His pen and he were thing to flout,
they drew a circle that shut me out.
But love and I had the wit to win,
we drew a circle that took him in.

Wildwood may have been around for many years and I am sure it does have plenty of good people. It also has a fairly high crime rate and large area of poverty. It is not a place that tourists would ever make a destination.

Wildwood city fathers are discussing making Wildwood a GAS LIGHT DISTRICT with golf cart access. They want some of the Villages revenue. Cannot blame them but do we want a golf cart path that comes into and connects with ours.

When you say, "ours," are you a resident of Wildwood or The Villages?

Sumter County once already said no to a request for GC trail along 466A to Wildwood. It was an older thread on here.

If they build it, we will come...:-)

Really smart folks who have something to sell to everyone ...say McDonalds will be looking at Wildwood and soon other big chains will too because people who work in the villages need a place closeby to live and grow their families, Wildwood will be growing soon too..

Sweetie likes the Hardware store in Wildwood and I love the Cotillian Restaurant. We stole the Farmers Market from Wildwood but those folks seem to be selling more of their stuff in our squares so that is a good thing.

I think our being closeby and a huge consumer base will attract the demographers who want to open chains and franchises who are proven winners. We may want this or that but the proven winners will come first. Not a bad thing.

Grannynance. Do you live in The Villages or in Wildwood? Nosy me wants to know.

the hardware thing is Ace Hardware, chain started by my neighbor in Alachua (n of Gainesville), which was a lot like wildwood when I moved there in 1980 but is now a thriving little town with all the retail charm folks attribute to their dream Wildwood.

Before I came to The Villages, I lived in a small agricultural town in central FL. I actually lived on property fronting four lane hwy 301. And 301 went through the center of town. The county courthouse in the center of town was totally restored and looked nice. Over a period of time, many of the stores were made to look nice. Many were either turned into antique shops or restaurants.

You want to know what folks there think? They think, duh, this is a boring town. :)

Kittygilchist
Did you move to the villages for the life style or to rework that area. Did you ever think some people just might be OK the way thing are

I know. Some of us are pming ideas. hoping for an economic development consortium btw TVers and Wildwood officials and residents....trying to contact city mgr.

gracie, agree franchisers will move in. but few in the big pix of TV or elsewhere will drive to Wildwood for a big mac., I could go over for coffee..lg coffee 4 creams is how my brilliant brother orders it, for a dollar or so?

I think that my point is that people who work in The Villages will soon seek homes in the towns around it, Wildwood being one of them and those people will be looking for a big mac and McDonalds and other such businesses and those businesses will build there and provide a tax base to build nice municipal buildings and gussy things up on the main drag. Also the people who will begin to move there will feed money into the area and before long the nice restaurants will come and we in the Villages will be going over there more and more and spending our money. And the tax base will grow. I watched a similar thing happen in the old town of Hamilton, Ohio. I saw it revive after the suburbs of West Chester and Fairfield grew near to it. They now call themselves Hamilton! Ohio. Note the exclamation point.http://www.hamilton-city.org/

Kitty...how do you see a plan to make Wildwood a better place faster than waiting for the growth that I think is bound to happen?

I am not debating your good ideas. I trust your fine judgment.

as always, eyes open when I read your posts.
I'd like to see proactive collaboration between TV and Wildwood govt and residents through a local govt endorsed and named entity.

A biz that wants to open is going to check the car count on the road.

What do think those numbers might be on 301 say vs 441?

I would look for a spot on 441 even if the rent was $30 a sq ft vs $5

So the question is how do you attract a biz to open?

Or can you