tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87088338316630005502024-02-20T14:41:25.886-05:00Leisureville USAThis is a blog about Society, Secession, and Growing Old in America. For more information, please visit www.andrewblechman.comAndrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.comBlogger144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-85295225349686475832012-02-26T17:26:00.003-05:002012-02-26T17:26:39.514-05:00Age Segregation turns inward, even at an Assisted Living facility<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Norfolk retirement home rules irk some residents</span></div>
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Elizabeth Simpson<br />
Virginia Pilot<br />
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NORFOLK, VA<br />
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Part of what drew William Hodges to Harbor's Edge, a luxury retirement community overlooking the Norfolk waterfront, was the prospect of sharing meals with his wife and friends in the elegantly appointed dining hall.<br />
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Hodges, 82, lives in the nursing part of Harbor's Edge because health issues have left him paralyzed from the chest down. His wife, Betty, lives in an adjoining independent-living wing, in what residents call "the tower."<br />
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Hodges would ride his electronic wheelchair across the hallway that connects the two wings to share meals in the River Terrace dining hall.<br />
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But last May, Harbor's Edge instituted a policy that prohibited residents in the assisted-living and nursing-care sections from dining in River Terrace or any other dining facilities in the independent wing. Rather, they needed to eat in the dining hall of their own section.<br />
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That put an end to meals with his wife and friends in River Terrace, and to attending special functions in the independent dining hall at Christmas, the Fourth of July and other holidays. Gone, too, was the terrace celebration to watch the Parade of Sail during Harborfest.<br />
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Hodges knows a little about justice, having been a lawyer, state legislator and senior judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia.<br />
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The change didn't sit right with him. He had enjoyed the ambience and camaraderie there.<br />
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"The dining hall was an inducement for me to come here, and I had a right to rely on it," said Hodges, whose wife must now go to the nursing section to eat with her husband.<br />
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He's not the only person who feels that way. The policy garnered the attention of some of the city's movers and shakers who live in Harbor's Edge, which developers pitched as Norfolk's answer to luxury retirement communities in Virginia Beach and other cities.<br />
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Commercial real estate developer Harvey Lindsay, who lives at Harbor's Edge with his wife and sat on its board at one time, sees the policy as mean-spirited: "At a time when we should be reaching out to people, comforting them, wanting to be with them, we're doing the reverse."<br />
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The controversy also puts a lens on a broader issue that has arisen as more people live longer, with a wider range of disabilities, in gated communities for senior citizens.<br />
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Andrew Blechman, who has written books about these communities - he calls them "senior utopias" - says they can pose a slippery slope: "Segregation breeds more segregation. When people are segregated they forget what they have in common. For some people, it's not enjoyable to dine with people who are ill. Not everyone wants to be reminded of the inevitable."<br />
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Last year, a group of Harbor's Edge residents and their adult children set about trying to reverse the policy. They thought management was trying to segregate sicker people to make the community more marketable or because some of the healthier residents didn't want to dine with them, assertions management has denied.<br />
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"I tell you, we are so mad," said Dorothy Evans, 86, who lives in assisted living and misses the dining hall in independent living where she saw residents from other areas in the community. "It's like being a second-class citizen, and we pay a pretty penny to be second-class."<br />
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The objectors started by approaching the residents' advisory board. The group says it was told the policy had been put in place to comply with the law.<br />
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They contacted a state ombudsman for long-term care, who could not find any statute that prohibited residents of one section of a facility from eating in another. Several other retirement communities in the region, including Westminster-Canterbury on Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Shores in Virginia Beach and Lake Prince Woods in Suffolk, have no such ban.<br />
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The ombudsman held a meeting at the facility in October and tried to help residents work out a solution with management.<br />
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Facility administrators, though, stood by the policy.<br />
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Harbor's Edge is what's known as a "continuing-care retirement community." People pay an entrance fee to move into the independent-living section, and they must be in good enough health to care for themselves. They also pay a monthly fee. When they need more help, they are guaranteed a spot in assisted living or the nursing wing.<br />
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About 220 people live in the independent wing, and about 30 people in each of the other two sections.<br />
C.A. "Neil" Volder III, developer and executive director of Harbor's Edge, said the dining room policy followed a risk assessment of the facility in 2011. Regulations in assisted-living and nursing areas require staff trained to observe people who might have difficulty swallowing or restricted diets, and to take action if they choke on food or become sick.<br />
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The independent-living dining hall, which Volder said grew busier as the wing approached capacity, does not have staff trained for that. Three choking incidents were reported there, he said, two involving the same person.<br />
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Volder said he became concerned about liability. He consulted several law firms that specialize in health care regulation - as well as the state's health, social services and attorney general's offices - before implementing the policy.<br />
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"We are not going to go against three law firms and state regulations," he said.<br />
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Volder said Harbor's Edge policies are in line with other continuing-care retirement communities. However, several others in the area lack such restrictive policies.<br />
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Atlantic Shores has dining facilities in each level of care. Executive director Eden Jones said people who move from independent to assisted-living or nursing units may still return to dine in the independent section, as long as they can do so safely.<br />
