Wall Street Journal: 'Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias'

[JohnM]

Interesting article if you missed it...

'Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias'
By Andrew D. Blechman
April 18, 2008 9:12 p.m.
1. For Sale
… The conversation soon turned to Dave's imminent move. I still felt a little let down by his decision to move away so abruptly. Didn't he feel at least some regret? Weren't he and Betsy going to miss strolling into town for dinner and waving to old friends along the way?


Grove Atlantic, Inc.
"We never intended to leave the neighborhood, Andrew," he explained. "As you know, I'm not someone who makes rash decisions. But then we discovered The Villages. It's not so much that we're leaving here as we're being drawn to another place. Our hearts are now in The Villages."

The Villages? The name was so bland it didn't even register. All I could picture was a collection of English hamlets in the Cotswolds bound together by narrow lanes and walking trails. But I thought Dave had said they were moving to Florida.

Over the course of the summer, Dave cleared up my confusion. At first, his descriptions of The Villages were so outrageous, so over the top, that I figured he must have been pulling my leg. Then he started bringing me clippings from The Villages' own newspaper. As I sat and read them, I was filled with a sense of comic wonder mixed with a growing alarm.

The Andersons were moving to the largest gated retirement community in the world. It spanned three counties, two zip codes, and more than 20,000 acres. The Villages itself, Dave explained, was subdivided into dozens of separate gated communities, each its own distinct entity, yet fully integrated into a greater whole that shared two manufactured downtowns, a financial district, and several shopping centers, and all of it connected by nearly 100 miles of golf cart trails.

I had trouble imaging the enormousness of the place. I didn't have any reference points with which to compare such a phenomenon. Was it a town, or a subdivision, or something like a college campus? And if it was as big as Dave described, then how could residents travel everywhere on golf carts? Dave described golf cart tunnels, golf cart bridges, and even golf cart tailgates. And these were no dinky caddie replacements. According to Dave, some of them cost upwards of $25,000 and were souped up to look like Hummers, Mercedes sedans, and hot rods.

The roads are especially designed for golf cart traffic, Dave told me, because residents drive the carts everywhere: to supermarkets, hardware stores, movie theaters, and even churches. With one charge, a resident can drive about forty miles, which, Dave explains to me, "is enough to go anywhere you'd want to go."

According to the Andersons, The Villages provides its 75,000 residents (it is building homes for 35,000 more) with anything their hearts could possibly desire, mostly sealed inside gates: countless recreation centers staffed with full-time directors; dozens of pools; hundreds of hobby and affinity clubs; two spotless, crime-free village centers with friendly, affordable restaurants; and three dozen golf courses—one for each day of the month—with plans for many more.

More important, The Villages provides residents with something else they apparently crave—a world without children. An individual must be at least fifty-five years old to purchase a home in The Villages, and no one under nineteen may live there—period. Children may visit, but their stays are strictly limited to a total of thirty days a year, and the developer reserves the right to periodically request that residents verify their age. As a new father, I found this rule particularly perplexing, although I hesitated to say as much.

I asked Dave, a schoolteacher for thirty years, if he felt uncomfortable living in a community without children, and I was surprised when he answered that he was actually looking forward to it. "I was tired of trying to imagine what a thirteen-year-old girl in my classroom was going through," Dave said. "I'm not thirteen, and I'm not a girl. I want to spend time with people who are retired like me."

When I asked about diversity, Betsy said that she didn't much care for it. Dave explained that diversity to him is more about interests and background than about age or racial demographics. "There are very few blacks—although I did play golf with a nice man—and I don't think I've seen any Orientals, but there's still so much stimulus there. Diversity exists if you want to find it. There are hundreds and hundreds of clubs to join, and if you don't find one that suits your interests, they'll help you start one."

Orientals? I hadn't heard that word since the 1970s, when chop suey was considered an exotic menu item. It never occurred to me how culturally out of sync I was with my neighbors. Although Dave and Betsy were young retirees (fifty-five and sixty-two, respectively), we were clearly of two different generations.

"Life in The Villages is really too much to describe," Betsy added. "It's simply unforgettable. For me, it was love at first sight." She patted her heart for emphasis. "I can only equate it to the movie The Stepford Wives. Everyone had a smile on their face like it's too good to be true. But it really is."

"I was real worried about Elizabeth when it was time to go," Dave said. "I was worried she would just crumble when we left to come back up here. The place really touched her heart."

"There are a lot of people just like us," Betsy continued. "I was very comfortable there. It's where I want to be. It has everything I could possibly want."

I was struck by how many of Dave's newspaper clippings described the residents' unusual leisure pursuits, including their fascination with gaining entry into the Guinness Book of World Records. In the eight months Dave had his house up for sale, his compatriots down south qualified for the big book twice: first for the world's largest simultaneous electric slide (1,200 boogying seniors), and next for the world's longest golf cart parade (nearly 3,500 lowspeed vehicles).

As amusing as these descriptions of daily life in The Villages were, they left me feeling dismayed, even annoyed. Were the Andersons really going to drop out of our community, move to Florida, and sequester themselves in a gated geritopia? Dave and Betsy had volunteered on the EMS squad, and Betsy also volunteered at the senior center and our local hospice. By all accounts, they were solid citizens with many more years of significant community involvement ahead of them.

And frankly, our community needed the Andersons. There were whispers that the town intended to pave over our little neighborhood park with a 20,000-square-foot fire station. Other sites were being considered for the station, but because the town owned the property it would be cheaper to build it there. The Andersons were a known quantity around town. They were respected and presumably knew how to navigate town hall and the surprisingly acrimonious politics of small-town New England. And now they were leaving—running off to a planned community where such headaches in all probability didn't exist. Rather than lead, they had chosen to secede. As Betsy described The Villages' accommodations for the terminally ill, it was clear that she had no intention of ever returning to our community. "The rooms overlook a golf course!" she said. "The Villages has even made dying a little more pleasant!"

[graciegirl]

JOHN!

What a well written article. I sent it on to everyone. I am getting a little crosseyed trying to EXPLAIN The Villages. This helped immeasurably. Thank you so much for posting it!

GracieGirl

[Muncle]

I was a tad upset about what I percieved as misconceptions and superficial views by the author. I thought it would be like writing a treatise on Ukrainian society after eating some kapusta and spending a weekend in Kiev. So I went to the web to try to gather more info. It turns out that this is an excerpt from a 250ish page book that was reviewed in the WSJ..
http://www.seniorsworldchronicle.com/

Since I have not read the book, I cannot say with certainty, but it appears that Blechman had an opinion and tailored his finding and interpretations of those finding to fit his biased opinion. FYI, the review:

BOOKS
Among the Oldsters at Play
'Active Adults' in Retirement: Golf, Dancing and the Adventures of Mr. Midnight
By GLENN RUFFENACH
Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2008

Leisureville
By Andrew D. Blechman
Atlantic Monthly, 244 pages, $25

To the list of Really Big Problems in this country, Andrew Blechman wishes to add . . . the spread of retirement communities.

That's right. For those of us unaware of the threat posed by real-estate developments where older adults live in neighborhoods with other older adults, Mr. Blechman sounds the alarm in "Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias."

Mr. Blechman writes that untold numbers of retirees are "abandoning the communities that once paid for and nurtured them and their families" and are opting for a life of "perpetual self-gratification." (Read: golf, tennis and sex, according to Mr. Blechman. Lots of sex.) In doing so, he argues, these "sybaritic seniors" are cheating the rest of us -- forsaking an obligation to share their time and talents and "further loosening the ties that bind our nation."

Perhaps so, but such fulminating doesn't quite convince. As Mr. Blechman showed in "Pigeons" (2006), an agreeable portrait of a much-maligned bird, he is a thorough reporter -- and his reporting here reveals that older adults, in fact, have perfectly good reasons for settling in "age-segregated" communities (as Mr. Blechman prefers to call them). What's more, these communities, which he fears will blanket the country someday, might already contain the seeds of their own demise.

"Leisureville," a first-person account, begins when Mr. Blechman, who is "under 40," learns that his newly retired neighbors are selling their house and moving to The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in central Florida. His surprise at the couple's decision -- they live in a "charming" New England town -- turns to dismay as the neighbors offer tidbits about their new surroundings. At The Villages, where some residents tool through the streets in $25,000 golf carts, the focus is on leisure -- without the company of children, who are almost nowhere to be found. Kids may visit, but their stays are limited to a total of 30 days a year.

The child-free-zone details are too much for Mr. Blechman. "How could two bright individuals," he asks, "be drawn to something as seemingly ridiculous as The Villages?" When the couple, after settling in Florida, invite him to visit -- suggesting, conveniently, that he might want "to write a book" about life in a retirement community -- Mr. Blechman adds some argyle socks to his wardrobe and heads south.

What he finds, in chapters that alternate between days at The Villages and a look at the retirement-housing industry, is "enhanced reality." Perfect homes sit on perfect streets, where hedges higher than four feet are prohibited (as are trick-or-treaters at Halloween), driveway lights turn on and off at the same designated time, and even lawn sprinklers appear to move in unison. As if to confirm Mr. Blechman's Orwellian theme, The Villages' TV network, radio station and newspaper pump out a steady diet of feel-good news.

"Residents, or at least the ones encountered by the author, "appear blissfully calm and cheery." And why not? Like most "active-adult" communities today, The Villages is a sort of residential resort, where swimming pools, golf courses and fitness centers are plentiful. With golf carts at the ready, homeowners move briskly from one recreational activity to the next: bowling, line dancing, swimming, billiards, golf and a never-ending series of parties. And then there is the sex: Mr. Blechman has the misfortune -- at least for readers -- of meeting "Chet," better known in The Villages as "Mr. Midnight." For whatever reason, the author becomes fixated on Chet and fills page after tedious page with his carnal feats.

That retirees regard every day as Saturday is bad enough, in Mr. Blechman's eyes. What really rankles, though, is their indifference -- again, in his view -- to the world beyond The Villages. Exhibit No. 1: Residents vote overwhelmingly against a half-penny sales tax to help fund local schools. At which point, Mr. Blechman asks: "Whatever happened to the idea -- perhaps naïve -- that we're all in this together, that we have an obligation to the generations that come after us?"

Mr. Blechman is clearly impassioned about closing the generational divide. But as his interviews make clear, the chasm is just fine with many residents, who are hardly sequestering themselves in the name of golf and trimmed hedges. They want to feel safe; they want to live someplace affordable and easy to navigate. And perhaps most important, they want companionship. In one of several poignant scenes, Pat, who shares a home in The Villages with her sister, tells Mr. Blechman: "I don't feel threatened like I did back in Boston. Back home, I'd be stuck in the house, scared. Here I can go down to the [town] square by myself, listen to the music, see people dancing, go home and I feel like I did something. And it didn't cost me a dime."

Mr. Blechman also finds evidence that retirement communities, for all his worries about their inexorable growth, could soon be "dinosaurs," as one marketing expert puts it. In particular, baby boomers may be reluctant to embrace communities like The Villages -- the generation that never wanted to grow up might shun places that would expose them as not-young. And as the developments' populations (typically on fixed incomes) grow older, "age-segregated" communities could end up "de-segregating" in order to attract new residents and to help defray the rising cost of municipal services.

Mr. Blechman isn't the first youngish author to get the idea that living among the (retired) natives might provide interesting fodder for a book. In 2005, Rodney Rothman, a former writer for "Late Show With David Letterman," published "Early Bird," describing his stay -- he was 28 at the time -- in Century Village, a retirement community in Florida. Full of humor and humanity, Mr. Rothman's book captures the sort of place where many of us might choose to live one day. For those who prefer a darker view of sunny retirement, there's always "Leisureville" to make them feel uneasy.

Mr. Ruffenach is a reporter and editor for The Wall Street Journal in Atlanta and the editor of Encore, the Journal's guide to retirement planning and living.

