From "There’s One Thing We Can Learn From the Villages’ Success" (NY Magazine). The Villages is a planned community in Florida that was designed by former Disney Imagineers. 130,000 people live there, and it's grown 40% in the last 10 years. The "one thing" NY Magazine likes about it is the mobility by golf cart. There are other things NY Magazine does not like:
[F]or this overwhelmingly conservative population — the Villages went two-to-one for Trump — the very thing that may be attracting those who want to “Make America Great Again” are its pseudo-suburban neotraditionalist aesthetics, as James Brasuell wrote in Planetizen last year, asking whether “the village ideal is actually inherently conservative, and a vehicle for segregation.” (The Villages remains 98 percent white, even as the surrounding counties grow more diverse.) So, yes, there’s a lot wrong with the Villages.
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72 comments:
The big cities don't have "nearby grocery stores." BLM and Antifa burned them down.
There's a number of 'Villages' for progressives already in place. Brooklyn, for one. Some of these progressive 'Villages' go so far as to expand on things like homelessness, lawlessness, and free needles. We call those 'Villages' Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco.
You see, 'Villages' are out there in all styles. The one in Florida happens to be mostly peaceful (it loses it's peace when senior sexcapades go haywire). And, by the way, there are no restrictions to people of color moving into The Villages in Florida. I haven't been there. I don't know who does live there. But I'd be surprised if there were no Black or Hispanic Americans living there. It's Florida. Everyone lives everywhere here. Except of course in Palm Beach where Democrats fully run things.
Someone should Do Something about this aggregation of innocent free choices we don't like.
How is a dense transportation network an improvement for seniors? In addition to having to walk some distance to the bus/subway/trolley stop, and wait, carrying things is a chore. Then, having arrived at your destination--you actually haven't, you've arrived at the bus/subway/trolley stop nearest your destination--you start walking again. Not sure whether you've been standing on the bus/subway/trolley instead of being seated.
This presumes you haven't been sucker-punched or shoved onto the tracks or into the road by some moron fresh out of his go-and-sin-no-more no bail hearing for the same thing.
The hard heads who won't acquiesce to this must be forced to give in.
I have a couple of mush head acquaintances who, upon reading the last sentence, will think I've finally gotten my mind right.
Golf cart good, UTV better. A senior citizen with a grabber and a Gator is a powerful force for good. Age in place usefully.
One other comment. Even though demographers have been trying to convince people that it is their destiny to live in dense, urban areas for years now, people have been voting with their feet and wallets, moving away and further out from the inner city cores. Out beyond the suburbs into the exurbs. And to replace some of the subdivision feel, you now see a slew of mixed-use communities popping up around the country, offering a faux urban feel on a small scale. Townhomes and condos packed tightly and set among or above retail and restaurants. These are found all across the country.
The other thing you're seeing are town centers for smaller towns that surround the larger urban centers. These become the focal point for people living out there and give a community a place to congregate, hang out, meet with others and hold events. Green spaces, retail, restaurants, and a town hall all nicely laid out in a calm, pleasing environment. Who wouldn't want that?
What I'm saying is that while the demographers keep insisting we are all better off living on top of each other in densely packed cities, people are moving back to the small town feel, even if it's within the shadow of a large Metropoitan Statistical Area.
It's amazing how "diversity" has been deified since the Supreme Court identified it as a factor to allow race based affirmative action policies to continue. In my life, I have noticed that things generally run better within groups when the members of the group are of similar backgrounds and beliefs. You don't have to waste so much time explaining things.
I'm 68. Will Alissa let me keep my car if I promise not to buy a place at the Villages?
I've been there, and it's not my kind of place, OK? I have friends there. Great place to join a community band.
In my neighborhood, we have lots of golf carts running around within the area. One neighbor parades past with two magnificent standard poodles surveying the world from the back seat each evening. We call the exercise "oodles of poodles".
I reject the idea of the community being a 'vehicle of segregation'. The economic entry point of The Villages is within reach of most middle class retirees and they're open to any and all comers...
That creator had to be trolling the NYT. Bedazzled inhaler? Really?