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Jones said she uses a case-by-case review rather than a blanket policy. Usually something can be worked out to address safety concerns and the comfort of other residents, she said.<br />
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"You don't want to degrade the dining experience for the others," Jones said. "We may want them to have an aide with them, but we have EMTs on staff 24/7 and the wait staff has CPR training. The bottom line is, anyone who dines here, I am liable for them."<br />
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Joani Latimer, the long-term-care ombudsman at the Virginia Association of Area Agencies on Aging, said it can get complicated because different parts of retirement communities operate under different regulatory agencies. For instance, the skilled-nursing section is regulated by the Virginia Department of Health, while assisted living is under the purview of the Virginia Department of Social Services.<br />
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Spokesmen from both entities say no regulations prohibit assisted-living or nursing residents from dining in an independent section. On the other hand, no statute guarantees such residents access either, said Erik Bodin, a director in the licensing division at the Virginia Department of Health.<br />
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Latimer has fielded complaints before about restrictions - usually enacted for safety reasons - on people who use wheelchairs and walkers.<br />
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"I don't see anything that prohibits what the residents there are asking for," Latimer said of Harbor's Edge. She said she thinks more could be done to balance safety concerns and residents' wishes.<br />
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Lindsay Bilisoly's parents paid a $580,000 entrance fee to move to Harbor's Edge, plus a monthly fee, expecting to have access to the dining hall and activities in the independent area even if they needed a higher level of care. His father now lives in the nursing wing. Bilisoly said that just as his father has the right to eat in restaurants outside the facility, he should be allowed to eat in the independent-living dining hall. Health department regulations requiring trained staff would not apply there any more than if he took his parents to a restaurant, Bilisoly said.<br />
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"Once I leave his floor, they do not have any regulatory authority," he said of the health department. "I have to sign a sheet, it's a disclaimer form. Then I can go right to the No Frill Grill or left to the main dining room."<br />
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In October, the group hired Oast & Hook, a firm that specializes in elder law, to represent them in trying to reverse the dining policy. Attorney Andrew Hook said he thinks the policy violates federal and state statutes regarding fair housing and the Americans with Disabilities Act.<br />
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"In some cases the effect of these policies is to prevent married couples, or good friends, from eating meals together or being together at some of the newly segregated activities, simply because they are in different categories of residency," he wrote in a statement of facts.<br />
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But Paul Gordon, the lawyer who represents Volder, said in an email that when the operator of the independent dining area also holds the license for the assisted-living and nursing facilities, "there is a real dilemma about whether it has a responsibility to its resident to provide a level of service that simply is not available in a dining room that is unlicensed and does not have care staff at hand. Another concern is that some residents with cognitive or eating disorders may be disruptive (e.g., gagging, vomiting, repeated spilling or splashing) to the point of severely interfering with the ability of other diners to quietly enjoy a meal without losing their appetites."<br />
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Where fair housing and disability laws are concerned, a facility must make "reasonable accommodations," according to Steve Maag, a lawyer at Leading-Age, a national association of not-for-profit senior communities. And that, he says, varies according to the person, the particulars of the dining hall and the contract.<br />
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Although Hook believed that his clients could make a case for discrimination, he told them they'd likely need to go to court to prove it, and the residents did not want to pay for a legal battle.<br />
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They said management had told them that policy changes were in the works, so they waited.<br />
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In December, management released a screening tool to serve as that "reasonable accommodation" that would allow some assisted-living residents to dine in independent living starting Jan. 3.<br />
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Only people who had once lived in independent living and had been transferred to assisted living could be screened. The three-page assessment tested their cognitive abilities, dietary restrictions, behavior and appropriateness of dress.<br />
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They had to have their doctor sign a statement saying they could dine safely without assistance. They had to sign a waiver of liability. They could not bring guests. Depending on their screening tool score, an assessment had to be done either every week or every month, and if anything about their health changed, another assessment had to be done.<br />
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"Assisted Living residents must be able to get to and from the IL dining room on time and without Harbor's Edge staff assistance," the policy read. "Assisted Living Residents may hire private assistance to be able to get to and from the IL dining room. Private duty nurses or companions will not be allowed to accompany the resident while dining."<br />
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The policy said that the dining room would not be open to assisted-living residents during high-volume times such as Sunday brunch, holiday meals, special event dinners or marketing events and parties.<br />
Only one person applied to be screened, and passed. Eight others were eligible to apply but didn't.<br />
For most of the policy objectors, the screening tool added insult to injury.<br />
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Bilisoly contacted New York Times reporter Paula Span, who writes a blog called "The New Old Age." Her article was published Feb. 9 with the headline: "Tables Reserved for the Healthiest."<br />
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Afterward, the objecting residents circulated another petition, asking management to reconsider: "Let us find a middle ground that will benefit our neighbors already affected and benefit our lives in the future."<br />
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Forty-one people signed it, including Jane Batten, widow of Frank Batten, the former chairman of Landmark Communications, predecessor to Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, which publishes The Virginian-Pilot.<br />
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By this time, another group of residents had become annoyed by the hubbub. They wrote a missive in January called "Residents response to concerns of dissident group," saying they supported the dining hall policy.<br />
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They said the controversy was costing Harbor's Edge money that could be better spent: "Unless curtailed, such conduct will ultimately shred the agreeable human fabric which, for these past five years, has contributed to our pleasant living herein."<br />