[SteveFromNY]

Muncle, thanks for posting that. I sensed something a little negative in the tone of the article in the Journal. Couldn't quite put my finger on it though. Your post cleared that up.

[Sidney Lanier]

Talk about creating an agenda and then researching only those things that fit it while ignoring everything else! Teachers, sociologists, psychologists, planners--those who are honest, anyway--can have a field day with this kind of one-sided presentation that I might go so far as to call 'bigoted.' No, I haven't read the book either, and likely wouldn't waste my time, but his fixation with 'gated community' in this article, which is not even accurate but fits 'the agenda,' makes clear his purpose in writing.

We ourselves are snowbirds. When asked about missing our grandchildren, our response is that we can visit them, and they us, easily--until they reach the age where visits with grandparents become appropriately onerous as they develop their own social lives, as inevitably happens. But what brings us back up north are friendships and our involvements in the organizations integral to our lives that we volunteer with, a view that no doubt would warm the cockles of the heart of Blechman. However, his assumption that we--and his former neighbors 'Betsy & Dave'--would not continue to be who they are and get involved in and around TV in exactly the same way that they had done in their previous community is a leap of confusion about human nature at best and disingenuous to fit 'the agenda' at worst.

To Blechman, for 'Betsy & Dave' to move across the Atlantic to England and the Cotswolds (a delightful area, to be sure) is acceptable whereas a retirement community is not? What incredible presumptuousness!!! Clearly he has rejected outright any "humor and humanity" mentioned as being present in the Rothman book, perhaps because these qualities do not exist in his own life. Sad....

[Russ_Boston]

Great research Muncle!

I could 'hear' the underside of the article as i was reading the excerpt. I too have friends who ask things like "Why are you running away from us?" or "What's wrong with this area where you've lived your whole life?" I always answer with the same thing "It's MY time".

My journey has been well chronicled in this forum and I won't repeat the whole thing but it is time to change my life. Moving to TV is only part of it. Changing my profession to one that helps people every day (RN) is another. Selfish? Maybe, but how much time do any of us have left? I plan on enjoying every day of the rest of my life doing things that make ME happy and living in TV will make me happy.

Russ

[villages07]

Slightly off-topic..... :cop:

Russ, your use of "My Time" reminded my of a book recommended to me several years ago by work colleagues. It's titled "My Time" subtitled "Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life" by Abigail Trafford. Can find it in many libraries and at amazon or other resellers for very inexpensive price. It was an easy, enjoyable read...all about life after 50 and making it your time.

Here's a product review from amazon: Kids grown? Mortgage paid? Career topping out? What now? In My Time, best-selling author Abigail Trafford answers the questions more and more 50somethings are asking themselves.Thanks to the longevity revolution of recent decades, today's 55-75-year-olds are living and working longer and healthier than ever before. This generation is the first to experience the period of personal renaissance in between middle and old age--what Trafford calls "My Time." Defining this period as a whole new developmental stage in the life cycle, Trafford skillfully guides readers through the obstacles of "My Time" and offers them the opportunity to take full advantage of the bonus decades.With the same wit, compassion, and vivid storytelling that made Crazy Time one of the best-loved books ever written on the subject of divorce, Trafford blends personal stories with expert opinions and the latest research on adult development. From the doctor who gave up his practice to write books to the widowed mother of three who reinvented herself as a successful photographer, true tales of crisis and triumph sparkle on every page of this inspiring and insightful book.Like Gail Sheehy's Passages, My Time is certain to profoundly affect the journey through our adult years.

Back on topic....interesting article and interesting review from Muncle. They can say what they like about TV, but, I know I've found my last home!!! Life doesn't get any better than this.

[graciegirl]

Muncie.

I took the article as just written with a little sarcastic humor and overstatement. Even the most articulate and KIND hearted people sometimes use words that might be perceived as politically incorrect. I have dear friends from Asia that don't find it offensive to hear the words Oriental or Chinaman! I don't mind being compared to a Stepford being. I feel that it is impossible to describe the Village experience. It is hard to understand why anyone would have the time or interest to line up 3000 golf carts to break a world record, unless you have experienced the aura of the place.

I am not surprised that people our age vote against taxes for schools, I have never done it and won't but that is just human nature. I am further not surprised that people find it comfortable and peaceful to escape youth in it's original form even though I adore children, speak childrenese, and always will be delighted by their presence.

I found the article as a positive because it clearly shows how The Villages and Village life appear to the unitiated. I found it was a good presentation of negative psychology. I sent it on to my incredulous friends.

Just my opinion but you have me by many I.Q. points Muncie.

GracieGirl

[JUREK]

Muncle:
Excellent response and post.. :bigthumbsup: :bigthumbsup:

[graciegirl]

Muncie:

I have read your response and the WSJ review slower. I believe now that the writer is lacking in years,experience and wisdom, and I take back my view that he was trying to be funny. I still say that as a teaching tool, the article is excellent.

Living here is gonna be UN-believeable!

GracieGirl

[Rokinronda]

Yes, fellow Villagers, our new friends, our new family, our friends and family up north, everyone.....YES, we are still in UTOPIA! The article called this a "really big problem"? Almost 4 years of living and working here and it is "UN believable" Yes, 07, it is our time! We are home. We work, but sure have a lot of active fun times, in "LEISUREVILLE". When we are retirement age we will work less and volunteer MORE, hopefully! .........My hubbys parents talked and talked about "someday" spending winters in florida. We brought them to FL. many times through the years for our family vacations.... Well, "someday" never happened. We started to say "someday" a lot. It was almost an honor to move here for them. My Dad visited and loved it here. He was not a golfer, but sure loved dancing with all the "gorgeous girls" here! He loved "rokin" :hot: ......I guess its in the blood! LOL My Dad also said he might like to move here "someday". Then he passed away this last Nov. :'( .... Other family and friends have visited and said "someday"...... life is just too short to say "someday". Our children have said they will not sell our house when we die. Of course we told them its a long, long time till that happens! ;D Our son (golfer) and his fiance up north want to be able to come here to Utopia for winters when his family has grown. We hope that our little slice of paradise is passed future generations!! A Toast to UTOPIA!!! :beer3: HOME SWEET HOME!!

[beady]

Rokinronda,

Exactly.

My folks also spoke of moving to Florida but my Mom just couldn't face leaving her family. In the end she regretted not having moved . So, I took my cue from her and although it was hard to leave it was absolutely the best thing to do.

We have had grandkids and kids visit, I head north a couple times a year and it is the best.

Nothing has changed as far as lifestyle is concerned. I still continue to volunteer and be involved, and I think that is the case with people who move here. They do not retire and regress, they retire and continue. The only difference is we don't have to go out and work every day, in fact, we can become more involved in life. All my friends continually ask what I planned to do with my spare time. Well.......now I tell them I hardly have time to do simple tasks because I am so busy.The man who wrote the WSJ article needs to be more objective and do more research before he expounds on the life of retirees.

[gfmucci]

Even with the jaded, exaggerating and misunderstanding tone of the article, I smiled when I read it - knowing my wife and I will be there in a few months - and hissing "Yessss" as I thrust my fist backwards toward my side in anticipatory joy!*

Wow - it sounds like I picked up the "tone" of the article.* But in this case, I'm NOT being sarcastic.

[gfmucci]

And then there is the sex: Mr. Blechman has the misfortune -- at least for readers -- of meeting "Chet," better known in The Villages as "Mr. Midnight." For whatever reason, the author becomes fixated on Chet and fills page after tedious page with his carnal feats.

Mr. Blechman also finds evidence that retirement communities, for all his worries about their inexorable growth, could soon be "dinosaurs," as one marketing expert puts it. In particular, baby boomers may be reluctant to embrace communities like The Villages -- the generation that never wanted to grow up might shun places that would expose them as not-young. And as the developments' populations (typically on fixed incomes) grow older, "age-segregated" communities could end up "de-segregating" in order to attract new residents and to help defray the rising cost of municipal services.

Mr. Blechman isn't the first youngish author to get the idea that living among the (retired) natives might provide interesting fodder for a book. In 2005, Rodney Rothman, a former writer for "Late Show With David Letterman," published "Early Bird," describing his stay -- he was 28 at the time -- in Century Village, a retirement community in Florida. Full of humor and humanity, Mr. Rothman's book captures the sort of place where many of us might choose to live one day. For those who prefer a darker view of sunny retirement, there's always "Leisureville" to make them feel uneasy.

RE the "sex" comment:* Isn't it just like a liberal, Gen X author to have a sex fetish about older Americans.* What an a--.* This is the gratuitous 'tude I'm glad I'm "escaping" from. ;D

Mr. Blechman is worried about what will happen to TV as the occupants die off? ...will become "dinosaurs?"* St. Petersburg, FL didn't have any trouble.* Throughout the '50's, '60's, and '70's, St. Petersburg was the retirement capital of Florida.* I spoke to a Florida planning consultant the other day who explained the great revitalization of St. Petersburg that has occurred over the past decade...it is thriving as never before.* The Villages has at least a decade of boomers who will want to escape to TV before any transition in its composition needs to be considered.* And my guess is that the maturing of TV in terms of landscaping and overall quality will cause TV to continue to be one of the great attractions for retirees across the nation decades beyond that.

And finally, the Wall Street Journal review has it right:* "For those who prefer a darker view of sunny retirement, there's always "Leisureville" [the book] to make them feel uneasy."* There is always someone around to mock a good thing they don't understand.

[JohnN]

Different strokes for different folks, the writer is younger and has a different perspective of life trends, .......... interesting

[redwitch]

I remember when I was younger (20s and 30s) and my viewpoint of retirement communities was very negative. While I didn't call the residents Stepfords, I did think of them as a place to go to die. Definitely not something I wanted to do. As I got older (40s), my viewpoint changed a little. Retirement communities became a place to escape from the world. Again, not something I wanted to do. I loved the world and all it had to offer. This was pretty much my viewpoint prior to moving to TV.

I visited a friend here and discovered people didn't hide from the world. They embraced it still! There are as many who travel, visit local sites outside of TV, go back to their original homes to visit friends and families as there are those who never leave TV unless absolutely forced to. We read, keep up on politics, have friends of many diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. I haven't escaped from this beautiful world we live in. Rather, I have found a spot where I feel safe and accepted as I am (getting older, chubbier to fatter, sarcastic but with a good heart) and where I can let my world expand and contract as I need on any given day.

So, I take Mr. Blechman's comments with a large grain of salt. They are appropriate for his age. I'd like to read what he has to say about TV (or its equivalent when he hits his 50s and 60s).

[gfmucci]

So, I take Mr. Blechman's comments with a large grain of salt.* They are appropriate for his age.* I'd like to read what he has to say about TV (or its equivalent when he hits his 50s and 60s).*
So, right now, Mr. Blechman is writing out of ignorance...but in a good way.* Sort of like someone writing something negative [sarcastic, stereotypical, demeaning - pick a word] about Italians [or Irish or Blacks or Jews or Presbyterians] because they haven't been one yet.* "Appropriate for his age" just like racism was appropriate for a southerner in the '50's?* Both reflect prejudice grounded in ignorance. Neither should be excused.

[redwitch]

GF, yes and no. I don't agree with what he wrote but I understand it and I am willing to bet his attitude will change as he ages. No matter, he has the right to write it. I have the right to accept what he says, ignore it or argue it. I hate bigoted remarks and some of his remarks were bigoted. I'd love to wipe ignorance off the face of this earth and there's no question he is at the very least partially ignorant about retirement communities in general and TV in particular. However, that doesn't mean I have the right to stop him saying what he chooses.

About the only point he made that was valid to me was the loss to the community of this wonderful couple. I'm glad they chose TV as their new residence. They will obviously be a great asset here.

