their personal property. Did all those bucolic Vermonters turn their garages, driveways, houses over to the tourists and fleeing people? Do the tourists call Vermonters stingy, unfriendly, selfish for not sharing these items? Same thing here, most Village residents are not interested in turning over their property to the adjacent subdivisions.