The urban planners have been trying to cajole, convince, push, prod and so on to get Americans to want to live in dense cities and for some reason they cannot fathom Americans don't want to do that. I think that the desire for space with the increases in privacy (not having to hear your neighbors' business and they not having to hear yours) and the reduction in stress that comes from less crowding is far more valuable to most people than all of the walkable urban amenities.
Things white people like are racist. News at 11.
Possibly 'New York Magazine' would like to see 'reeducation camp' added to The Villages features?
Well, the answer to this problem is simple: Just make the Feds require The Villages to construct sufficient low income housing units, and only rent (whaddya' mean sell?) to POCs until The Villages "looks like the rest of America".
Isn't that what the Federal Government is for? I thought I read that in the Federalist Papers somewhere.
Conservatism is an emergent property of life success and satisfaction, as manifest in actions that freeze the current state of affairs for ongoing stability. It has nothing to do with racism or discrimination per se. Note that the gay community drifted toward functionally right wing views after first going public in the 1970s. Their demonstrated priorities involved buying houses, settling down, and accumulating wealth. In a multi-cultural environment, discrimination can be conflated with local/personal efforts to preserve stability and success.
The Trump era highlighted (the previously implicit) left wing split between (1) those seeking change without a clear vision or remotely sustainable goals [i.e., utopians and anarchists], versus (2) those with an extremely clear out-of-power vision to create and enforce a new conservative stability [i.e., revolutionaries and totalitarians]. The second group is prone to tyranny if they achieve power, as establishment conservatives and left #1 won't cooperate with left #2 for long.
If only these people would realize the 'vibrancy' a diverse community would bring to them. LOL
Know-it-all, busy bodies. Who gives a rip what these leftwing, asshole fussbudgets think?
Where’s my coffee?!?!
Reminds me a bit of a newer Sun City (AZ).
I can see why the NY Mag hates this. It is racist to not want to be mugged by their preferred diverse community, that inevitably includes at risk minority youths, who are just trying to join their local gang with their mugging. Convenience is a priority, but so is safety, and that is the thing that dense urban cities like NYC have a hard time providing. The writers, no doubt, think that giving up that security is a small thing to give up for (their definition of) the public good. But they are likely twenty-somethings who can fight back, and won’t end up in the hospital with a broken hip, if mugged and shoved to the ground.
I would ask NYMag why they are against diversity. There is room in this country for populations that are overwhelmingly one race over another. That vote overwhelmingly one way or another. Indeed, I'd say that kind of diversity makes the country great.
The writer is suffering under the mantle of repressive conformity to woke ideals.
What I get from this article is that a planned community like the Villages’ provides a lot of value to seniors but the danger is they might also vote Trump. Yeah, people who have stability in their community do tend to vote for more stability.
More cr-p from NYT.
Who is the "we" that "should" be working to put everything closer together?
I have an idea who they think should be doing this. It is people who will force "diversity," despite the wishes of the diversitee and diversiter. It is people who will find a way to ignore, and then suppress, the stated preferences of the (deplorable) (too-white) citizens who choose to live there and associate with like-thinking people.
We have read this script before.
About the First Thing i noticed, when i moved to the little northeast iowa town of West Union,
was that the Quillin's Food Ranch (our local grocery store) had a sign by the door,that said:
____________Golf Cart Parking Only In These Spaces__________
The sign looked like it was Several years old.
Reading the NYTimes comments. To summarize: We hate old vanilla people. The chasm in this country expands at lightning speed.
Electric golf carts for everyone? Be still, my heart! EVs on the march!
And then a conservative haven where Trump won two-to-one with a neotraditional aesthetic? Now we are talking! That compares well with my retirement community, Lincoln Park in Chicago. We have ever rising taxes and flourishing street crime. Our elected officials at the city, county and state levels are nincompoops (although my alderman is OK, sorta). We need to throw out the stupid consent decree that the city agreed with the Obama DOJ and bring back stop and frisk for the cops. The city needs to bust that reprehensible teachers’ union, which is officered by communists and puts children last.
New York magazine is for guilt-ridden liberal chumps.
Planned retirement communities or places where you can age in place must be strictly progressive democratical. You will be asked to show your papers.