I don't think I ever said what he wrote was good just that I understood that some of his comments were made with the arrogance of youth. Some of his comments actually had me gritting my teeth but I'll still defend his right to say them.

[graciegirl]

Redwitch.
You have written the words I couldn't find. :agree: :agree:Of course our perception of age changes with the age we are. I like to see how other people view things, I guess if I strongly disagree, I try to change their minds but most of the time as I am older I find, it doesn't matter. If it doesn't cause harm, I really believe that most people are going to learn differently and change sooner or later. There are many shades to peoples' perceptions, and I find honesty interesting.

I wonder how my grandchildren will see the place when they come. Probably with the positive attitude given them by their parents. The oldest will begin at Ohio University in Journalism this fall and I can't wait to see what she thinks and says.

The two of them are perfect you see, ;)but most young people have a lot to learn.

[Rokinronda]

AMEN!

[Frangyomory]

Love the article but it did make us sound a bit "white bread" down here. We certainly are not. Thre are several ethnic clubs which have many, many members and I resent the implication that they didn't see many people of color on their visit. Are they coming here because they percieve a lack of "color"??? I certainly hope not. This community is for anyone who wants to retire and love every minute they have left on this earth. There should be no barriers or percieved barriers to anyone.

Just my humble opinion.

[gfmucci]

I don't think I ever said what he wrote was good just that I understood that some of his comments were made with the arrogance of youth.* Some of his comments actually had me gritting my teeth but I'll still defend his right to say them.
Yes, we all have the right to do or say just about anything we please.* But there are consequences with everything we do and say...some consequences are better than others.* And so also, there are varying degrees of bigotry and ignorance.* People have the right to express themselves whether out of ignorance or wisdom.* And we all have the right and obligation to discern (judge, if you will) whether what they say is accurate and kind or misleading and arrogant.

[Sidney Lanier]

You know, I remember when my parents retired and moved to a condo in south Florida (near Fort Lauderdale). My brother and I looked at each other and decided that they'd have no problem at all moving away from us in upstate NY, knowing the potential for visiting, but how would they ever give up on being close by to their family doctor? Wouldn't you know it, after buying, our mother took the sales literature to show to the doctor and his wife--who ended up retiring and buying in the next building! We laughed for a long time. '-)

When our widowed mother turned 80, she announced to us that she was 'nearer than further' and that, after she died, we should consider keeping the condo. My brother and I looked at her and at each other and said (to ourselves and each other, though not to her...) 'Not for me.' At our relatively young ages, we could not see ourselves in that setting. Sadly he died way too young--at age 55 only two years after she had died--but here I am--older--and in TV! No, the condo would definitely not have been my style of living; I haven't been a cliff dweller in more decades than I care to think about. But in truth the concept of 'Florida retirement' looks very different from the perspective of my age now than it did then....

[gfmucci]

What we judge is best for ourselves is one thing, and very appropriate. What we judge is best for others is presumptuous and arrogant. The author was doing the latter.

[Muncle]

A couple of things about the book excerpt really ticked me off. First, and easiest is Blechman's obsession with the belief that we're all running from children, that we want to lock ourselves away from anyone younger than us. Obviously the research trip he made to TV must have been from 9PM on a Sunday to 6AM the next morning. Must not have gotten an opportunity to drive by the Charter grade, middle, and high schools that the community supports financially and personally. Must not have had an opportunity to go by a family pool where kids enjoy our amenities all year long. Must not have talked to anyone about the intragenerational games organized and funded by our recreation division. And definitely must not have had the opportunity to visit any of the multitude of stores in the area where our isolated old timers shop side by side and often work side by side with families from the area.

Secondly, and this will probably :edit: off a few of you, Blechman personifies the attitude of too many New Englanders that anything west of the Hudson is beneath them. We who come from the great flyover lands are used to being denigrated by those from either coast. (Joke later) Somehow if it's Ohio or Illinois, Michigan or Missouri, the Dakotas or, go forbid, Arkansas, it's not worthy of a suave, urbane, sophisticated, just plain superior Californian, New Yorker, or Bostonian. Blechman would have had the same reaction had his friends decided to move to Oberlin, OH or Columbia, MO. Only a proper New England town could have the diversity and culture needed by a civilized person. Notice, the Cotswolds in England were almost acceptable, but Florida???