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Eight people signed that petition, including Arthur Diamonstein, a businessman and philanthropist, and resident Bobbi Andrews. "It seems to be a fair policy, and you have to have rules and regulations," Andrews said.<br />
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Volder said last week he is standing by the policy. He said only a small number of people are on either side of the controversy and that the majority of residents just want to live in peace:<br />
"They say, 'This is sad, because it doesn't portray the real atmosphere here.' "<br />
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P. Lee Starkey and his wife moved into Harbor's Edge shortly after it opened in August 2006.<br />
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Both still live in the independent wing and dine there. But Starkey, 86, answers the question of why he's concerned about the policy by listing his medical conditions: rheumatoid arthritis, pulmonary fibrosis, neuropathy in both legs, osteoporosis, irregular heartbeat.<br />
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He wants to continue to use the dining room should he move to a higher level of care. He said he and his wife love living there: "I would not want to leave, but I want to see a wrong righted."<br />
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The Rev. Jean Bozeman, a Lutheran minister who lives in the independent wing, said she thinks it should be determined on a case-by-case basis.<br />
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"If I had something wrong with me where it wasn't appropriate for me to be in the dining room," she said, "then I should be told not to come until the issue is resolved. But I should be able to come back. This does not make sense, because we are all one community and we have to find a way not to segment it."<br />
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<em>Elizabeth Simpson, 757-446-2635, elizabeth.simpson@pilotonline.com<a href="http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/norfolk-retirement-home-rules-irk-some-residents" target="_blank">http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/norfolk-retirement-home-rules-irk-some-residents</a></em></div>
</div>Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-26031875063827655342011-11-21T09:45:00.001-05:002011-11-21T09:48:38.275-05:00Out-of-State "Active Adult" Retirement Slowing Down<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
USA Today article:<br />
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<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2011-11-15/baby-boomers-mobility/51221910/1">http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2011-11-15/baby-boomers-mobility/51221910/1</a></div>Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-71720200746574314012011-11-06T18:31:00.002-05:002011-11-06T18:32:15.638-05:00Boomers spending beyond their means now dread retirement, if it exists<a href="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/nov/06/has-baby-boomer-generation-truly-seen-error-of/"></a>Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-88413172537254671412011-10-04T22:42:00.004-04:002011-10-04T22:48:09.993-04:00Not so happy in The Villages<span style="font-weight:bold;">Report from Leisureville: not very welcoming</span><br /><br />By George Erickson<br />Special to the Star-Banner<br />Sunday, October 2, 2011<br /><br />THE VILLAGES — When my wife and I sought relief from our northern winters, we checked out Phoenix and Tucson, but found them much too dry. Next came Florida, which primarily consists of swamps, jungles, strip malls and retirement communities, one of which is modestly called The Villages.<br /><br />"You have to see it," said a friend. "It's inland, far away from all those hurricanes! You'll have lots of flowers and great landscaping plus an endless choice of restaurants. There's a ton of excellent stores, not to mention a gaggle of golf courses, tennis courts, cultural activities and a wealth of affinity groups with varied interests."<br /><br />We sent for their cute cardboard "briefcase" and their captivating DVD that provided a tour of The Villages — and, surprise! — a cameo for George W. Bush. Hmmmm.<br /><br />Oh, well, we thought. That's just marketing. Little, as they say, did we know.<br /><br />We came. We bought. We furnished. We loved our house, our fruit trees and our big lot with no neighbors behind us.<br /><br />However, we soon learned that the local radio station was "fair and balanced" — just ask them — and the newspaper, which published cartoons of President Barack Obama drawn with bile, relentlessly featured the acid-etched comments of Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Oliver North, a convicted-but-pardoned felon who, along with Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich, know just how our country should be run.<br /><br />And then, because The Villages is an obligatory stop for neo-conservatives on cross-country trips, came the book signings at Barnes & Noble. We've had Mike Huckabee, Beck and Sarah Palin, and even George W. Bush, our self-described "warrior president," our lofty ex-decider-in-chief who told a Texas reporter during his first campaign, "If I'm elected president, I'm going to invade Iraq."<br /><br />So, in an attempt to learn why people would stand in line to praise someone who abetted torture, invaded a sovereign nation and violated the Geneva Convention, I wandered down to the signing to mingle with the crowd, many of whom had erected holiday yard signs proclaiming that "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" — not "my" reason or "a" reason, which would be understandable, but "the" reason. Take that, you nonfanatics. But despite all the flags and the chattering, smiling faces, I found only hostility. Wasn't Jesus the Prince of Peace? You know, the "Thou shalt not kill" guy?<br /><br />The Villages Daily Sun, which is the print version of Faux News, had wasted plenty of space on Bush's face-saving, semi-fiction book. So, for balance, I requested an article explaining how the same people who harassed President Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky affair would be eager to enrich a man whose fraudulent, trillion-dollar war has killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and displaced two million more at the cost of 5,000 dead American troops, 31,000 wounded and an epidemic of post-traumatic stress cases that have raised military suicides to record heights.<br /><br />That was months ago, and I'm still waiting.<br /><br />More recently, we learned of the impending visit of Fox News and also Christine O'Donnell, the nonwitch, probably to be followed by Ann Coulter, the genuine article, which is just too much.<br /><br />We have thrown in the towel. I'll miss the good folks who enliven the World Affairs Club and the Civil Discourse Club, which my free-thinking friend Mike Enright and I founded, but it will be a pleasure to return to Minnesota, a land of truly balanced reporting where scholarships come before warships and where our only real embarrassment is a first-rate religious fanatic named Michelle Bachmann.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">George Erickson is a retired dentist and former board member of the American Humanist Association who formerly resided in The Villages.</span>Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-84706178856800437302011-10-04T22:42:00.001-04:002011-10-04T22:42:18.224-04:00Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-4863696638742171162011-07-10T22:17:00.003-04:002011-07-10T22:18:26.913-04:00Interesting housing demographic updateHispanic families favor larger homes with more family members, which is contrary to current "active adult" housing trend, plus other interesting information and updates.Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-51039741293795470532011-06-01T21:50:00.002-04:002011-06-01T21:52:06.687-04:00Villages bans Democrats from "private meeting" with Republican Governor in Town Square... Members of The Villages Democratic Club were barred from the budget signing by Scott staffers who said the outdoor event in The Villages town square was “private.” Other staffers and Republican operatives scoured the crowd and had Sumter County sheriff’s deputies remove those with anti-Scott signs or liberal-looking pins and buttons. They escorted more than a dozen people off the property....<br /><br /><br />So much for pretending to be an authentic town....Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-30671148266345946382011-05-16T08:00:00.001-04:002011-05-16T08:01:07.577-04:00Advertising attention shifts to older Boomers (as predicted in Leisureville)Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-59450121310128917262011-04-10T16:58:00.001-04:002011-04-10T16:59:55.936-04:00Sunbelt communities running out of cemetery space -- no real desire to build moreTampa running out of cemetery space<br />By KEVIN WIATROWSKI | The Tampa Tribune<br /><br />For a century now, Italians have been burying their loved ones in a small cemetery on the city's east side. <br /><br />Headstones in the L'Unione Italia Cemetery bear many names that are still familiar: Ferlita, Greco, Montelione, Nuccio. <br /><br />Behind a tall black fence, the site is chock-a-block with granite stones and family crypts. An enormous mausoleum holds more than 500 recent burials, stacked six high. <br /><br />The cemetery has anchored Tampa's Italian community for generations, but it's unclear how much longer that can happen. The Italian cemetery, like many across Tampa, has run out of space. A handful of gravesites and mausoleum slots remain at L'Unione Italia, but they'll soon be gone, said Sam Manna, who oversees the cemetery for the Italian Club. <br /><br />Tampa isn't alone in running out of cemetery space. Across the country, cities as big as New York and as small as Orem, Utah, are looking for places to bury their dead. <br /><br />The city-owned graveyards in Tampa â Oaklawn, Woodlawn, Jackson Heights and Marti/Colon â have about 1,100 unused grave sites, all of them spoken for. The city hasn't sold a new gravesite since the 1980s, said Marsha Carter, who manages the cemeteries for the city's parks department. <br /><br />Another prominent cemetery, East Tampa's privately owned Memorial Park â ran out of new plots in 2006. Since then, it has stopped paying for itself, said owner John Robinson. <br /><br />As Tampa's cemeteries fill up, families must travel beyond the city limits to bury their loved ones. Even former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who had deep ties to Tampa, couldn't find a final resting space in the city. He's buried in a mausoleum in Pasco County, miles from the baseball stadium that bears his name. <br /><br />In the Tampa Bay region, decades of suburban growth have left many areas with no cemeteries at all. That's partly because cemeteries aren't part of community planning in Florida. They're treated either as for-profit businesses â often extensions of funeral homes â or as offshoots of nonprofit groups, such as churches. <br /><br />As a result, from Carrollwood to Keystone, northwest Hillsborough County has no burial spaces. They're also nonexistent in growing bedroom communities such as Wesley Chapel and Brandon. <br /><br />Even many retiree-oriented communities are without cemeteries, though that's not surprising to Ruth Steiner, a professor of planning at the University of Florida. <br /><br />"How do you tell someone they're moving to an active-adult community when you include something like a cemetery in the development?" she said. <br /><br />Cemeteries used to be as integral to a community's life as its churches and schools. But times are changing, and the Tampa Bay region's cemeteries seem at risk of becoming things of the past. <br /><br />Several factors are at work, experts say: <br /><br />•The Tampa Bay region is heavy with retirees and transplanted workers for whom "home" is another town in another state. Every year, about 9,000 people die in Hillsborough County, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates. But only a fraction of those people are buried here. <br /><br />•The cost of a modern burial can run into the five figures, making cremation a cheaper and more appealing option. More than 50 percent of the people who die in Florida each year are cremated, said Jim Ford, president of the Neptune Society, a company that specializes in cremations. <br /><br />•In bedroom communities, where the population favors young, out-of-state transplants, subdivision builders looking to wring profit from every acre are loathe to set aside land for anything but houses, said Avera Wynne, planning director for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. <br /><br />Also, many people don't want to live near a cemetery. <br /><br />"It's really about Not In My Back Yard," said Jennifer Doerfel, executive vice president of the Tampa Bay Building Association. "Nobody wants to look at a cemetery." <br /><br />Not to worry, say cemetery owners and funeral directors. The Tampa Bay region has burial spaces to spare, even if they're in far-flung places such as southwest Pasco and eastern Hillsborough counties. <br /><br />Given the trends reshaping the way we deal with death, the region's existing cemeteries have space for years to come, said Keenan Knopke, president of the Florida Cemetery, Crematory and Funeral Home Association, based in Pinellas County. <br /><br />With modern families spread across the country, it makes sense that people opt out of traditional burials, said Lori Collins, an archeologist who studies cemeteries at the University of South Florida. <br /><br />Collins points to her own family, which has roots in Upstate New York but is dispersed across 15 states. Her father is buried in the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, her mother in Land O' Lakes. <br /><br />"This idea of having a centralized place where people come may not be such an aspect of our society anymore," Collins said. <br /><br />That would be a shame, said Laurie Burgess, a cemetery expert with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. <br /><br />Cemeteries serve as their community's time capsules, literally casting history in stone. In Tampa, cemeteries hold the remains of the city's founders, prominent members of its Italian, black, Cuban and Jewish communities, slaves and victims of yellow fever and Spanish flu epidemics. <br /><br />As the Tampa Bay area loses touch with it cemeteries, it also risks losing touch with its history, Burgess said. <br /><br />"Cemeteries are very good at carrying messages into the future from the past," she said. <br /><br />Protecting that history isn't always simple, though. <br /><br />Memorial Park Cemetery owner Robinson said the East Tampa burial ground, where some of Tampa's most prominent black residents are buried, has become a financial burden after three generations in his family. <br /><br />Robinson couldn't convince the city to take over the site. He also hasn't stirred much interest among East Tampa residents to step in. So, when Robinson, 58, dies, the cemetery will become abandoned property. <br /><br />A few blocks to the south on 26th Street, Manna hopes to avoid a similar fate for the L'Unione Italia Cemetery. Community members have spent a decade reviving the once-neglected cemetery. <br /><br />The Italian Club wants to build a costly new mausoleum to extend the cemetery's life for future generations, himself included, Manna said. The group will likely borrow the money to do the work, because few people buy gravesites in advance any more, he said <br /><br />The alternative is walking away from the cemetery, and that's not an option, Manna said. <br /><br />"Having a place to come to visit your deceased loved ones helps keep a sense of family," Manna said. "I think that's begun to fracture."Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-51846542105646168152011-03-13T15:55:00.002-04:002011-03-13T15:55:47.419-04:00Andrew Blechman and Leisureville featured on the "Kunstlercast"Great listening. Enjoy!Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-74278377571308572432011-01-30T18:19:00.002-05:002011-01-30T18:20:58.845-05:00Not the sort of people you want to depend on for helping contribute to school taxesWashington Post, 01/26/2011<br />Leisure World residents balk at $1 fee<br />By Katherine Shaver<br /><br />Sixty percent of residents surveyed at Leisure World in Silver Spring want to change the “active adult” community’s name rather than pay a licensing fee to continue using it and the landmark steel globe, a community leader said Wednesday.<br /><br />The survey, which was circulated in December, came after Heidi Cortese, the daughter of Leisure World’s initial developer, proposed charging a $6,000 monthly fee because her California-based company, RRLH, holds the trademark to the name and globe design. Cortese lowered the fee to $1 annually for 30 years, saying she needed to charge something or risk losing her trademark protection.<br /><br />The Georgia Avenue community has used the Leisure World name and enormous steel globe at its entrance for 45 years.<br /><br />Leisure World’s 35-member board of directors will vote on the issue in March or April after the staff determines how much it would cost to change the name on signs, trucks, staff uniforms and the entrance, said board chairwoman Marian Altman. The community has already spent $35,000 in legal fees.<br /><br />Of the 2,895 residents who responded to the survey, 60 percent favored changing the name and 32 percent wanted to keep it, Altman said. Another 8 percent gave only comments. The 610-acre community has 8,500 residents age 55 and older.<br /><br />If the community changes its name, Altman said, it also would change the globe logo.Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-82599916795014528902011-01-23T15:19:00.001-05:002011-01-23T15:20:18.997-05:00On the House: A boomer boom goes bust<span style="font-weight:bold;">On the House: A boomer boom goes bust</span><br />By Al Heavens<br />Inquirer Real Estate Columnist<br /><br />A lot of home builders once assumed there would be a bottomless market of baby boomers for their over-55 communities.<br />You could see the dollar signs in their eyes every time they happened on one of the 79 million Americans born between 1945 and 1964.<br /><br />Demographers admonished them not to lump all boomers together, noting that a large segment hadn't gone to Ivy League schools or become corporate lawyers.<br /><br />Some, it turns out, actually worked for a living, or didn't, or lived from paycheck to paycheck, or saw their high-paying jobs outsourced to cheap labor markets and now were working at fast-food outlets.<br /><br />When buyers didn't materialize fast enough, developments were built that boomers could retire into while they were still working, communing with their demographic in four-unit clusters or at community recreation centers. Then came 2006: The housing bubble burst, the poor got poorer, and the rich became less so.<br /><br />Now, five years later, boomers are hanging on to their houses, either because they hope their lost equity will be recovered quickly or because buyers are scarce. That's what the 50+ Housing Council of the National Association of Home Builders and AARP found in separate surveys of baby boomers in late 2010.<br /><br />Another finding: The recession has made buyers more practical about choosing new homes. Design considerations have taken a backseat to financial concerns, which any student of the obvious figured out three years ago.<br /><br />Falling into the "no-kidding" category: Past surveys showed that selling a house facilitated the purchase of a new one. The most recent data indicate that option diminished during the economic downturn.<br /><br />In 2005 and '07, the Home Builders/MetLife Mature Market Survey reported, no active-adult buyers acknowledged having to tap cash or savings to buy a house, but in 2009, 45 percent of the typical buyer's down payment came from cash or savings.<br /><br />The data were drawn from the 2009 American Housing Survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.<br /><br />In a May Webinar, Margaret Wylde of the ProMatura Group of Oxford, Miss., who produced a number of the studies I've reported on over the years, said the number of boomers "very unlikely" to buy in active-adult developments had risen from 3 percent in 2004 to 31 percent.<br /><br />Tough crowd.<br /><br />Those able to buy are getting much more for less, the Home Builders/MetLife study said, with fewer than half reporting that their new houses cost more than their old ones.<br /><br />AARP's study reported that 88 percent of those 65 and older and 83.5 percent of baby boomers want to stay in their homes as long as they can.<br /><br />That means most boomers will stay where they are in the suburbs, AARP said: "Retirement communities are now being developed closer to metropolitan areas because many are still working and don't see retirement as withdrawing from society."<br /><br />There were some interesting insights on urban areas, as well, from AARP:<br /><br />Many central cities are experiencing a resurgence of urban living fueled not only by young adults but by empty-nesters.<br /><br />"Yuppie senior" populations emerged in places like Las Vegas, Denver, Dallas, and Atlanta.<br /><br />Slow-growing metropolitan areas in the Northeast and Midwest will age, too, but more likely will consist disproportionately of "mature seniors" who are less well off financially or medically. Those populations may require greater social support, along with affordable private and institutional housing, and accessible health-care providers.<br /><br />On the House:<br /><br />Inquirer real estate writer Alan J. Heavens is the author of "Remodeling on the Money" (Kaplan Publishing). His home improvement column appears Fridays in Home & Design.<br /><br />"On the House" appears Sundays. Contact Alan J. Heavens at 215-854-2472, aheavens@phillynews.com or Twitter: @alheavens.<br /> <br />---<br />Find this article at: <br />http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/al_heavens/20110123_On_the_House__A_boomer_boom_goes_bust.html<br /> <br />© Copyright | Philly Online, LLC. All Rights Reserved.Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-16731787776536090162011-01-08T17:43:00.000-05:002011-01-08T17:44:26.618-05:00Another good reader letterMr. Blechman,<br /> <br />Finally, someone has the stones to publish some truths about this place. Thank you. Everyone in my area, as well as, anyone who is currently employed by The Villages needs a copy of "Leisureville". <span style="font-style:italic;"> It's better than therapy</span>. I am a certified builder and have worked for these people for over 12 years. I have lived here locally for over 20 years and watched as the prestine beauty of the area that was fields of grandfather oaks and fox squirrels turn to cookie cutter houses and repeat shopping. Yes, I profited heavily in the housing boom, but I can tell you how homes were pushed to be built in 30 days start to finish and how county inspectors seemed to be "robo signing" inspection cards. This place has no bones or history like many other great places to live. It is surrounded by rampant poverty and high unemployment. It seems as if the Villagers are all bitter when you come into contact with them. Maybe they're pissed because they can't unload their home in Florida's falling house market, or they did everything and are bored. The locals hate the place and go to bed at night loathing that their local gov't is controlled completely by the developer. Roads crumble outside the borders while flower beds are replanted after every cold snap within. County tax revenues seem to be misappropriated. Recently, the local high school was consolidated with the middle school for lack of county funds - while the developer plans a new turnpike exchange and towncenter. When the developer needs an agenda pushed or funds raised, he leans on the subcontractors and business owners for "voluntary" donations. It gets old.....quick! <br /> <br />I agree with you. I think it's wasteful ideology to save your entire life only to live segregated by age and confine oneself to "retirement communities". The word "retirement" itself is a goal less thought of by my generation (X) and surely by the Y and Z gen. "Live now", we say. I recommend "4 Hour Work Week", by Tim Ferriss. This could very well sum up the mindset of the next generations and lead to the termination of phrases like "retirement communities".