One of the fastest growing areas in the country is the Mountain West. People are leaving densely packed Bay Area and Southern California. The folks get a bit more room and a lot less crime.
Last month I celebrated my aunt's 89th birthday with dinner. She insisted upon driving herself and picked a restaurant in a small city two highways down the road. Of course, dinner was at 3, still light, and I know from experience she never drives more than 40 mph on a highway. She's still sharp and moves better than I do. She brought me cucumbers from her garden.
She spends her weekdays playing cards at the senior center 2 miles from her home.
I myself loved living in downtown Baltimore where I could walk to everything I wanted. Heck, I could happily live on a cruise ship. So I suspect The Villages would suit me to a T.
That crack in the article about lack of diversity makes me wonder if freedom of association is still an integral part of the American Way.
"Possibly 'New York Magazine' would like to see 'reeducation camp' added to The Villages features?"
This story is a surprisingly vulgar view of the crude meanderings of the leftie mind:
The Villages- helped Trump last time and must be stopped! Kill them all!!!...wait...need moral underpinning...Racist! Gerrymandering!
People- old people- yuk! And Republicans- kill them all!!!...wait..need moral underpinning...Racist! Is one of our black lady mayors there to punish them? No? Protest!!!..wait...Old people- yuk!!!
What? Golf Carts? Electric Vehicles! Save the planet!!! Wheeee!!!!
This is the age of delivering anything to anyone.
There is little need these days to pack into central areas just to have access to goods and services.
Amazon and GubHub, etc. have made billions by bringing things to you...no golf carts necessary.
Of course, if you're looking for hot grannies, then The Villages still make a lot of sense.
People move to The Villages to get away from the NY Mag prescribed way of life. That's what pisses the NY Mag off. What's the point of allowing people choices if they're just going to make the wrong ones?
You might be a Golf Cart Old Fart if...
...you live at The Villages.
Glad to see conservative folks in Florida become personally progressive. Baby steps
"So, yes, there’s a lot wrong with the Villages."
They are conservative and white to be exact.
I know a few folks living in the Villages. They are also good at math. They are the trifecta of evil: Conservative, white math wizards.
This presumption of racism relies on an appearance of disparate impact, which is very frequently a false argument. Barriers to entry might range across all possible non-racist reasons and achieve the same outcome. But by all means, start with a presumption of guilt whenever one can, it makes one's virtue signaling ever so much less work.
The left promise tolerance and diversity - just so long as you comply.
The writer brings all their snob progressive ideas and hatreds to stir the pot. Just what their readers like. For the non-reader, leave us alone.
Housing discrimination is against the law. People of any skin color can live there. Why do POCs hate The Villages so much???? Buying to the Villages!!!!!!
There's something about seeing people happy that drives NYC progressives wild. That's what you see when you look back in at this writer as she looks out.
If you consider yourself a better, it's axiomatic that you look upon your worsers with contempt.
Behold how the progressive mind works:
"But there’s going to end up being some in-between territory as well, and giving everyone (not just seniors) access to [blah blah blah.."
"GIVING EVERYONE" something. There it is. The notion that only the big nanny bureaucracy is allowed to "give us something" and therefore - that something must be purged of conservatives - or it's icky.
Who is this giver you speak of? Central planning?
Central Planning can go F* itself.
When we get governmetn planned communities- we end up tearing them down sooner or later. Because they suck.
When private interests create communities to fit the needs of actual people - it's is often a success.
The writer is clueless, and by default a progressive fascist centralized big government busy-body.
I spoke with someone recently who was visiting from the The Villages. I asked him why he lived there. He responded there is something for everyone there. He laughingly said that if you are interested in turtle racing, they offer that. He was not exaggerating.
My absolute first choice in where to live is personal safety. Nothing else comes close.
We moved to The Villages a year ago. Like 99% of the others who moved here, we came because of the life style, quality of life, weather, conveniences and safety. (Around 2500 of your fellow Wisconsinites did the same.) We also travel a lot were looking for a place where we could lock the door and leave for a month and not have to worry about having a house to return to. The neighbors here look out for each other. The housing prices are somewhat higher than other retirement communities in Florida, but that's because the demand is high and the turnover is low which, in turn, is because:
- Property taxes are relatively low and there is no state income tax or estate tax.