And frankly, I was ticked off by the low opinion Blechman seems to have of his friends. Today, in the womb of New England, they are wonderful creatures. They are very active in the community. They are leaders. They evidently live life to its fullest. Once they move to TGV, they will evidently have matching lobotomies. There is obviously nothing in which they can be active. There is nowhere they can lead. The old home town had acrimonious politics. Certainly there won't be any of that in Stepford The Villages. Somebody ought to send Blechman a copy of the POA bulletin. And maybe in the same package, include a writeup of Operation Shoebox, a locally created programs that's impacted worldwide. And may a list of courses for the Lifelong Learning Center, and . . and . . and hell, the package can't be that big.

~~~~~~~~~~~
But enough of that. Now my story.

A friend of mine was going to school at Yale. He met and fell in love with a Bostonian girl. She invited him home to meet her parents. Naturally he was nervous. At lunch, the mother asked where his people lived. He explained that he'd grown up in Des Moines and all his family still lived there.

"And where is this 'Des Moines' of which you speak?" asked the grande dame somewhat haughtily.

"Why it is the capital of Iowa" my friend replied.

"Oh," she said. Taking his hand gently in her, she quietly whispered to him, "But darling, here in Boston, we pronounce it Ohio."

[Sidney Lanier]

What we judge is best for ourselves is one thing, and very appropriate. What we judge is best for others is presumptuous and arrogant. The author was doing the latter.


Couldn't be more perfect, IMHO, not only in relation to this topic but virtually anything!

[redwitch]

Couple of comments/questions. Did Blechman actually visit TV or just get his "facts" secondhand from his friends after their visit? Is this a review of a book, a letter to the editor, a strange editorial? I can't believe it is an article given the lack of facts -- it is a pathetic mass of opinions. GF, if it upsets you this much, maybe you could write a letter to the Journal giving them the facts of TV. To me, it isn't that big of a deal.

I know several Floridians who do not live in TV but think TV is a community of the wealthy. They are surprised when I tell them that the majority are middle class. They're even more surprised when I tell them some survive here strictly on Social Security. Of course, there are those who do not believe me no matter what is said. To me, it is their loss.

And now, dear Muncle, please don't tar all Californians as "suave, urbane, sophisticated, just plain superior." Most Californians I know have their roots in the Midwest and are very proud of those roots. While some are first or second generation Californians, their parents or grandparents are not. I will admit that I do know one or two who are so insecure that they really only acknowledge SF and NYC as being "adequate" cities with any sophistication or culture. The majority of us, however, look at these people as fools at best and as pathetic snobs at worst. So, please don't tar Californians with that brush -- we have enough other brushes that do fit us.

[gfmucci]

I'm not upset.* I just like to write.* It's therapeutic.* ;)

I have reconsidered one of my previous comments...to wit:* "And we all have the right and obligation to discern (judge, if you will) whether what they say is accurate and kind or misleading and arrogant."*

More accurately, "We all have the right, and some of us feel an obligation (feel compelled - including me) to discern (judge, if you will) whether what they say is accurate and kind or misleading and arrogant." I am a living breathing example of why the word "judgemental" is in our lexicon.* But I only use it in a good way. ;D* *

Others of us may prefer to be more passive about things that, if we gave it much thought, just don't seem right.

[gfmucci]

Mr. Blechman has initiated a marketing machine, a little "cottage industry" to help promote his new book, "Liesureville."* Check out the beginnings of his blog site at http://andrewblechman.blogspot.com/* It's beginning to sound like a bit of a crusade against retirement choices and lifestyle communities.* I wonder if he's considered the anti-social attributes of cottages?

Part of his marketing effort is a selection of merchandise he is offering to promote his new brand of bigotry at http://www.cafepress.com/leisureville .* Nothing really offensive - just slightly mocking via the logo (house, cart, house, cart, house, cart, house) - but the potential is there. Actually the graphic is kind of cute.

Mr. Blechman is obviously a big fan of cultural diversity and shows a bewildered disdain toward anyone who breaks out of that mold. He is absolutely a product of his generation, showing astonishment at the old ways of the older folk. But at least he's made an effort to understand. The challenge was obviously compelling since he has taken a chunk of time out of his life to research and write a book.

You also may be interested in providing your thoughts of the book (based on the content of this thread if you haven't read the book yet) at the Amazon.com site here:* http://www.amazon.com/Leisureville-Adventures-Americas-Retirement-Utopias/dp/0871139812/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209003817&sr=8-1

[fizzbyn]

I found Mr. Blechman's whole article pretty funny, especially the part where he says:
"In particular, baby boomers may be reluctant to embrace communities like The Villages -- the generation that never wanted to grow up might shun places that would expose them as not-young."
I'm a baby boomer. I never grew up. I never want to and never will. I can think of no place on earth better suited to not growing up than TV.

[redwitch]

I don't think Mr. Blechman quite understands that we baby boomers accept growing old -- no choice in the matter -- and growing up -- we're still kids and want our toys.

[campy]

I just finished reading the book and found it quite interesting. Mr. Blechman did visit and spend time at The Villages and provided quite a bit of information about The Villages I wasn't aware of after five visits. For example, "Villagers, collectively owe several hundred million dollars for their community's infrastructure and amenities" and "sixty percent of every monthly amenity fee goes toward debt service." He predicts that the debt is likely to increase as the "community continues to build out." As a friend of mine once said about our community up north - things I didn't like about the community when I was young are what I like about it now. Mr. Blechman's opinions and reporting in no way changed my mind of making The Villages my permanent home when I retire. All it did was make me miss being there.

[gfmucci]

For example, "Villagers, collectively owe several hundred million dollars for their community's infrastructure and amenities" and "sixty percent of every monthly amenity fee goes toward debt service."* He predicts that the debt is likely to increase as the "community continues to build out."*
Did the author couch these "facts" in terms that made them sound onerous and ominous?* In other words, did he complete his analysis by making a qualitative judgement about the appropriateness of this debt within some context, or did he express this in a manner that results in a lightly veiled negative innuendo intended to lead the reader to assume that this condition is irresponsible, to be feared and avoided?

[handieman]

I found Mr. Blechman's whole article pretty funny, especially the part where he says:
"In particular, baby boomers may be reluctant to embrace communities like The Villages -- the generation that never wanted to grow up might shun places that would expose them as not-young."
I'm a baby boomer. I never grew up. I never want to and never will. I can think of no place on earth better suited to not growing up than TV.

You took the words right out of my mouth
I like the way you think :bigthumbsup:
VIVA TV
Handie :joke:

[campy]

Did the author couch these "facts" in terms that made them sound onerous and ominous? In other words, did he complete his analysis by making a qualitative judgement about the appropriateness of this debt within some context, or did he express this in a manner that results in a lightly veiled negative innuendo intended to lead the reader to assume that this condition is irresponsible, to be feared and avoided?

The facts were stated in the section on Government, Inc. It was explained how Gary Morse sells the recreation centers and golf courses to the central districts when we wants reimbursement. Mr. Blechman further addresses this issue with his conversation with Joe Gorman, head of the POA who said The Villages "is ninety percent great. Not merely good - but great." I believe the writer is pointing out what could become a problem since the residents don't have a say in what is happening. He also points out that most people don't really mind since they're happy with the way things are being run. For someone who hasn't yet purchased a home, it certainly is something to think about and consider and I believe that's what the writer was looking to accomplish.

[gfmucci]

I guess that means it's "lightly veiled innuendo."

[Frangyomory]

My husband who is a baby boomer says.....I may have to grow old but I will never grow up!!! I call it Peter Pan syndrome and LOVE it!! Unfortunately, I was born during WWII so I am not a boomer.

[graciegirl]

When you can't try to see both sides, you just may be getting too narrow minded, stubborn and grouchy to truly evaluate a subject and learn something. I am buying the book.

I still think this author is a kid and possibly is jealous of a bunch of us geezers living so happily.

However, I haven't read the book.

[gfmucci]

Actually, his photograph reveals him as someone in his mid to late thirties, possibly a bit older. I'm going to have to read the entire book, too. I'm sure it will be stimulating. :joke: :o

[JohnM]

About the book...from the publisher:

Sunday, April 27, 2008
"Leisureville"
New from Atlantic Monthly Press: Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias by Andrew D. Blechman.

About the book, from the publisher:


From the author of Pigeons comes a first-handlook at America’s senior utopias, gated retirementcommunities where no kids are allowed.

Andrew Blechman’s first book, the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Pigeons, was a charming look at the much-maligned bird and the quirky subcultures that flock to it. In Leisureville, Blechman investigates another subculture, but one with more significant consequences.

When his next-door neighbors in a quaint New England town suddenly pick up and move to a gated retirement community in Florida called “The Villages,” Blechman is astonished by their stories, so he goes to investigate. Larger than Manhattan, with a golf course for every day of the month, two downtowns, its own newspaper, radio, and TV stations, The Villages is a city of nearly one hundred thousand (and growing), missing only one thing: children. Started in the 1950s and popularized by Del Webb’s Sun City, age-segregated retirement is an exploding phenomenon. More than twelve million people will soon live in these communities, under restrictive covenants, with limited local government, and behind gates that exclude children. And not all of the residents are seniors, or even retirees.

Blechman delves into life in the senior utopia, offering a hilarious first-hand report on all its peculiarities, from ersatz nostalgia and golf-cart mania to manufactured history and the residents’ surprisingly active sex life. He introduces us to dozens of outrageous characters including the Villages press-wary developer who wields remarkable control over the community, and an aging ladies man named Mr. Midnight, with whom Blechman repeatedly samples the nightlife.

But Leisureville is more than just a romp through retirement paradise: Blechman traces the history of the trend, and travels to Arizona to show what has happened to the pioneering utopias after decades of segregation. He investigates the government of these “instant” cities, attends a builder’s conference, speaks with housing experts, and examines the implications of millions of Americans dropping out of society to live under legal segregation. This is an important book on an underreported phenomenon that is only going to get bigger, as baby boomers reach retirement age. A fascinating blend of serious history, social criticism, and hilarious, engaging reportage, Leisureville couldn’t come at a better time.

[gfmucci]

I bought the book and finished it tonight.

Here is the essence:

Mr. Blechman sees developers and occupants of age restricted communities as "bigots."* He has a social agenda that preaches, in essence, that the only worthwhile community is a fully age (and I presume every other way, including what most would consider "perversions") integrated and diverse community.* Cultural diversity is the primary social distinctive required to be cherished by enlightened ones.* Otherwise one is worthy of disdain and disparagement.* He strongly suggests that freedom of choice of retirees to live in these types of "ghettos" is anti-social, and ought to be discouraged by government in some manner.

His written sampling of life in The Villages is curiously dominated by his passion to seek out lesbians, gender-changers, alcoholics, and sex-obsessed womanizers.* Hardly a random sampling.* In fact his story reveals a purposeful pursuit of kinky diversty.* I'm surprised that Dave, his host during his stay in The Villages, and one of the few relatively "normal" folks he mentions, still speaks to him.* The only "Christian" he refers to is called "The Enforcer" and is negatively portrayed as an extreme dominator of women.

In several passages he refers to TV as a "gated" community when it suits his purpose to infer "a closed society."* But then later on he says it's really not gated when it suits his purposes to infer superficiality.

He states that few homes have front porches when it suits his purposes to infer there is little neighborliness like there is in his traditional New England towns.* He doesn't notice that most homes have front porches, but they are located 30' from the street instead of 10' as he would like them - "within talking distance."* While he acknowledges his perceived purpose of front porches inducing "neighorliness" (and it appears to him TV is lacking here), throughout the book he describes how amazingly friendly and outgoing Villagers are.

The end of the book mentions the tornados that ripped through TV in February '07.* But despite the great story of how quickly everyone came together, neighbor helping neighbor, developer helping neighbor (granted, his interest) for a miraculously fast recovery, the author mentioned none of this.

On one hand, the author is disdainful of TV's lack of diversity while at the same time he purposely seeks and apparently finds his beloved "diversity" here.* Applying his same perverted investigative reporter technique to any other town in the world - he will certainly find diversity - blatantly shoved in people's faces.* This is what he apparently enjoys.

I could write much more about his distorted, biased, and his own bigoted view of The Villages and its people.* Suffice it to say, the book grossly distorts the character of The Villages while it is a mirror of the character of the author.

By the way, the subtitle "Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias" does not claim the essence of the book.* "A Gen X'ers Disingenuous Mock of Free Choice of Retirees" would be more appropriate.

[Muncle]

GF --
Thanx for reading the whole thing for us so we don't have to -- not that I was planning to do so.

Aside: I notice all the reviews refer his "quaint" New England hometown. Has anyone ever heard of a "quaint" Indiana town or "quaint" Iowa town? I think the only quaint town we had in Missouri was Hannibal.

[2Wheels]

Well here's my vote...I'm a Boomer, I'm not an Adult ;) and I'm mov'in to The Villages...

[punkpup]

If I felt there was any credibility to this guy's take on TV being "bigotted' then I obviously would not be planning on spending the rest of my life there.

[gfmucci]

I am becoming increasingly convinced that in many cases, the word "bigot" is carelessly or maliciously misused to refer to anyone with whom one disagrees regarding their personal choices or opinions.

[JohnM]

Orlando Sentinel:

Book's critique of The Villages lifestyle fires up debate
Adrian G. Uribarri

Sentinel Staff Writer

May 6, 2008

THE VILLAGES

The book cover projects a pleasant view of retirement: a row of houses and golf carts, a pool, a tennis court. Even the title seems complimentary to residents of this retirement community, about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.