<br /> <br />If you plan a part two to "Leisureville", I would be more than helpful (free of charge) to fill in any blanks with my extensive experiences as an insider and as a local of 20 years. <br /> <br />Thanks again for a great read!<br /> <br />J.Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-91513286989192249062011-01-08T17:42:00.000-05:002011-01-08T17:43:03.430-05:00Interesting reader letterMr Blechman, After a recent trip down to Lady Lake Florida to pack up and move my 80 year old mother-in-law back to New England my wife and I made several unsettling observations of the area that we just couldn't quite figure out. After spending the day packing up her belongings and emptying out her mobile home we went to the Villages to spend the night in one of their hotels. The place was nice enough, but when we ventured out to eat and walk around we just couldn't keep from feeling we were in a giant theme park. We ended up eating one night at RJ Gator's and saw all these "seniors" streaming in these ridiculous outfits- both sexes easily dressed like they were 25 years younger then they were.We figured out that this must have been a stop on the "circuit" and asked our waitress about it. She laughed and said we should have seen the halloween party they had there- the outfits were "shocking", never mind the dancing. When we went back to the room I just had to find out what the Villages we supposed to be all about- We had been there before as my sister and brother-in-law moved there and it was Utopia to them. After just a little bit of digging on the internet I came across your book "Leisureville" and after reading a few pages online I had to get a copy. Being right across the street from a big Barnes and Noble at the Villages you probably won't be surprised to hear that your book was "unavailable". When we got home I bought your book and couldn't put it down. Everything was spot on- from that rag of a newspaper (that has to be seen to be believed) the piped in music, the phony downtowns, you name it. The most disturbing thing is most of the residents don't care- it's the greatest place on earth to them.You basically articulated our observations to a "T", the scary thing is learning how the place is run. We also have some friends that live in Bushnell and that place is a whole different world only 25 or so miles away. My mother-in-law is no fool and after being uprooted by my sister-in-law and told to move from West Palm Beach to Lady Lake she has finally had it. She has been in the area only 2 years and she has decided dealing in reality with the winters in New England (she is originally from Massachusetts) is better than living in a fantasy land in the Villages. Thanks for a great book, J and K, in NHAndrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-16630851610473334112011-01-07T18:48:00.000-05:002011-01-07T18:49:03.653-05:00Nice documentary looking for start-up donationsAndrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-1535571461144284612010-12-20T21:49:00.001-05:002010-12-20T21:49:43.515-05:00Age-Restricted developments = sprawl (Hartford Courant)Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-271095412793759782010-12-20T21:45:00.001-05:002010-12-20T21:47:22.438-05:00As predicted ... developers dropping age restrictions to keep sales alivectnow.com/business/hc-age-restricted-communities-20101211,0,1607482.story<br /><br /><br />Struggling 'Active Adult' Developments Drop Age Restrictions<br />By KENNETH R. GOSSELIN, kgosselin@courant.com<br />The Hartford Courant<br />December 13, 2010<br /><br /><br />In the 1990s, towns across Connecticut enthusiastically approved plans to build housing developments restricted to adults 55 and over, attracted by the idea of solid buyers who would pay their taxes and be active in civic affairs but not add children to school systems.<br /><br />For retirees, it was a chance to stay in the same towns where they had lived for years.<br /><br />The number of these "active adult" communities in the state mushroomed — now at 200, by one estimate, representing thousands of single-family houses and condominiums. It worked well for many: Developments flourished and sold out.<br /><br />But as the housing recession deepened, a growing number of the developments were left unfinished. Some developers have fallen into bankruptcy, others are struggling and looking for a way out.<br /><br />Now, they've found one.<br /><br />Following a trend that has unfolded in the past year elsewhere in the country, at least three partly completed "active adult" projects in Greater Hartford — two in Ellington and one in Tolland — have won local approval to drop the age restriction.<br /><br />In Tolland, Belvedere Ridge provides the most striking example of the slowdown: Envisioned as a community of 66 homes, just two have sold since 2006.<br /><br />Each of the three developers, including a bank that aims to sell the property to a new builder, are hoping the change will spur sales in a still-weak housing market.<br /><br />While the conversions are likely to ease financial pressures on developers, they have the potential to spark controversy because the homes were specially approved under the condition that they be only for people over 55. So far, there hasn't been any organized opposition to the change, but some people are raising concerns about what the conversions mean for the future of housing for a fast-growing segment of the population.<br /><br />Colin Milner, founder of the International Council on Active Aging, said a spate of conversions could reduce the backlog of housing for 55 and over — making it tougher for people that age to find housing in the future. It also could push up the prices buyers may have to pay, he said.<br /><br />"Will older adults have the adequate number of communities that they will need?" asked Milner, who has been consulted by the White House on issues involving aging. "It's still up in the air."<br /><br />A Jump Start?<br /><br />Among the three developments in Tolland and Ellington, 243 housing units — a mix of single-family houses and townhouses — were envisioned. So far, just 17 have been sold.<br /><br />There are early signs, however, that the conversions are likely to jump start stalled projects.<br /><br />At Windermere Village in Ellington, the developer, who broke ground in early 2008, went 18 months without a single offer. At most there might be three people a week coming to take peek at a development, where eight units have been sold out of 123 that were planned.<br /><br />"I felt like I was one of those stores in New York and people were just window shopping," said William H. Coons Jr., the project's developer.<br /><br />Since the age restriction was dropped, as of Sept. 1, two buyers — a couple in their 40s and one in their 20s with a young child — have placed deposits on single-family houses, Coons said.<br /><br />Coons and other developers say the nature of the developments, while now allowing children, won't change radically because the homes remain modest, typically under 2,500 square feet with 2 or 3 bedrooms and small yards.Nevertheless, the conversions are ruffling some neighbors who thought the developments would remain age-restricted.