- Insurance rates are very low and utilities are very reasonable.
- PPO's and HMOs are senior care oriented and the VA clinic situated in the Villages is excellent.
- There are numerous good dining options, both in the Villages and in the surrounding area, and the prices are very reasonable.
- There are multiple recreation centers with tennis, pickle ball, bocce, and shuffleboard courts. There are 600 holes of golf and all 42 of the executive courses are free. There is a swimming pool in every village, one at every recreation center and one at each of the 12 country clubs. All of these, plus the country clubs are included in the annual amenity fee of $162 per household.
- There are around 280 clubs covering everything from genealogy to wood working, to dragon boat racing to bicycling to polo to ethnicity. There are drama clubs and music clubs that put on regular performances. If you are bored here you aren't trying.
- There are three town centers where each square has musical entertainment 365 days a year. These town centers also have shops, restaurants, and bars and are open to the general public and frequented by families from the surrounding towns.
- The roads and common areas are very well maintained, and environmental regulations are strictly enforced.
- Almost everyone here is from somewhere else, and there are people from every state and a number of foreign countries. My immediate neighbors are from MA, NY, OH, NC, Great Brittan, Ireland and Scotland. There may not be a lot of racial diversity (there are enough to support a number of AA focused clubs,) but that is not because minorities are not welcome. You will find retired doctors, engineers, screen writers, Broadway performers, executives, school teachers, and nearly every other profession. My social group of ten which meets every Thursday afternoon at one of the country club bars to tell lies and have dinner includes a retired navy master chief, a retired navy captain, a retired ad executive, a retired air traffic controller, a retired sales manager a retired college professor and a retired heavy equipment operator. Everyone is on an equal footing here and politics are seldom discussed except around election time.
- Golf cart access to almost everything one needs is nice (there are around 180 miles of golf cart paths,) but you can also walk most places at anytime day or night without fear of being mugged. My wife and I walk 4 miles a day, every day and often after 9 pm in the summertime. Try that in NYC.
As for the comment about there being a lot wrong with the Villages, I would opine that there is a lot more wrong with Madison or NYC. But so what? I wouldn't live in either of those places and, hopefully, most of the people from those places will feel the same about moving here.
I'm holding out for EV golf carts that fly.
They could do a lot to undermine the whole white supremacist narrative that concerns them so by creating safe cities, where, BTW, they have complete political control. Instead they choose to defund the police. Rudy made NYC a place the elderly of all races could feel safe even though it wasn't overwhelmingly white, Bloomberg kept it that way, and then the left blew it up and now they are griping about places where they don't have full political control and are sharpening their knives to destroy them as racist.
Defund the Police forces white flight to the less energy efficient rural areas where you have to drive your car to get a morning cup of coffee. But I guess the writer could not connect that last dot. The Democrat Party is an exercise in log rolling, but at some point you just get too many logs rolling in too many directions.
Getting everything delivered is a recipe for loneliness, BTW.
The Villages really needs a public housing project right in the middle filled with teenagers from poor families.
I’m 70. Two years ago we bought a condo in Portland, Oregon. It’s up the hill from a major shopping/ restaurant street. It’s easy enough to walk down to the supermarket- it’s only about 1/2 mile, all downhill. It’s no problem to walk home if I only have a few items in my backpack, even though it’s a climb of about 200 feet. But if I’m grocery shopping for the week, I drive. How do I carry three bags of groceries any distance, let alone up the hill? Even if there was a bus, and there isn’t, getting home with several bags of groceries would be difficult. Cars are great, and those urban planners who think they can eliminate the need for cars are idiots.
"Of course we should be working, in general, to put everything closer together so nobody has to get behind the wheel at the age of 95 — or 55, for that matter..” Is that a statement that no one should have to drive to get anywhere? Or that 55 year olds are getting too old to drive? I can’t get past the author possibly thinking the latter….what the heck???
Ageist and racist thinking is just fine when the targets are old white people.
Hipster bigotry and it's utter lack of awareness is a sight to behold.
"Too many members of the gross race in one place. Disgusting." -- modern journalism
"Most older Americans want to age in place, and many can’t, or won’t, move to big cities with" horrid crime problems, and left wing governments that side with the criminals over their victims.