So much for appearances.

In Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias, released last month, author Andrew D. Blechman uses The Villages as the key example in his 244-page critique of retirement communities across the country. He started writing the book a few years ago, after his New England neighbors moved here.

Now, some Villages residents are miffed about how he portrayed their lifestyles.

"Boy, that guy went looking for dirt -- and he found it," retired software engineer Joe Becker said of the author. Becker, 79, panned Blechman's book on Amazon .com after he bought it about two weeks ago at a bookstore in the retiree haven.

"Ninety percent of the people here are happy 90 percent of the time," Becker said.

Throughout the book -- called a "darker view of sunny retirement" in The Wall Street Journal -- Blechman highlights the social pitfalls of communities where people 55 and older have scant civic engagement and interaction with young people. He laments how the perennial village elders have become elders of The Villages, leaving their hometowns for a life of pickleball and golf.

"A lot of these people are, in a sense, dropping out of the larger society," Blechman said. "They can do this. It's legal and it's their right. It just calls a lot of things into question."

Blechman explains how Villages developer Gary Morse has maintained firm control over local decision-making in a community that sprawls across Lake, Sumter and Marion counties.

He highlights the complex political and economic arrangements that gave rise to The Villages, and he asserts that few of its 65,000 or so residents understand, let alone oppose, the limitations on their civic power.

"They move there because they don't want to deal with the daily hassles of traditional community life," Blechman said. "Many of them prefer a government by contract."

Becker, a New York City native who moved from Orlando to The Villages two years ago, didn't argue that point -- but he said there was nothing wrong with what he called The Villages' "benign dictatorship."

"We're a little bit of a company town," Becker said. "But it's a well-run company town. I have no problem with it."

Villages' spokesman Gary Lester did not return a call for comment.

Sue Michalson, who moved to The Villages from Westchester County, N.Y., six years ago, said Blechman should have spent more of his book on the kind of work she has done at the retirement community. Michalson said she helped quadruple membership in The Villages' Democratic Party club during the 2004 presidential election. On the local level, she successfully prodded development officials to adopt a recycling program.

Michalson said Blechman undermined that level of activism and focused too heavily on the sexual adventures of "Mr. Midnight," described in the book as a 63-year-old Villages bachelor with an uncanny appetite for women and parties.

"We're active citizens. We're not a bunch of lushes here," said Michalson, 72. "I don't think that's a true picture of the environment."

Blechman, who named a chapter after Mr. Midnight, said there's undue "prudishness" about one of his favorite Villagers.

"He's a great character," Blechman said. "He breaks a lot of the stereotypes about older citizens."

Indeed, some of seniors' migration from hometowns to retirement communities may stem from the growing health -- sexual and otherwise -- of 21st-century retirees.

David Downs, director of the Kornblau Institute for real-estate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, said retirement communities such as those described in Leisureville have sprung up partly in response to demand from seniors who no longer depend on their immediate family members.

"In prior generations, people didn't necessarily have a choice in how they were going to change or evolve or define their lifestyle as they aged," Downs said. "Today, people self-select, and they choose to remake themselves. They have an opportunity for a fresh start."

It's that kind of opportunity that drove 67-year-old Eleanor Strickland from frigid Minneapolis to The Villages five years ago. She said that while she agreed with parts of Blechman's book, her decision to move there had less to do with an escape from civic responsibility and more to do with getting out of the house.

"It would be nice if people could live in their home communities when they retire and keep contributing, but when you get older, you aren't physically able to," Strickland said. "If you want to go see a play in Minneapolis, it's probably miles away from your house. And say there's a blizzard that day. You've got to go out and shovel your driveway. It's just too much for older people to handle."

The plays in The Villages aren't quite as good as those in Minneapolis, she said, but at least she can get to them.

"I can go in five minutes," she said. "I take my golf cart."

[JohnM]

And a very different view from a young urban planner in Maine fearful about the impact on the towns left behind:

DEVONOMICS...the blog
May 5, 2008
Fear of a Laid-Back Planet: a book review
I just got done reading an eye-opening new book: Leisureville, by Andrew Blechman. This book rips the shiny veneer off of the age-segregated retirement cities of Florida and Arizona and shows them for what they are: corporate-run ghettos where fear-stricken old white people can escape from the horrible realities of modern society.

Mr. Blechman is very much like me–a thirtysomething professional raised in big city suburbia now raising his family in a small and semi-idyllic small town in New England. One day his childless and recently retired neighbors plunk a For Sale sign in front of their home and announce that they are relocating to The Villages, a 100,000 person age-restricted megalopolis carved out of Central Florida swampland. He hears his neighbors gush about the carefree, laid-back lifestyle behind the gates of The Villages, where the toughest life choice is “which golf course should we play today?” and immediately decides to write a book about the happy world of leisurely retirement.

There is, of course, a dark side to all the sunshine, one that smacks a bit too loudly of fascism. You see, buying into The Villages (you are of course, not just buying a home, you’re buying a lifestyle) requires submitting to the draconian and sometimes downright evil law of The Villages corporation and, more specifically its ruthless and reclusive boss, Gary Morse. The Villages operates its own Soviet-style media empire (TV, radio, newspaper) and goes to great lengths to both limit the exposure of its residents to bad news from outside the walls and to stifle free speech and political participation. The sad truth is that “Villagers” are essentially subjected to taxation without representation: they pay their association fees to the “central district,” a quasi-governmental board basically run by the management which offers very little meaningful representation.

Beyond its control within the gates, The Villages has gone to great lengths to use its money and politcal muscle to effectively gain control of the local county government, to the point that the county’s public schools are strangled by the fact that an age-segregated community filled with people who don’t want to pay school taxes now effectively holds its purse strings. In the case of Sun City, Arizona, The Villages’ older western cousin, Sun City seceded from the local school district by mutual accord, as the school district grew exasperated at having every necessary expense shot down by the miserly oldsters next door. While this may seem to be a good solution, it sets an awful precedent–now a whole class of retirees can effectively avoid paying for the educational needs of younger people simply by moving behind the protective walls of a retirement fortress.

Mr. Blechman pours out dozens of other vignettes about life in Leisureville. On the amusing side, he goes undercover in the 55+ singles’ scene (which has resulted in shockingly high STD rates), sits in on a bingo game, and investigates the insidious rumor that The Villages’ “wine club” is really a front for a swingers’ group. On the not so amusing side, he befriends a troubled transgendered person who cannot seem to fit into the conservative culture of The Villages, chats up local teenagers outside the gates who are constantly put down by Villagers, and attends an intentionally confusing seminar on local governance run by an employee of the Villages. My favorite moment is his visit to the one and only playground at The Villages, which is all but deserted. During this visit, he spots two sheriff’s deputies asleep in their cruiser in the parking lot and asks them about their jobs. They reply by telling him that it’s pretty easy dealing with the “frogs”–so called because “they come down here to croak.”

After the alternating humor and harshness, by the end of the read I found myself fuming at the idea that a whole generation of Americans was not only allowed to drop out of society to live out their days on the golf course, but was choosing to do so. Members of this segment of society apparently believe that they have served society for long enough, and now it is their right to stop contributing to the maintenance of an orderly society and to the funding of public education. More troubling, as Mr. Blechman points out, is that the lifetime of wisdom accumulated by these retirees will not be passed on to the youth in their communities–because there ARE no youth in their communities. When a society cuts off these links, it risks losing its sense of history and falling into chaos.

I find it quite ironic that most of the denizens of The Villages, Sun City and their ilk are self-professed conservatives. I ask: what is conservative about willfully cutting off links to your cultural past and leaving your children and grandchildren to fend for themselves? Myself, I would call that a radical and thoroughly frightening notion.

While I respect the right of those who have worked hard all their lives to retire in comfort, I simply do not understand why people believe that, after a certain age, they no longer need to participate in society. The same society that educated them, employed them, and allowed them to retire at a relatively young age needs them to stay involved so that future generations may follow in their footsteps. If a whole generation of soon-to-be-retirees feels that playing golf while not paying taxes is more important than the survival of our society, then I fear for the future.

There is some reason for hope, however. Market research is showing that, for all the stereotyping of the Baby Boomers as the “Me Generation,” Boomers are not likely to embrace the Sun City model. Instead, Boomers want to live near cities, near family, and near cultural outlets. Mr. Blechman reviews research that shows that even Boomers that prefer age-restricted developments are seeking out smaller developments located close to their current homes, rather than far flung Leisurevilles like The Villages.

If you are contemplating retirement of know anyone who is doing so, I urge you to read Leisureville. You will not find a better written, more entertaining or more insightful account of the myriad implications of the segregation of our society by age and income.

[Muncle]

And a very different view from a young urban planner in Maine fearful about the impact on the towns left behind:

DEVONOMICS...the blog
May 5, 2008
Fear of a Laid-Back Planet: a book review
I just got done reading an eye-opening new book: Leisureville, by Andrew Blechman. This book rips the shiny veneer off of the age-segregated retirement cities of Florida and Arizona and shows them for what they are: corporate-run ghettos where fear-stricken old white people can escape from the horrible realities of modern society.

Mr. Blechman is very much like me–a thirtysomething professional raised in big city suburbia now raising his family in a small and semi-idyllic small town in New England.



What an ignorant tirade by a blithering fool on a subject about which he know absolutely nothing. This clown claims that both he and Blechman are "thirtysomething professional(s)" but doesn't say professional what. That seems to be a self-awarded title taken on by those who have the diplomas but no accomplishments to accompany them. I thought Blechman was totally off-base with his book, but he looks brilliant compared to this "professional." Ah, the curse of the internet that allows anyone to claim to be a "blogger."

[captain1202]

Funny thing about all this....I thought after we'd paid our dues we could enjoy a few years doing what WE want.

Let's see, self employed business, town politics, volunteer EMT squad, finance committee, numerous other volunteer activites, school PTA, etc.etc. We've done our bit...now it's time to ENJOY.

Perhaps Mr. Belchman, Ooops, Blechman would prefer we live near "Killadelphia" or Baltimore with their daily menu's of murder and mayhem.

Has it occurred to him that it's time for him and his friends to pickup where we left off??

As I am still working around the aforementioned cities, I look forward to my monthly "vacation" at home in the Villages with all it's "hokiness".

[mcelheny]

What an ignorant tirade by a blithering fool on a subject about which he know absolutely nothing. This clown claims that both he and Blechman are "thirtysomething professional(s)" but doesn't say professional what. That seems to be a self-awarded title taken on by those who have the diplomas but no accomplishments to accompany them. I thought Blechman was totally off-base with his book, but he looks brilliant compared to this "professional." Ah, the curse of the internet that allows anyone to claim to be a "blogger."


Tell us how you really feel! Muncle-you are not going to win the "Nice"
award. :)

[gfmucci]

Muncle, I couldn't agree with your accurate assessment and indignation more.

Both of these self-ordained social critic Gen X fools (Belchman and Blogster) reflect a vivid gulf between the generations.* The greatest generation (ages 80's and 90's now -* our parents), the "lost generation (ages mid-60's to 70's) and the boomers have gone down in social history as being hard working, dedicated, principled, family oriented, patriotic souls who built and defended our nation.* Of course there are exceptions.

On the other hand, the Gen X'ers, who these protagonists typify, have already developed a reputation among human resource professionals and corporate executives as being self-centered, undisciplined, irresponsible, nihilstic, rebellious slackards who care only about their own self-indulgence.* (Of course, there are exceptions - our military is a big one - but most of these are under 30 Gen Y's who have matured beyond the egoism of Gen X'ers .)*

But the rest of them are prone to a disdain for the characteristics of their elders, with a pinch of jeolousy.* They feel they are "owed" by society without having earned anything.* They are resentful of those in our 60's and 70's who have earned our right to live as we choose.* These characterisitics, along with their criticism of the choices made by those 20 to 40 years senior to them cause them truly to be worthy of the label "fool."* Many of these are the same ones who fawn over politicians who promise a federal government that will parent and regulate its helpless, clueless, insatiable population.

Now, ask ME how I really feel.

[gfmucci]

Blechman, who named a chapter after Mr. Midnight, said there's undue "prudishness" about one of his favorite Villagers.

"He's a great character," Blechman said. "He breaks a lot of the stereotypes about older citizens."

Or it could be said that with Mr. Blechman there is undue "sleaziness" in his obsession with abberant behavior.* Mr Blechman is proving his amorality - his "nihilism" - his own warped character.* So, some of us are prudish because we are critical of Blechman's prurient and misrepresentative obsession with a male whore? [My wife read the book, too, and this is her label for Blechman's favorite character.]*

Any misrepresentation of an entire community to sell a book, eh Blechman?* Sooo Gen X.

[Barefoot]

What an ignorant tirade by a blithering fool on a subject about which he know absolutely nothing.

Muncle, Gfmucci: :agree: Villagers play golf while not paying taxes? What a misleading rant.

[mcelheny]

Muncle, I couldn't agree with your accurate assessment and indignation more.

Both of these self-ordained social critic Gen X fools (Belchman and Blogster) reflect a vivid gulf between the generations. The greatest generation (ages 80's and 90's now - our parents), the "lost generation (ages mid-60's to 70's) and the boomers have gone down in social history as being hard working, dedicated, principled, family oriented, patriotic souls who built and defended our nation. Of course there are exceptions.

