For all those who have an open mind about our community and don't have their heads buried in the sand:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,425602.column

Did you know that this topic was brought up on the day it was published? Many of us were pretty mad about a non villager spitting in our soup.

Didn't realize this string was on this board when posted - my apologies.

Originally Posted by SteveZ

Just because the Sentinel reports on a place should not be an instant condemnation of the place. So far, the State of Florida and three county governments have blessed TV for many years. The article seems more like making smoke so that others will think a fire is raging.

The Sentinel has been doing this kind of reporting about these taxing districts for at least 25 years that I know of. They used to spend a lot of time going after Disney (a.k.a. Reedy Creek Development Corporation) as Disney negotiated such status from the State of Florida as part of the deal to build DisneyWorld. Disney never advertised in the Sentinel, and lo & behold Disney seemed to always be a major target of the Sentinel's "investigative reporting."

Funny, but I never remember seeing any TV advertising in the Sentinel either? What a coincidence!

Yes Steve, and the realtors must be fuming in Orlando too, with 70,000 people who want to live in Central Florida, but didn't chose Orlando.

First, the governmental structure of The Villages was modeled after Orlando's hometown business, DisneyWorld. Virtually all of the criticisms of TV that the columnist cites also apply to the residential portion of DisneyWorld...the town of Celebration. But do you think this writer would get into his editor's office very far with an article critical of Disney? Hah!

Secondly, when the annual resident surveys indicate year after year that 95% of the residents of TV are happy with the place and would heartily recommend living here to family and friends, what does that say about the place? Are we all so stupid and brainwashed by the enjoyment of living here that we need some guy from Orlando to point out the errors of our mental capabilities? Double Hah!

I've stopped watching the local TV news out of Orlando. It's a continuous string of murders, rapes, robberies, governmental malfeasance, traffic jams and on and on. It seems to me that the columnist from the Sentinal has plenty to write about in his hometown without worrying about us.

Just rereading this thread.

The title says it all!
Title I meant was- "No Doubt -Life is Great in the Villages -but keep a sharp eye on how it is run.