FIFY, NY Magazine.
"so nobody has to get behind the wheel at the age of 95 — or 55, for that matter."
We don't have to get behind the wheel, we want to, you pathetic twit.
Individual empowerment is a good thing.
So "The Villages" sorta look like Board of Directors at the WaPo, NYT, or the major media companies. Cool.
M said...
Things white people like are racist. News at 11.
No, it's Things white people who vote Republican like are racist.
The "Progressive" movement is pretty much entirely about what rich left wing white people like
Sustainable...Trump
Sustainable...Trump
My sister...my daughter
My sister...my daughter
Damn liberal media. To listen to the liberal media, somebody might think that Trump fans living in The Villages were riding around on their golf carts chanting "White power!" and getting Donald Trump's personal approval for doing just that. When nothing like that ever happ-...
Wait; what? Not only did that happen, but it was also captured on video?
Day-umn.
I suppose it just shows that 'diverse' people don't want to live next to a bunch of white boomers in a setting with 'pseudo-suburban neotraditionalist aesthetics.' You'd think NYMag would be a bit more upbeat about that. Can't the wokie-dokes see Progress! when it smacks them in the face?
If the population of the the villages was thought to be voting 2-1 for Bernie, then NY Mag would be telling us what a wonderful development this is.
There are a lot of big cities that are food deserts, at least in the poorer and more crime ridden areas. Even more big city neighborhoods will become food deserts if prosecutors do not enforce shoplifting and other nonviolent crimes.
"One of the fastest growing areas in the country is the Mountain West. People are leaving densely packed Bay Area and Southern California. The folks get a bit more room and a lot less crime."
...and the good people of the Mountain West get stuck with lots of assholes from the Bay Area and Southern California.
130,000 people live there, and it's grown 40% in the last 10 years.
Sounds like lots of growth but that works out to about 3.5% per year.
The hatred just oozes from this article. This kind of hatred is the cause of so much liberal insanity and stupidity. As Biden's incompetence and corruption continues to be exposed, the liberal need to paint conservatives as evil will increase dramatically. Look for slander to get even more vicious (if that's even possible?).
I have met many residents of the Vilages, and all of them (ooo-wl of dem, as they say it) are from the NYC metropolitaa area. OOO-wl of dem.
"Glad to see conservative folks in Florida become personally progressive. Baby steps"
Hardly surprising. They also tend to have large families so making the beast with two backs is a popular sport among them. Yes, the prudish anti-sex conservative a silly stereotype.
For some reason the diverse people don't want to live there. Maybe it's the music in the town centers.
Seriously, most if not all of the developments in The Villages are over 55 communities meaning you need to be over 55 to purchase there. It's not a place to raise your children. The surrounding areas are largely families with young children who are primarily interested in decent schools and work opportunities.
Liberal cities are not safe for old people. I'm glad they've found a safe place without regard to liberal preferences.
"(The Villages remains 98 percent white, even as the surrounding counties grow more diverse.) So, yes, there’s a lot wrong with the Villages."
'Cause everybody knows that White ain't right.
At Villages once to pick-up friend visiting ancient family member. DE-pressing! God's Little Waiting Room. Whatever pleasure people get from being there, good for them. I doubt many would consider their lives improved by more colorful surroundings.
Diversity's a lot like cooking. Adding a certain amount of this and that can delight the palate - the wrong things or too much of the right thing changes everything.
Big cities that work best, in my experience, are notable for their lack of diversity. Exhibit A being Tokyo. Everyone knows and plays by the same rules. That Gaigin often don't does not motivate the Japanese to want more Gaigin (see Tom Selleck in Mr. Baseball). The Japanese embrace aspects of other cultures that amuse them or improve upon what they have but don't compromise existing standards.
So, is Tokyo boring? Not if you consider safe boring. Tokyo's a bit like Alice's Restaurant, there's everything there if you know what you want.
"How do I carry three bags of groceries any distance, let alone up the hill? Even if there was a bus, and there isn’t, getting home with several bags of groceries would be difficult."