On the other hand, the Gen X'ers, who these protagonists typify, have already developed a reputation among human resource professionals and corporate executives as being self-centered, undisciplined, irresponsible, nihilstic, rebellious slackards who care only about their own self-indulgence. (Of course, there are exceptions - our military is a big one - but most of these are under 30 Gen Y's who have matured beyond the egoism of Gen X'ers .)

But the rest of them are prone to a disdain for the characteristics of their elders, with a pinch of jeolousy. They feel they are "owed" by society without having earned anything. They are resentful of those in our 60's and 70's who have earned our right to live as we choose. These characterisitics, along with their criticism of the choices made by those 20 to 40 years senior to them cause them truly to be worthy of the label "fool." Many of these are the same ones who fawn over politicians who promise a federal government that will parent and regulate its incapable and insatiable population.

Now, ask ME how I really feel.

OK OK How do YOU really feel?

[mcelheny]

Muncle, Gfmucci: :agree: Villagers play golf while not paying taxes? What a misleading rant.



Barefoot,
Compare your Canadian taxes to Florida's. I know I pay alot more in NY.
I am not defending the book. I was just trying to joke.

[graciegirl]

And a very different view from a young urban planner in Maine fearful about the impact on the towns left behind:

DEVONOMICS...the blog
May 5, 2008
Fear of a Laid-Back Planet: a book review
I just got done reading an eye-opening new book: Leisureville, by Andrew Blechman. This book rips the shiny veneer off of the age-segregated retirement cities of Florida and Arizona and shows them for what they are: corporate-run ghettos where fear-stricken old white people can escape from the horrible realities of modern society.

Mr. Blechman is very much like me–a thirtysomething professional raised in big city suburbia now raising his family in a small and semi-idyllic small town in New England. One day his childless and recently retired neighbors plunk a For Sale sign in front of their home and announce that they are relocating to The Villages, a 100,000 person age-restricted megalopolis carved out of Central Florida swampland. He hears his neighbors gush about the carefree, laid-back lifestyle behind the gates of The Villages, where the toughest life choice is “which golf course should we play today?” and immediately decides to write a book about the happy world of leisurely retirement.

There is, of course, a dark side to all the sunshine, one that smacks a bit too loudly of fascism. You see, buying into The Villages (you are of course, not just buying a home, you’re buying a lifestyle) requires submitting to the draconian and sometimes downright evil law of The Villages corporation and, more specifically its ruthless and reclusive boss, Gary Morse. The Villages operates its own Soviet-style media empire (TV, radio, newspaper) and goes to great lengths to both limit the exposure of its residents to bad news from outside the walls and to stifle free speech and political participation. The sad truth is that “Villagers” are essentially subjected to taxation without representation: they pay their association fees to the “central district,” a quasi-governmental board basically run by the management which offers very little meaningful representation.

Beyond its control within the gates, The Villages has gone to great lengths to use its money and politcal muscle to effectively gain control of the local county government, to the point that the county’s public schools are strangled by the fact that an age-segregated community filled with people who don’t want to pay school taxes now effectively holds its purse strings. In the case of Sun City, Arizona, The Villages’ older western cousin, Sun City seceded from the local school district by mutual accord, as the school district grew exasperated at having every necessary expense shot down by the miserly oldsters next door. While this may seem to be a good solution, it sets an awful precedent–now a whole class of retirees can effectively avoid paying for the educational needs of younger people simply by moving behind the protective walls of a retirement fortress.

Mr. Blechman pours out dozens of other vignettes about life in Leisureville. On the amusing side, he goes undercover in the 55+ singles’ scene (which has resulted in shockingly high STD rates), sits in on a bingo game, and investigates the insidious rumor that The Villages’ “wine club” is really a front for a swingers’ group. On the not so amusing side, he befriends a troubled transgendered person who cannot seem to fit into the conservative culture of The Villages, chats up local teenagers outside the gates who are constantly put down by Villagers, and attends an intentionally confusing seminar on local governance run by an employee of the Villages. My favorite moment is his visit to the one and only playground at The Villages, which is all but deserted. During this visit, he spots two sheriff’s deputies asleep in their cruiser in the parking lot and asks them about their jobs. They reply by telling him that it’s pretty easy dealing with the “frogs”–so called because “they come down here to croak.”

After the alternating humor and harshness, by the end of the read I found myself fuming at the idea that a whole generation of Americans was not only allowed to drop out of society to live out their days on the golf course, but was choosing to do so. Members of this segment of society apparently believe that they have served society for long enough, and now it is their right to stop contributing to the maintenance of an orderly society and to the funding of public education. More troubling, as Mr. Blechman points out, is that the lifetime of wisdom accumulated by these retirees will not be passed on to the youth in their communities–because there ARE no youth in their communities. When a society cuts off these links, it risks losing its sense of history and falling into chaos.

I find it quite ironic that most of the denizens of The Villages, Sun City and their ilk are self-professed conservatives. I ask: what is conservative about willfully cutting off links to your cultural past and leaving your children and grandchildren to fend for themselves? Myself, I would call that a radical and thoroughly frightening notion.

While I respect the right of those who have worked hard all their lives to retire in comfort, I simply do not understand why people believe that, after a certain age, they no longer need to participate in society. The same society that educated them, employed them, and allowed them to retire at a relatively young age needs them to stay involved so that future generations may follow in their footsteps. If a whole generation of soon-to-be-retirees feels that playing golf while not paying taxes is more important than the survival of our society, then I fear for the future.There is some reason for hope, however. Market research is showing that, for all the stereotyping of the Baby Boomers as the “Me Generation,” Boomers are not likely to embrace the Sun City model. Instead, Boomers want to live near cities, near family, and near cultural outlets. Mr. Blechman reviews research that shows that even Boomers that prefer age-restricted developments are seeking out smaller developments located close to their current homes, rather than far flung Leisurevilles like The Villages.

If you are contemplating retirement of know anyone who is doing so, I urge you to read Leisureville. You will not find a better written, more entertaining or more insightful account of the myriad implications of the segregation of our society by age and income.



With age comes wisdom. He is nothing more than a kid with a big mouth who has not lived long enough to come in out of the rain.

[graciegirl]

OK OK How do YOU really feel?


You know, in my view a person should not reduce another person's impassioned and articulate comments with such a very dismissing sentence.

I looked back at other comments and realized that you had disagreed with Muncle about politics.

When a person is right, it does not mean they are always right.
When a person is wrong, it does not mean they are always wrong.

[fizzbyn]

We lived in a Stepford community for kids called Ladera Ranch in South Orange County, CA. It wasn't age restricted, but it might as well have been since in catered to 30-somethings with 2.5 kids. We moved there because it had great walking trails, parks, and a little town sort of like a mini-TV town without the entertainment. It took about a year to realize we didn't belong there. Every activity was for kids. The only adult activity was one cocktail party where everyone exchanged business cards. We didn't go since we hate that kind of thing. Kids were spoiled and undisciplined. Everyone was very paranoid about their kids, too. Kids didn't walk to any of the three elementary and one middle school, they were driven in SUVs by a mom with a cell phone in her ear. No kids played alone in the park without their parents present. If a man was alone in any of the parks and children were near, the police were notified. The last straw for us was when adults were kicked out of the Fourth of July parade and only kids were allowed to be in it. We loved to decorate our wagon and be in the parade. So that was it for us. We moved to a retirement community as fast as we could, and now will move to TV as fast as we can because TV will have parades we can be in, plus all the other fun stuff. All this to say that the 30-year-olds have their communities too, complete with water and skate parks, and us old guys aren't particularly welcomed there. I used to say I wanted a Ladera Ranch for adults. Well, I've found it now... only 1000 times better!

[Lil Dancer]

You know, in my view a person should not reduce another person's impassioned and articulate comments with such a very dismissing sentence.

I looked back at other comments and realized that you had disagreed with Muncle about politics.

When a person is right, it does not mean they are always right.
When a person is wrong, it does not mean they are always wrong.

Gracie, I generally agree with you, but this time I think McHelney's post needs some explanation. Muncle has posted some absolutely demeaning and quite mean spirited comments to some members of the political forum, myself included. Its one thing if you disagree with someone's opinion and let them know it, but to attack them personnally with name calling, etc., as Muncle has done, is way over the line, in my opinion. I think there are a number of us who have just had it with him.

[graciegirl]

Gracie, I generally agree with you, but this time I think McHelney's post needs some explanation. Muncle has posted some absolutely demeaning and quite mean spirited comments to some members of the political forum, myself included. Its one thing if you disagree with someone's opinion and let them know it, but to attack them personnally with name calling, etc., as Muncle has done, is way over the line, in my opinion. I think there are a number of us who have just had it with him.


OH. :redface:

I just hate it when someone says "tell me how you really feel" to ME and it is generally when I am all fired up about something that really matters deeply, and I don't let that show very often.

I can see that I am NOT aware of frictions here. I am sorry for sticking my nose into something I know nothing about. I am embarrassed too.

[Muncle]

OH. :redface:

I just hate it when someone says "tell me how you really feel" to ME and it is generally when I am all fired up about something that really matters deeply, and I don't let that show very often.

I can see that I am NOT aware of frictions here. I am sorry for sticking my nose into something I know nothing about. I am embarrassed too.


Gracie,
Thanx for your attempted defense of me. I certainly didn't take mcelheny's comment as any kind of attack. As I admitted elsewhere, I was afraid I might have gone a bit too far in my reaction to the blogger's review of the book. Evidently, however, many agreed with me. I took mcelheny's comment as nothing more than a jesting gibe.

Now the other one is a different matter. Needless to say, I was shocked, shocked I say, that she might think I'd gone over the line. And to think that she, and "an number of us" whoever "us" might be, had just had it with me is absolutely devastating. I'm crestfallen, and you know how much that can hurt. For the last hour, I've been going over in my mind what I possibly could have done or said that could have been so devastating to such a logical, intelligent, and well balanced individual, not to mention, "the number of us." Could I have poisoned their children, burned down their homes, or killed their dogs? No, don't remember doing anything like that. Then it dawned on me. I remember what I'd done. Yes, yes, I admit it. I had committed the ultimate sin. I had gone well beyond my station. I had done the unforgivable. I'd disagreed with her.

[uujudy]

"...While I respect the right of those who have worked hard all their lives to retire in comfort, I simply do not understand why people believe that, after a certain age, they no longer need to participate in society. The same society that educated them, employed them, and allowed them to retire at a relatively young age needs them to stay involved so that future generations may follow in their footsteps.."

gfmucci, you read the book. Did the author talk about his OWN involvement in City Council, the Parks Department, or any other civic institution in his quaint little town? Or did he expect the retired folks to take care of that for him, since THEY DON'T WORK?

I worked for the first 15 years of marriage, but after our daughter was born I stopped working "for pay." As a stay-at-home mom, and now retired, I grew mighty tired over the years of hearing that I should serve on committees, volunteer my time, or make all the phonecalls because I didn't/don't work. Keep in mind that I did more than my share of volunteering, but it seemed to me that "you don't work" was often an excuse to pass off the jobs that nobody else wanted to do. I also found that I was often working harder "not working" than I ever worked "working." ;)

It will be interesting to hear if the author wrote anything about his OWN civic involvement. Or maybe he felt justified in not participating in society because he was too busy "working"? :dontknow:

[gfmucci]

I had done the unforgivable.* I'd disagreed with her.
Muncle, Muncle, Muncle.* Tsk tsk tsk. We shall crawl into our man-caves and never utter another sound.

Oh, by the way, when I say "now tell me how you really feel" after someone gives me an impassioned opinion, it's my light-hearted way of saying "I agree with you.* Speak it, brother."

[gfmucci]

gfmucci, you read the book. Did the author talk about his OWN involvement in City Council, the Parks Department, or any other civic institution in his quaint little town? Or did he expect the retired folks to take care of that for him, since THEY DON'T WORK?
I don't recall the author mentioning anything about his own involvement in his community. But I will check the last chapter or two where he reflects on "community" and let you know if he says much about his own altruism. :o

[Lil Dancer]

Gracie,
Thanx for your attempted defense of me. I certainly didn't take mcelheny's comment as any kind of attack. As I admitted elsewhere, I was afraid I might have gone a bit too far in my reaction to the blogger's review of the book. Evidently, however, many agreed with me. I took mcelheny's comment as nothing more than a jesting gibe.

Now the other one is a different matter. Needless to say, I was shocked, shocked I say, that she might think I'd gone over the line. And to think that she, and "an number of us" whoever "us" might be, had just had it with me is absolutely devastating. I'm crestfallen, and you know how much that can hurt. For the last hour, I've been going over in my mind what I possibly could have done or said that could have been so devastating to such a logical, intelligent, and well balanced individual, not to mention, "the number of us." Could I have poisoned their children, burned down their homes, or killed their dogs? No, don't remember doing anything like that. Then it dawned on me. I remember what I'd done. Yes, yes, I admit it. I had committed the ultimate sin. I had gone well beyond my station. I had done the unforgivable. I'd disagreed with her.

[Lil Dancer]

Gracie,
Thanx for your attempted defense of me. I certainly didn't take mcelheny's comment as any kind of attack. As I admitted elsewhere, I was afraid I might have gone a bit too far in my reaction to the blogger's review of the book. Evidently, however, many agreed with me. I took mcelheny's comment as nothing more than a jesting gibe.

