Lauren Ritchie often uses here opinion column to bash TV and the Morse family. She and Blechman are fond of saying retirement communities are bad for society. Neither has yet to name any ways in which society has been harmed or to offer any evidence. Nonetheless, they are entitled to their unsubstantiated opinions.

I wonder if they are related?

I read the article first and thought it was interesting. Then I read the posts that followed and was surprised at the reactions to it. I think perhaps posters may be reading too much into it. Why so sensitive? Why so protective? Just relax and take it as another person's perspective.

I didn't think it was all that bad. :024: I think it was designed to make people think about how they are living their retirement. And she left the door open for people to express their approval of The Villages.

:wave:

Well it appears the developers just don't use a PR firm to pay attention to such articles and counter them.

You would need to employ a PR firm to do that if you weren't THIS successful.

Wait until you move here and all this will make more sense as you observe the growth and the skillful handling of situations and see how this place is run.

There isn't any more successful retirement area in the whole world. We have recently been on Forbes list as fastest growing town in U.S.

If you live here you KNOW about Lauren Ritchie.

Some folks like the Orlando Slantinal. I don't particularly...because of this kind of journalism. Give me the Daily Fun.

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Lauren Ritchie: "hundreds of social clubs"
 

Yes, it's true that we have hundreds of social clubs. However, here's one thing I've noticed about most of them I have visited: People arrive alone, get lectured to, and go home alone. Or they arrive in couples and never meet other couples or singles. Or it's line dancing where everyone dances in a group, but no one knows who the other people are. Or it's an ethnic group or whatever....same thing.

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this.

We live in Orlando and get The Sentinel everyday. We are now using to wrap stuff for our move to TV in June.
A lot of the "news" come from other papers so we are looking forward to TV's paper when we get there.

It seems to me that too many folks are more interested in shooting the messenger rather than digesting the message. IMHO she is spot on. Oops I commited heresy again.

That's true of some clubs. It probably depends on how outgoing you are. I went to the Villages Computer Club (VCC) for a few years and there seemed to be various cliques within the VCC that got together for other occasions. I have friends who frequent some of the adult pools. These sound like they have cliques too. The small dog section of Doggie Doo Run Run had a club too which seemed quite active at one time. Not sure what's happening with it now as I am not exactly a big joiner.

I added a comment on The Orlando Sentinel article by Ms. Lauren Ritchie about the Villages. It looks like there is another TOTVer who is passionately defending the Villages along with me. I have had different experiences though over the last 7 years here in the Villages. Still made a very supportive post though just one that reflects my experiences.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...3673457.column

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/..._story_display

Cliques are not unique to TV. In all my former life experiences there were cliques. Remember all the "in crowd" in high school?? I think your concluding sentence sums it up rather well.

That's true. I am also 53, so have different interests than many in the Villages.

The small dog section people at Doggie Doo Run Run had weekly karaoke runs which unless they really liked William Hung impressions would not care much for my singing.

Journalism loves democracy
 

I stated in TOTV previously that IMHO, Morse is the Steve Jobs of real estate and I still think he is. Steve Jobs was not loved by every one, but he had a vision which he pursued with passion. From another perspective, I loved Singapore when I lived there in the 90s because it was squeaky clean, beautiful, and safe compared to all the surrounding countries. Lee Kuan Yew made that happen. It's certainly not a democratic country and some journalists are not allowed in at times but the closest I would call the country paternalistic. Back in 1965 it was a desperate country having been booted out of the Federation of Malaysia. But now it is the envy. Deng Xiaoping of China looked at Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew advised him. The current China owes a lot to both. I remember my friend, a journalist, tried to expose the non-democratic side of the country but my view was that as long as the populous is content, why push so hard. I love TV with warts and all. Could it be improved, sure.

Yorio, my husband traveled to Singapore a zillion times before he retired. He loved it for all the reasons you mentioned. Their laws are basically the same as we have here. The difference is that they enforce them. We found the same thing when we lived in Hong Kong, back in 1980. It was very safe because they enforced the laws.