Every time some idiot talks about getting people to give up their cars, this is the first thing that comes to mind. I go to the market once a week and it typically takes three or four trips between the house and the car to bring everything in. And that's carrying loads that would be impractical for distances further than driveway -> kitchen. Assuming one used mass transit instead of one's own vehicle, that would mean shopping Every Single Day of the week, and I live alone (well, with two dogs). I don't even want to think how inconvenient shopping would be using mass transit for people with families.
'So, is Tokyo boring? Not if you consider safe boring. Tokyo's a bit like Alice's Restaurant, there's everything there if you know what you want.'
Greatest city on earth imho...
I have a childhood friend I connected with on Facebook who lives in The Villages. She describes a utopia gushing about it. Shh encourages me to travel there with my wife and look around, convinced we’ll fall in love with it as she and her husband did. Her descriptions of dystopia actually horrify me. Seems more like “The Village” from The Prisoner than a place I’d want to be. Starting with the big selling point- no children. At 66 my last child is now off starting his career, sent off to Arizona for training before reporting to his ultimate duty station in Colorado. One sort of at home. Two weeks ago he was in Ohio. For the next month Missouri. My daughter is only 20 miles away. She just married, no grandchildren from her yet. Another in Texas, and one in Florida. I have to go back 5 generations to find a direct ancestor who died in the state, province, or country where they were born.
Back to the no children thing. I’m Scoutmaster of my local troop. I would actually love for some young guy to step up so I could stay involved without the leadership role hassle, but the near future doesn’t look good for that. Keeps me active and involved in growing the community and guiding the future. No opportunity for that in The Villages. Community involvement, sure. With a bunch of old people planning for death. The primary attraction of The Villages seems to be hedonism run rampant. As long as the greater society stays stable the occupants stay safe. If there’s a SHTF event, or the boogaloo erupts, there’s no safety there. It’s a huge soft target.
“I have a childhood friend I connected with on Facebook who lives in The Villages. She describes a utopia gushing about it. Shh encourages me to travel there with my wife and look around, convinced we’ll fall in love with it as she and her husband did. Her descriptions of dystopia actually horrify me.”
We took SuperShuttle one time from our old house in Glendale (west Phoenix), AZ to the airport. The other woman sharing the ride with us lived in Sun City, and it sounds very similar: 55+, golf carts, and clubs for everything imaginable. She got me a bit excited about the club part. But when we got to the airport, my partner told me that I could move there by myself. She wasn’t going anywhere close to Sun City. She had worked there a lot when she was doing interior design, and many of the people there tipped well (some though tipped horribly). She loves kids, and hated being in a place with no kids. She is much happier in our new subdivision across town. It has big houses on tiny lots, and a surprising number of young kids (don’t know how they afford those houses though - parents are modern day Yuppies, but…). She loves the sound of small kids, and to ooh and aah when a mother pushes her baby by in a carriage. The big party of the year is Halloween, when everyone sets up a card table by the lane and passes out to the endless stream of young kids.
In MT, we live in a de facto, but not de jure, 55+ community, with no end in sight. The men range from mid 60s up to early 80s, with their wives from mid 50s up to maybe 70. And the lots there I have sold were bought either by people just retiring, or for their retirement home. I enjoy the companionship - they all have great stories: a POW buddy of McCain, a former FBI guy who was flown in for all their big cases, going back to the OK bombing, next door neighbor who put himself through college as a smoke jumper, etc. But I think that we would both prefer kids around in the neighborhood.
Did the New Yorker writer see any of the big white weather balloon Rover security devices?
What number was the writer assigned?
Did Number 2 get any information from the writer?
How did the writer escape the Village? Or did she?
I don't know anything about the place you're writing about. But I liked The Prisoner.
I'm Not sure.
Talked with some guys who served in NATO in the Sixties and lived off post. Said the usual thing was a daily trip to the grocery store, shlep the stuff home, along with the kid. Every day. Subways and busses were full of that women doing that.
Downside was that if you married a local, the in-laws were not to be told you were buying in bulk from the commissary and what they were eating had been frozen for a week.
Was in Spain a couple of times in the Nineties. Not so much of that on subways, but a lot of the cars would have had a hard time with a week's worth of groceries. But occasionally, you'd see one with a trunk.
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