City or County bureaucracy can be very frustrating. About 10 yrs ago, in Queens NY, the street name sign on the corner fell. It’s a fairly large sign, about 3 or 4ft x 10in. The sign was in perfect, almost new, condition. I think that pole had been replaced less than a year prior. After an hour on the phone, being transferred what felt like 30 or 40 times, I finally reached the right person. I told them the sign was in my garage and just let me know when the crew is coming out. I was informed I could keep the sign. They cannot put up “old” signs. They wait till they have a large order, usually 1-2 years, put it out for bid and go from there. I said the sign is like new, doesn’t matter. About 4 yrs later, the sign was replaced. The sign went from my garage to the garbage. Local government, I guess federal too, can be so exasperating.

Hi, we are with you, the Villages is a nice place but the emphasis on drinking is over the top.. Happy hour is the big thing, lots of drinking and those folks, many of them do need to drive home. So it is a problem but the money talks, that is important, bring in and spend the money on booze. Lots of boozers here, you have to stay home to get away from them. We have had two cases where we had to leave our food and go,a lot of obnoxious drinkers who cannot control their vocal chords. Bet we will hear back on this one, do not expose the way of life, happy hours, happy hour, drink up and then drive.

:ohdear:

You know my friend owns a blue car and so what he sees on the road all the time... lots of blue cars. so much so that he told me blue is the most popular color for cars. Yet the facts are that better than 50% of all cars are white.

What we can speculate on is that some of the damage done to gates is because of drinking but not all. We can say that some of the damage is done because drivers attempt to squeeze past the gate before it drops by following closely behind the vehicle in front of them. We can say that perhaps some damage is done because drivers are not paying attention or distracted or lack sufficient reaction time. We an say some of the damage might be done because of maladies. We might even say that perhaps some damage might be done deliberately

for me lips that touch wine will never touch mine:D

PS I like the gates

White cars? In 1963 I had to order a white Pontiac Catalina because it was not a standard color, this is the truth. So, after that, white became more popular. Henry Ford said on his cars long ago, you can have any color as long as it is black. For a period of time in the 60s, in Sacramento the Highway Patrol cars were all white.

:a040:

Shoulda called the guys from American Pickers.

Mighta got some money for it. :D

Let us know where you go. I think we are missing out on the party! We dine out a various Resturants and country clubs a couple of times per week. We have not ran into any cases were we had to leave because of "lot of obnoxious drinkers".

I like white cars, they don't show dirt or water spots as bad. White cars I've owned 66 fairlane gt, 66 Plymouth belvedere II, 71 Chevy caprice, 79 Cadillac eldorado. Black cars I have owned 64 ford galaxie XL, 69 GTX, 57 ford custom 300. Was all the time shamming them off.

Every time my local gate get broke it usually late at night. I have strong feeling it's drunks coming home the majority of the time.
I like gates too, but nonsense to have to scan or push the button just have delay so vehicles have to stop few seconds so carts can pass.

If some people got to have alcohol everyday or or shot to get them going in the morning, They have drinking problem and are in denial. Which has lead to problems or will lead to problems. Some of us figured that out early in life:popcorn:

Well the gates are aluminum or a combination of metals, but check this?
Want to beef up the gates? Make them stronger? Not a good choice!!!!!!!!!

The gates are mounted in a control housing that is containing controls and switches and wiring, lots of money there folks.
Yes, you could beef up, strengthen the gate arms and then they would take the impact, and then,,,,,,,,,,, transfer the impact forces to torque and simply destroy the very expensive housing and controls, not a good choice, a stick of gate is much cheaper to replace.

Why do the gates exist in the first place? :confused:

It's not like they mean anything, given that the roads are owned and maintained by the county and are therefore public roads and anyone can access them. :shrug:

While there may be some that get a feeling of (false) security, it seems to me that a lot of expense maintaining them and supplying gate guards and banks of monitors (such as in the gate building going into Tall Trees I think it is)...could be saved.

And yes, I'm ready for the onslaught of emotionally driven dissenting views. :D

I think there are there to give delay so carts can safely cross and give the impression of gated community. If the gates weren't there would have to have BIG speed bumps to slow some down otherwise they would be blowing through at 30 mph.

Sarcasm
 

Sarcasm seem to be a foreign concept to many of these posters. LOL Len

The gates are there, at least partially, to control the flow of cars where the golf carts cross. This is really a safety issue to prevent collisions between cars and golf carts.

That might be the excuse given now, but originally (in doing some research and talking to those who have been here 15+ years) the developer thought that he could make this a gated community...in the true sense of the term.

That ill-conceived thought was quickly put to rest, when the county explained that since they were the ones who owned and were responsible for the roads (except the Villas)...he couldn't do that.

I will say that your point has merit as far as letting carts cross, but there are so many other locations where the carts cross in front of the gates or where no gates exist at all...I'm personally not really buying that as the primary reason they're still there. :shrug:

It's my honest opinion that the developer is continuing to try and convey some type of security (that doesn't really exist)....by leaving the gates and gate guards in place.

Just my $.02 worth. :D

If you want to read a lot of different and sometimes intense and varied opinions about gates here in The Villages just type "gates" into the search feature above. There are almost as many gates threads as there are roundabout and dog poop ones.

Here is one for you to enjoy; https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...ighlight=gates

I think the gates slow the traffic enough so that golf cart traffic can safely cross the street. That is what I think.