<br /><br />When Christine Lacas and her husband built a new home in Tolland in 2007, she was told the nearby Belvedere Ridge was 55 and over. She was relieved to know there would be no children because there was a wooded area on her property with a stream that she can't easily see from her house.<br /><br />"We were told this was age restricted and we expected it to remain that way," Lacas said. "I don't want my backyard to be a recreation area for kids in the upper part of that development."<br /><br />'Everything Just Stopped'<br /><br />When Estelle Williamson moved into Center Village in Ellington with her husband, John, three years ago, she was the second resident of the 55-and-older community. Then another single-family house went up and then another.<br /><br />"We thought, 'This place is really starting to build up,'" Williamson said. "Then, it stopped. Everything just stopped."<br /><br />The lawn of Williamson's Cape Cod-style house is well-maintained, and her home is decorated for the holidays with lights and festive globes of evergreen hanging in the front porch. But all around her are vacant fields.<br /><br />She fetches a three-ring binder from a closet and opens it on her dining room table. She points to a map showing the 49 houses and a couple of duplexes that were supposed to be constructed. So far, just five houses and a duplex have been sold.<br /><br />In 2009, Rockville Bank took over the property in a foreclosure from the original developer. The bank said opening the development to a larger segment of buyers made sense in a weak housing market. The bank says it is now in advanced negotiations with possible new owners and could reach an agreement early next year.<br /><br />Williamson, whose husband died earlier this year, said she and her neighbors didn't oppose the conversion. She says she raised a large family, and doesn't mind that there might be children in the development. What is more important, she said, is getting the development moving again.<br /><br />The roads in Center Village haven't been accepted by the town. The handful of homeowners have to share costs that should have been spread out among more property owners. Street lighting still needs to be installed.<br /><br />"It's very dark around here at night," Williamson said. "I would like to see it finished."<br /><br />Williamson, who paid $350,000 for her home in 2007, knows the house has lost value. A stalled development doesn't attract buyers and lenders are reluctant to finance purchases under such conditions.<br /><br />The New Normal<br /><br />The flow of buyers to 55 and over communities slowed to trickle in 2008, as home sales weakened dramatically and property values took a hit.<br /><br />"It is difficult to sell today, and therefore moves to retirement communities have slowed down," said Susan M. Wachter, professor of real estate and finance at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. "Potential retirees whose homes are 'underwater,' with mortgages greater than home values make it difficult to sell."<br /><br />Retirement savings also have been eroded in the financial services meltdown in recent years, forcing some to work longer than expected.<br /><br />"Staying in place is the new normal," Wachter said.<br /><br />Wachter said the move to convert to 55-and-over communities could gain momentum, especially if the recovery of the housing market is slow.<br /><br />Towns in Connecticut didn't quickly embrace the change. In Ellington, town zoning officials initially rebuffed efforts to drop the age restriction, preferring to let the market work itself out, according to town planner Rob Phillips.<br /><br />But as Center Village's developer fell into bankruptcy and owners there and in Windermere Village lined up to support the change, zoning officials softened their stance. The modest size of the homes, many of them with two bedrooms, are not conducive to raising large families — so the change wouldn't significantly alter what made the 55 and over restriction attractive to start with, Phillips said.<br /><br />In addition, at Windermere Village, the developer agreed to set aside 20 percent of the units for "workforce" housing to be priced at $250,000.<br /><br />Knocking on the Door<br /><br />Not everyone is willing to pull back from the 55 and over market, however.<br /><br />In Berlin, a developer backed by a group of private investors purchased the Beckley Farms development in August from Webster Bank, which had foreclosed on the project.<br /><br />The $50 million development is expected to have 156 units in all, including 54 townhouses, to be built in five phases. The project has 22 single-family houses that were built and sold before the previous developer ran into trouble. There also are eight houses that were up and sided, but not finished on the inside.<br /><br />Jeff Respler, the project's managing partner, said the new owners already have invested $500,000 in improvements. He said the community's feels like it is out in the country, but is still close to shopping and restaurants on the Berlin Turnpike.<br /><br />"We had people coming knocking on the front door of our sales office, asking for more information," Respler said. "There's definitely a market out there."<br /><br />But in Tolland, developer Lenard Thylan of New York-based Tomlen LLC said he is looking for a fresh start at Belvedere Ridge. The development also has a new name: Somerset Woods.<br /><br />Thylan said he believes that the "active adult" market has suffered from overbuilding — and that the niche of the age restriction just shut out too many potential buyers.<br /><br />"The change is very simple," Thylan said. "Real estate is predicated on market concerns. The market needed to be expanded. It made more sense, if we had the ability to sell to everyone."<br /><br /><br />Copyright © 2010, The Hartford CourantAndrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-53734814300700574922010-11-06T18:15:00.001-04:002010-11-06T18:17:27.710-04:00Billionaire's son charged with poaching in MontanaThe Villages' mysterious billionaire owner's son is charged with a felony....Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-60219524307416852232010-10-15T04:04:00.002-04:002010-10-15T04:07:14.945-04:00Letter from a reader; My responseDear Andrew:<br /> <br />I read your book, "Leisureville" twice, as we are considering moving there. There are a couple misconceptions that I would like to clear up. First of all, when I was your age, I also thought active retirement communities were ridiculous and my grown children actually remember me saying that. I am not against children. I do not mind having children around, and I would never consider moving if my children didn't relocate after they graduated from college and we are moving simply to live closer to them. If we move into a development, most of the families would be young and their conversations would be about PTA and such. I always had a problem with getting old, and although I love children (I was a teacher!), I feel older when I'm the oldest person in the neighborhood. In the Villages, or anywhere else for 55+ residents, I wouldn't feel so old, since I would be among my peers. Again, your book insinuated that we are moving away from our children. My son relocated from NJ to Florida, and our primary reason for moving is to be near him and after he's married, to be near our grandchildren. Since we have to move to be closer to him, it just makes sense to live someplace that has activities, so my husband doesn't watch TV all day. By being active, it keeps you young. Watching TV, or other inactive activity just makes you old much too quickly. Believe me, I have seen this with our parents.