Now the other one is a different matter. Needless to say, I was shocked, shocked I say, that she might think I'd gone over the line. And to think that she, and "an number of us" whoever "us" might be, had just had it with me is absolutely devastating. I'm crestfallen, and you know how much that can hurt. For the last hour, I've been going over in my mind what I possibly could have done or said that could have been so devastating to such a logical, intelligent, and well balanced individual, not to mention, "the number of us." Could I have poisoned their children, burned down their homes, or killed their dogs? No, don't remember doing anything like that. Then it dawned on me. I remember what I'd done. Yes, yes, I admit it. I had committed the ultimate sin. I had gone well beyond my station. I had done the unforgivable. I'd disagreed with her.

Now Muncle, you know there is more to it than that. Have you forgotten comparing me with the 3 stooges? Or how about your comment: "There are a few posters from whom I've come to expect such tripe. She happens to be one of them. "

[Muncle]

Now Muncle, you know there is more to it than that. Have you forgotten comparing me with the 3 stooges? Or how about your comment: "There are a few posters from whom I've come to expect such tripe. She happens to be one of them. "



I have a wonderful idea. You pretend I don't exist. I'll pretend you don't exist. That way, you and I can both be happy and we'll spare the rest of the people on the forum all the hassle. It's just not worth it.

[gfmucci]

Now Muncle, you know there is more to it than that. Have you forgotten comparing me with the 3 stooges? Or how about your comment: "There are a few posters from whom I've come to expect such tripe. She happens to be one of them. "
Oy ::) Admin...helpppp!!!! We need a separate location for complaining about one another. Some forums call it "Take it outside" and allows the haranguing to continue without screwing up the continuity of worthwhile threads. That feature alone might increase our clicks by 50% - like watching the Friday night fights. ;D

[Muncle]

Oy ::) Admin...helpppp!!!! We need a separate location for complaining about one another. Some forums call it "Take it outside" and allows the haranguing to continue without screwing up the continuity of worthwhile threads. That feature alone might increase our clicks by 50% - like watching the Friday night fights. ;D

Oh sure, GF, make fun of me while I'm down. :yikes: Need me to clear out a spot so you kick me, too. :duck: 040

[gfmucci]

Muncle, I knew you'd appreciate my comment. ;D
You should see the Politics forum under "CNN Debunks Obama Lies" :duck: :chillout: :duck: :barf: 024

[redwitch]

Muncle, so, now are you gonna tell us how you REALLY feel? ;D

Shame Mr. Blechman didn't take as much time talking to the average TVer as he did to the "male whore" and his ilk. I always love when someone tells me what I have to do yet doesn't seem to follow the same advice. Those of us who can should stay in our communities whether we've found something more to our liking or not. Let's see, Mr. Blechman moved to his little town because he didn't like his previous community but his elders should stay put. Talk about hypocrisy!

Whatever, I'll happily live in my self-imposed ghetto of age for as long as I can. I've earned the right to choose and if I choose to accept that children cannot live here on a permanent basis, well, so be it. If I choose to move away from urban blight and suburban sprawl (okay, maybe I haven't really moved away from that), it's my choice.

If Mr. Blechman and his generation in general don't like it, tough. They can become the new pioneers in building a community that will teach morals, ethics to their young as they see fit without the interference of town elders saying that isn't right.

(And now you know how I feel!)

[gfmucci]

:agree: :agree: :agree:

[rsetterlund]

I have read all of the posts in this tread and could not agree more with the statements about the people in the New England area. After living here for over 40 years the people here is the second biggest reason we are moving to The Villages. The first is the weather. As the years get short and the light dims why does one want to waist the precious time shoveling snow and hoping that bones will heal after falling on ice. The other thing I have noticed as I age, when living in a mixed generation neighborhood is how busy the younger people are trying to survive their lives. I can remember the day when old people were looked up to and asked for their advice. I am finding that today the younger people feel that all I am is in the way and my ideas as well as thoughts do not pertain to today's world. So why should we be so concerned about not interacting with younger people when they could not be bothered with us. I realize that not all young people are that way and one can not make blanket statements about everyone. I guess I just have run into all the bad ones here in the Boston area. :dontknow:

[Boomer]

I bought the book today. Borders emailed me a 40% off coupon. So away I went to the bookstore, clutching my 60%. If I don't stop opening my email from Borders, I am going to be broke.

In the last week I have bought the Hiaasen book that I went on and on about in a thread, and Amy Sedaris' I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, and now, Leisureville.

Well, I am going to see just what this little whippersnapper has to say.

And my guess is that I will see his Leisureville and raise him a Boomer-in-Residence.

Boomer :read:

[islandgal]

Check out this blog following a magazine article by Blechman.

http://www.forward.com/articles/13374/ :clap2:

[islandgal]

This is an article in the Orlando Sentinel about the book firing up an outrage in TV It has a Photo Gallery of TV and 143 comments, most of which are infuriating.



http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/news/villages/orl-villages0608may06,0,4287752.story

[Barefoot]

This is an article in the Orlando Sentinel about the book firing up an outrage in TV It has a Photo Gallery of TV and 143 comments, most of which are infuriating.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/news/villages/orl-villages0608may06,0,4287752.story

Wiw, just read all of the 143 comments. Scary! Not only are the comments infuriating, there is so much misinformation, hatred of northerners, and distain for anyone who choses to stop working and retire. Comments such as "The Developer owns the land and everyone rents, perhaps they'll all be evicted", "Villagers are egotistical, selfish morons", "Grandchildren are only allowed to visit for 3 days at a time", "One of the fastest growing rates of HIV/Aids in the country", "Villagers do nothing to contribute to the economy" (no mention of volunteer organizations or tax dollars contributed).

Why did the author write this book? He is laughing his way to the bank! I hope no-one in TV puts more money in this author's pocket by buying his book.

[graciegirl]

Wiw, just read all of the 143 comments. Scary! Not only are the comments infuriating, there is so much misinformation, hatred of northerners, and distain for anyone who choses to stop working and retire. Comments such as "The Developer owns the land and everyone rents, perhaps they'll all be evicted", "Villagers are egotistical, selfish morons", "Grandchildren are only allowed to visit for 3 days at a time", "One of the fastest growing rates of HIV/Aids in the country", "Villagers do nothing to contribute to the economy" (no mention of volunteer organizations or tax dollars contributed).

Why did the author write this book? He is laughing his way to the bank! I hope no-one in TV puts more money in this author's pocket by buying his book.






I am always amazed that it is the human condition for many to be jealous of another's happiness. I feel that the infuriating comments were made by people that have not yet realized that the happiest people SEIZE THE MOMENT and try to concentrate on the positives in life. I think that for the most part life dishes out bad things almost equally, some in our youth, some in our middle life and some in our dotage. We can't escape them, so we need to live in the good moments. I also found that good luck came more frequently to those who worked hard and planned ahead.

GracieGirls sermon for THIS Sunday morning.

[islandgal]

:agree: :agree: :agree:

[samhass]

I read some of the comments and found them so off base that I didn't continue. The ignorance exhibited by many of the posters was amazing in it's scope. Poor babies.

[beady]

I am wondering about Mr.Blechman's credentials. An author certainly has a right to form an opinion, however the misinformation about the TV and the people who retire here is blatant. :dontknow: :dontknow:

I agree with Barefoot, dollar signs were all the author and publisher were focusing on. The real story, about an incredible community, contained nothing controversial that would sell books.

[Boomer]

Somewhere on here, a couple of weeks ago, I said that I had bought Leisureville and I would report in. Well, I am about halfway through it. And here is what I have learned so far:

In the beginning the author whines around because his neighbors are moving. This seems to have more to do with what he thinks his neighbors should be doing to make life better for him than with any great concern over what his neighbors might want to do with their own lives.

He wanted to hold their coats so they could start some fight with the town about some park being paved over or something.

They, on the other hand, just wanted to move to TV and enjoy themselves.

"Harrumph," snorted the author. "How dare my retired neighbors not wish to live their lives around me, me, me."

(I personally saw some foreshadowing here. The author has a little kid and I suspect that he probably had his eye on his neighbors as potential free babysitters.)

Then there was a chapter about the history of retirement communities. There was also a history and an explanation of the 55+ law, and the holes in the law. I thought that was pretty interesting. But sometimes I think stuff is interesting that other people find tedious.

Then there was a chapter on the Morse family. It told about their business acumen and marketing skills. These people know how to make money. They are not doing mission work. The author did not seem to be passing judgement. Just reporting. It is a business, after all. I thought that part was OK, too.

Then there was the chapter on Mr. Midnight.

Hellooooo, there are something like 65,000 people in TV. Ya think there might be a pathetic ol' horndog or two among 'em? Oh, and there was also stuff about the counterpart to the Mr. Midnights, the aging floozies. Who cares? TV is a big, big place. Everybody knows that most Villagers are not like that. And I guess those really bad girls from high school have to live somewhere now. And besides, I guess the author thought that chapter might liven up all the talk of law and business and sociology.

So anyway, that's my book report for tonight. I think the book is kind of fascinating and I plan to finish it. So maybe I will report in on the second half.

And, oh yeah, if this guy thinks he is going to have any influence over what some baby boomer wants to do, well, I think he has not met too many baby boomers.

Boomer

[captain1202]

Just read all the posts in the Orlando Sentinel article. WOW!! It's amazing what people will say behind the shroud of anonymity.

It all CONFIRMS my decision to move to "isolated" TV. I can't think of one reason I would WANT to interact with Mr. Blechman or his Florida supporters writing in the blog. Judging from the environs "off the reservation" around here they could use a little "cultcha" that the northerners might just bring to the area.

I happen to work with a lot of Southerners of the redneck variety and I have to say the "recent period of unpleasantness" is NOT over. It all boils down to ignorance and there seems to be plenty of that to go around these days.

What really bothers me is that these idiots might actually be voting for a national leader.

The U.S. as we knew it is in it's twilight years. Have a drink and another round of golf, it's later than we think! :(

[graciegirl]

Somewhere on here, a couple of weeks ago, I said that I had bought Leisureville and I would report in. Well, I am about halfway through it. And here is what I have learned so far:

In the beginning the author whines around because his neighbors are moving. This seems to have more to do with what he thinks his neighbors should be doing to make life better for him than with any great concern over what his neighbors might want to do with their own lives.

He wanted to hold their coats so they could start some fight with the town about some park being paved over or something.

They, on the other hand, just wanted to move to TV and enjoy themselves.

"Harrumph," snorted the author. "How dare my retired neighbors not wish to live their lives around me, me, me."

(I personally saw some foreshadowing here. The author has a little kid and I suspect that he probably had his eye on his neighbors as potential free babysitters.)

Then there was a chapter about the history of retirement communities. There was also a history and an explanation of the 55+ law, and the holes in the law. I thought that was pretty interesting. But sometimes I think stuff is interesting that other people find tedious.

Then there was a chapter on the Morse family. It told about their business acumen and marketing skills. These people know how to make money. They are not doing mission work. The author did not seem to be passing judgement. Just reporting. It is a business, after all. I thought that part was OK, too.

Then there was the chapter on Mr. Midnight.

Hellooooo, there are something like 65,000 people in TV. Ya think there might be a pathetic ol' horndog or two among 'em? Oh, and there was also stuff about the counterpart to the Mr. Midnights, the aging floozies. Who cares? TV is a big, big place. Everybody knows that most Villagers are not like that. And I guess those really bad girls from high school have to live somewhere now. And besides, I guess he thought that chapter might liven up all the talk of law and business and sociology.

So anyway, that's my book report for tonight. I think the book is kind of fascinating and I plan to finish it. So maybe I will report in on the second half.

And, oh yeah, if this guy thinks he is going to have any influence over what some baby boomer wants to do, well, I think he has not met too many baby boomers.

Boomer





OH Boom, I just love your way with words. You are my kind of writer. I loved what you had to say about the "Ol' Horndog". I have been dying to know if he is the one who alone caused the STD's to skyrocket? That report was several years ago. I wonder if he is still at it. I love gossip.

You can read and report on any book for me. You are a wonderful, funny, bright person and from Ohio too!!!!! YOU are one of many I can't wait to meet. Sigh. When are we all gonna get down there?

[JohnM]

Another review...this one from yesterday's (5-25-08) Washington Post. For me the most telling comment in this review is the statement near the end of the article: "What happens to the rest of us...those left behind..."

=================================================

Jonathan Yardley
For some members of the older set, paradise is a town without children.

By Jonathan Yardley
Sunday, May 25, 2008; BW15

LEISUREVILLE

Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias

By Andrew D. Blechman

Atlantic Monthly. 244 pp. $25

If you've never heard of the Villages, a residential development in central Florida, welcome to the club, but after reading Leisureville, the first thing I have to say is: Listen up. The Villages, the brainchild of a reclusive developer named Harold "Gary" Morse, is, according to Andrew Blechman, "the largest gated retirement community in the world," covering "three counties, two zip codes, and more than 20,000 acres . . . subdivided into dozens of separate gated communities, each its own distinct entity, yet fully integrated into a greater whole that [shares] two manufactured downtowns, a financial district, and several shopping centers, and all of it connected by nearly 100 miles of golf cart trails."

The Villages has a population of 75,000 with houses for 35,000 more on the way, residents for whom it provides "anything their hearts could possibly desire, mostly sealed inside gates: countless recreation centers staffed with full-time directors; dozens of pools; hundreds of hobby and affinity clubs; two spotless, crime-free village centers with friendly, affordable restaurants; and three dozen golf courses -- one for each day of the month -- with plans for many more." But the icing on this particular cake is that it "provides residents with something else they apparently crave -- a world without children." The buyer of a house there "must be at least fifty-five years old . . . and no one under nineteen may live there -- period." Visits by children "are strictly limited to a total of thirty days a year."

This may sound like living hell to you -- it certainly does to me -- but to the vast majority of those who live there it's much closer to heaven. Located "about an hour north of Orlando International Airport," it's Disney World for the geriatric set, totally ersatz. Sumter Landing, one of its two "downtowns," is literally and figuratively a fabrication: "The Morse family hired a design firm with experience working for Universal Studios to invent this make-believe town, including its history, customs, and traditions." Its facades are "covered in clapboard and decorative second-story porches for the traditional feel of the Florida Keys," and "embedded trolley tracks run alongside the main street -- presumably, in the imaginary history, these were abandoned after decades of use in favor of golf carts."

As one who qualified for residency in the Villages more than a dozen years ago, I cannot imagine living in a community in which the dominant themes are leisure and make-believe, from which children are barred except as infrequent and closely monitored visitors, where all but a handful of residents are middle-class whites, where the "government" is totally under the control of the Morse family, which owns "liquor stores and liquor distribution rights, a mortgage company, several banks, many of the restaurants, two giant furniture stores as well as a giant indoor furnishings arcade called the 'Street of Dreams,' a real estate company, golf cart dealerships, movie theaters, and the local media." It's almost as much a company town as the ones owned in the past by textile companies, mining companies and the like, the chief difference being that residents of the Villages are wealthier and don't have to pay at the company store with scrip issued by the company.

Blechman, a freelance writer who lives in small-town Massachusetts with his young family, got interested in the Villages when his retired neighbors, Dave and Betsy Anderson, told him they were pulling up stakes and moving to "sunny Florida." The more Dave told him about the Villages, the more he "was filled with a sense of comic wonder mixed with a growing alarm." He decided to go down and have a look for himself, staying for a month, the maximum residency allowed for guests outside members' families. When he arrived, he was "registered and handed a bar-coded pass" that was, in effect, "a visa that entitle[d] me to experience The Villages' lifestyle, but like most visas, it also expires."

Somehow, Blechman's friendship with the Andersons survived his stay with them, and perhaps it will survive this book, which Dave encouraged him to write, but there's precious little here to give comfort to those who think they've found heaven on Earth at the Villages. Blechman sympathizes with residents there on one important count -- their desire to find community, "something that in today's turbulent world can be hard to chance upon, particularly for the elderly" -- and he found a number of residents whom he liked, but the artificiality of the place and its bewildering array of rigid covenants appalled him. One can only shudder to think what the late Jane Jacobs, the great evangelist for natural community and urban vitality, would have to say about the sterile desert described by Blechman:

"There is nothing about these housing clusters that even slightly resembles a 'village' in the traditional sense. There are no cafés, no corner stores, no newsstands. No commercial enterprise of any sort is allowed to take place within a village. Planned developments like The Villages generally spurn the one thing that make [sic] traditional cities and towns so varied and entertaining: mixed use. Commerce is shunted to a 'commercial zone,' i.e., strip malls, which one must drive to in either a golf cart or a conventional automobile. . . . Tens of millions of Americans have voluntarily given up certain liberties to live under private covenants enforced by fellow residents because they no longer trust their neighbors (who are increasingly transient) to do the right thing. For many communities, deed restrictions are a source of pride, and signs are posted at entrance gates proudly declaring their enforcement."

As that passage suggests, the Villages is unique only in its size. Age-restricted communities are springing up all over the country, built by developers seeking to cash in on the aging Baby Boomers, of whom "roughly 78 million . . . are still living." They are "an unparalleled business opportunity, and one that will probably skew commerce toward the needs and wants of senior citizens in coming years." Precisely what sort of retirement communities the Boomers want is a subject of intense debate among developers and others because they're "like a tsunami (some call it an 'age-wave') rolling over the housing industry; and trying to predict what they will want is like trying to predict the weather twenty years from now." Perhaps, indeed, many of them will reject artificial communities altogether and stay in the cities and towns they already know, but "given their staggering numbers, even if a development appeals to only a small minority, that market segment can still represent several million people and billions of dollars." With ample reason, Blechman views the future with dismay:

"The people living in age-segregated housing are still a small minority of Americans, but that's unlikely to remain the same. In 2004, ground was broken for 100 age-segregated developments; ten years earlier, that figure was fifteen. . . . What will happen when there are thousands of these segregated communities across America, housing millions of aging secessionists? What happens to the rest of us -- those left behind who don't qualify in terms of age or finances? For that matter, what happens to American society in general, and our municipalities in particular, when a critical mass of mature Americans form self-contained private cities and disengage from the general population? Experience shows that these privately owned quasi-governmental entities often resent paying local taxes for schools as well as for municipal services that they prefer to perform for themselves. And they are potent voting blocs that can swing elections addressing these issues."

Those are the deeper, darker questions beneath the occasionally amusing tales that Blechman tells about aging Romeos popping Viagra and pre-senile hot-rodders racing around the Villages in their souped-up golf carts. Blechman is not exactly a graceful stylist -- at best his prose is competent journalese, at worst considerably less -- but he understands the implications of this strange new phenomenon, and he knows that few of them are good. ·

[graciegirl]

[quote=JohnM ]




STRANGE? FEW IMPLICATIONS ARE GOOD? To whom I might ask? Another review by someone who has never been to TV.

It is like explaining the workings of a microwave oven to a cat.

[JohnM]

And yet another review...this one from Toronto's Financial Post. At least this reviewer acknowledges the right to choose one's lifestyle, even it is not for him...

==========

Financial Post

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Presented by
Freeway of the future?

Why are retirees locking themselves away in leisureville?

William Hanley, Financial Post Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008

Had Walt Disney envisioned the housing development of 2008, he might easily have conjured up The Villages north of Orlando in central Florida. Had George Orwell envisioned the housing development of 2008, it also might have been The Villages, a sprawling age-segregated and gated retirement community that could have the motto: In Golf We Trust.

Indeed, after reading Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias, I'm inclined to believe The Villages is Disney's Magic Kingdom for the over-55s with an undertone of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, a place where utopia meets dystopia, where endless leisure coexists quite comfortably with numbing, autocratic conformity.

Author Andrew D. Blechman, a young New Englander, at first can't believe the descriptions of The Villages provided by a retired older neighbour who is moving there with his wife. They seem so over the top and kind of creepy. After all, the largest gated community in the world has 75,000 residents (with another 35,000 on the way), spans three counties, two zip codes and 8,000 hectares, sports three dozen golf courses and has 160 kilometres of trails for golf carts, which are the primary mode of transportation for the Villagers.

In this totalitarian gerontopia for retirees, residents can drive their golf carts to movies, supermarkets, churches, recreation centres, clinics, dozens of pools or two crime-free "village" centres. Just about everything can be found in this peculiar paradise except for one thing: children.

The Villages, like thousands of gated retirement (and non-retirement) communities across North America, offers residents not necessarily a world without children, but a world with children on demand. A person must be at least 55 to buy a home in The Villages and no one under 19 may live there. Children can visit, but their stays are limited to 30 days a year.

The rules of The Villages are strictly enforced:Weeds must be removed, lawns -- at least 51% sod -- edged and hedges over four-feet high are prohibited. So, too, are clotheslines and individual mailboxes. Pets are limited to two per house, window air conditioners are forbidden, Halloween trick-or-treaters are not allowed.

And big neighbour, like Orwell's Big Brother, is always watching. Golf-cart passersby are sure to complain if these and other covenants are broken. Further, the local newspaper, The Daily Sun, is a junior league Ministry of Truth of the corporation that runs The Villages, so bad news is no news.

Though Blechman was both dismayed and amused by descriptions of The Villages, he decided to visit with his older friends and find out for himself what the attraction is behind retirement community gates. Leisureville is not exactly an expose of age-segregated retirement living, but a lively and thoughtful account of a lifestyle that can be at once entertaining and appalling. The book is full of warm, appealing characters. It also has tinges of the sadness and wistfulness that often accompany the later years.

Blechman goes beyond The Villages -- "a retirement community on steroids" -- to Arizona and to the oddly named Youngtown, the first elders-only community, and to Sun City, which once bloomed in the desert but is now a half-century old and showing it. The many problems and issues that have caught up with Sun City, the butt of many an ageist joke in my youth, will likely one day visit The Villages and its smaller kin, he

says. They include, most notably, a lack of tax-base support for local schools as retirees say they've paid their education support dues over their lifetimes. Blechman talked to many Villagers who said they'd also paid their share and were tired of giving back.

Blechman wonders what, exactly, they've given. "Blessed to be born into one of the richest generations in the history of the world, they've led a life that most people can only dream of. Such good fortune wasn't a matter of luck: it was given to them by previous generations who made untold sacrifices through two world wars and a devastating depression. ? Surely today's retirees have something more to pass on than a love of golf and perceived entitlement to lock themselves away

in leisurevilles. That's no citizenship; that's secession. It's a form of surrender, an acknowledgement of societal failure."

Hold on, Andrew. This is not the end of the world.

While there is something to worry about in the trend to leisurevilles, only a small percentage of retirees and Boomers will opt to lock themselves away. Indeed, well over half of Boomers say they're not going to retire. They and most others will stick around and work and coexist like the rest of society, possibly escaping for some R&R during the winter months.

In the meantime, many of those in The Villages and elsewhere will tire of the lifestyle, forgo the weather and head back home -- even if it is just for the summer or to visit family occasionally.

And those who stay the course will find their communities necessarily morphing over time into places resembling towns with the usual needs and problems.

The prospect of retiring to The Villages or any other gated retirement community doesn't interest me.

I've never even been in one, but I have this strong feeling that they're ghettos for the elderly --grey-ttos, if you will.

Yet, while I can't quite understand the desire some folks have to retire to such white-bread conformity, I respect the right of those who do. Even Andrew D. Blechman acknowledges that leisurevilles are "a powerful vision that has proved to be very appealing to a sizable segment of aging Americans."

whanley@nationalpost.com

Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.

[jjdees]

Beady,

Blechman has been a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and the Des Moines Register. Since when do the media types care about the truth? Anything good is bad, and vice versa. This guy sounds like we should all live in lock step, kind of socialistic in my opinion. The fact that seniors choose to live in communities like TV has no effect on the lives of those that don't. The fact that some can afford it and others can't, well that's life. I can't afford to live in the multi million dollar gated communities so does that make them bad? Blechman should stick to his pigeons.

[Boomer]

Well, my own little opinion, on the first half of the book anyway, is a few posts above in this thread. The book has some interesting information, but this little whippersnapper has one condescending attitude.

But if you think Blechman :edit: some of us off, take a look at Boomsday by Christopher Buckley. Buckley is the guy who wrote Thank You for Smoking. His satire Boomsday has Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal written all over it.

Boomsday is not very well written, but the premise is that the government gives aging baby boomers tax incentives to off themselves before the onslaught drains Social Security. (Now don't come after me. I did not say that SS was about to be drained by boomers. I said that this is the premise of Buckley's satire.)

And just wait until Boomsday hits the big screen. And you know that it will.

The economic impact of the boomers has been a force to be reckoned with since somebody noticed that there are a whole bunch of us. There has always been a price on our heads. Whatever that means. And it has meant different things throughout our lives. And that will continue to be the case.

A couple of years ago, for some reason, I started noticing how elderly people are fair game, so it seems, as objects of derision in movies, ads, television shows, etc. Even one of my favorite fellow boomers, Steve Martin, had in his Pink Panther remake, a scene where a woman with a walker had to try to flee an out of control car.

Lots of people laughed.

Throughout various writings, there has been a concept of saturating the masses with whatever (usually violence) to make the masses immune.(Clockwork Orange. 1984.) Are we already immune to the media's often cruel portrayal and betrayal of the elderly?

Now that I have mentioned this, you may start to notice, too. If any other group were being hit like this, there would be an uprising of some kind, somewhere.

But wait! Maybe that is why the Blechmans of alleged journalism are writing books like this under the pretense of trying to save us from ourselves. Maybe they fear that if we all get back together, we could get way too organized. What is the saying? "Age and guile beat youth and inexperience any day." - or something like that.

Who knows? But it is kind of fun to discuss all of this.

And the last time I checked, I am free to live anywhere I want to live. You see, I can do that. I am over 55.

Boomer

[uujudy]

Boomsday is not very well written, but the premise is that the government gives aging baby boomers tax incentives to off themselves before the onslaught drains Social Security. (Now don't come after me. I did not say that SS was about to be drained by boomers. I said that this is the premise of Buckley's satire.)


Ooooh! Sounds like Soylent Green! :o