<br /> <br />I read your book because until recently, we didn't consider an active community, and Leisureville happens to be about the area we plan on moving to. My husband and I are very happily married for 34 years. Are the activities that go on in Katie Belle's really as bad as the book implies? I don't want to live in an atmosphere like that. Yet, my husband and I like to go out to dinner. We don't want to deal with people like Mr. Midnight. In general, is it like any other place, or is it a place for perverted old people?<br /> <br />Have you done any follow-ups to Leisureville? I'd definitely read them if you did.<br /> <br />Thank you for your time. <br /> <br />Sincerely,<br />X<br />(kept anonymous by me to protect privacy of reader)<br /><br />------<br /><br />My Response:<br /><br /><br />Dear X,<br /><br />My point in the book is that these communities are not "bad" per se, but rather that they are a symptom of a societal / generational breakdown. Lean times are ahead and I don't think segregation (voluntary or otherwise) is going to lend itself to cooperative sharing when the pie continues to shrink. Regardless, I suspect you'll rather enjoy life in The Villages. Most people there adore it. It is not a "perverted" place in any way, so there's nothing to fear in that way. And as judgmental as you sound about Mr. Midnight, he's actually a very decent guy, not some sort of ass-pincher. He's well liked and for good reason. <br /><br />Keep in mind that The Villages is extremely conservative Republican for the most part; not particularly intellectual; there is very little diversity -- conformity is the rule, not the exception; there are lots of rules; and one family "governs" the place and they don't like dissent. And while the place itself is a playground paradise for active seniors, it's surrounded by sprawl and rural Floridians with a very different culture. If none of that is a problem, then I suspect you'll like it there very much. It's huge and there's lots to do. People make friends very quickly. But you won't hear from those who don't like it -- they've already left. Also keep in mind that parents who move to be near their children in today's world are often disappointed because their children often move again for jobs when necessary. Like I said, I don't see these communities as "the problem"; merely a symptom.<br /><br />Best wishes,<br /><br />AndrewAndrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-35737072546435609692010-10-11T11:52:00.001-04:002010-10-11T11:52:58.114-04:00Another planned 55+ community evaporatesAndrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-23110514894153992222010-10-11T11:48:00.001-04:002010-10-11T11:49:51.907-04:00Reinventing our suburbs -- WSJLIFE & STYLEOCTOBER 9, 2010<br />How SoHo Can Save the Suburbs<br />Smart 'edge cities' are turning their shuttered malls and aging office parks into hip hotspots<br />By RICHARD FLORIDA<br /><br />In Lakewood, Colo., a long-shuttered mall is being rebuilt into a 22-block area with parks, bus lines, stores and 1,300 new households. Tysons Corner, Va., is undergoing a full transformation from an office park to a walkable, livable community. And officials in Ferndale, Mich., are promoting the arts scene and building affordable housing in an attempt to revitalize the small city outside Detroit. Remaking America's sprawling suburbs, with their enormous footprints, shoddy construction, hastily built infrastructure and dying malls, is shaping up to be the biggest urban revitalization challenge of modern times—far larger in scale, scope and cost than the revitalization of our inner cities.<br /><br />Just a couple of decades ago, the suburbs were the very image of the American Dream, with their sprawling, large-lot homes and expansive lawns. Suburban malls, industrial parks and office campuses accounted for a growing percentage of the nation's economic output. Planners talked about "edge cities"—satellite centers where people could live, work and shop without ever having to set foot in major cities.<br /><br />With millions of American homes now "underwater" or in foreclosure, the suburbs and exurbs have taken some of the most visible hits from the great recession. In a stunning reversal, big cities like Boston, Chicago and San Francisco have become talent magnets, drawing ambitious people, empty-nesters, young families and even a growing number of offices back to their downtown cores. As inner-city neighborhoods gentrify, blight and intransigent poverty are moving out to the suburbs. A Brookings Institution study released this week found that the number of poor people in the suburbs has grown by 37.4% since 2000, compared with 16.7% in cities.<br /><br />The suburbs that have continued to prosper during the downturn share many attributes with the best urban neighborhoods: walkability, vibrant street life, density and diversity. The clustering of people and firms is a basic engine of modern economic life. When interesting people encounter each other, they spark new ideas and accelerate the formation of new enterprises. Renewing the suburbs will require retrofitting them for these new ways of living and working.<br /><br />Even before the recession, our changing demography had begun to alter the texture of suburban life in favor of denser, more walkable mixed-use communities. The average age of marriage has been rising, households have gotten smaller, and home-buyers—surprising numbers of them single women—are looking for smaller houses closer in, with access to parks and cultural amenities.<br /><br />Though most suburbanites are happy with where they live, many are unhappy with how much time they have to spend in their cars. A 2002 study found that more than half of Americans would prefer to walk more and drive less. Commuting by car is time-consuming and expensive, and according to research by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman, it is also one of life's least enjoyable activities. Most suburbanites don't want to move to the city; they want the best aspects of city life to come to them.<br /><br />Walkable suburbs are some of America's best places to live, and they provide their sprawling, spread-out siblings with a model for renewal. Relatively dense commercial districts, with shops, restaurants and movie theaters, as well as a wide variety of housing types, have always been a feature of the older suburbs that grew up along the streetcar lines of big metro areas. A 2007 study by Christopher Leinberger found more than 150 walkable towns in America's 30 largest metro regions—places like Hoboken, Montclair and Princeton, N.J.; Stamford and Greenwich, Conn.; Brookline, Mass.; Bryn Mawr, Pa.; and Royal Oak and Birmingham, Mich. Newer versions of walkable suburbs can be found in regions that developed later, like Palo Alto, Calif.; Boulder, Colo.; Coral Gables, Fla.; Decatur, Ga.; and Clayton, Mo.<br /><br />These are the places where Americans are clamoring to live and where housing prices have held up even in the face of one of the greatest real-estate collapses in modern memory. More than that, as my colleague Charlotta Mellander and I found when we looked into the statistics, the U.S. metro areas with walkable suburbs have greater economic output and higher incomes, more highly educated people, and more high-tech industries, to say nothing of higher levels of happiness.<br /><br />Walk This Way<br /><br />The most successful walkable suburbs in the U.S., ranked by education levels, per capita income and travel time to work.<br /><br />1. Bethesda, Md.<br /><br />2. Princeton Township, N.J.<br /><br />3. Highland Park, Texas<br /><br />4. Evanston, Ill.<br /><br />5. Birmingham, Mich.<br /><br />6. Coral Gables, Fla.<br /><br />7. Winter Park, Fla.<br /><br />8. Menlo Park, Calif.<br /><br />9. Lake Forest, Ill.<br /><br />10. Kirkland, Wash.<br /><br />Sources: Martin Prosperity Institute, Christopher Leinberger, U.S. Census Bureau<br /><br />Of course, not all of America's suburbs have the option of developing compact cores along streetcar lines or transit, and not all are filled with wonderful old housing stock that is ripe for upgrading. Many are relatively characterless places, with spread-out working class populations living in cookie-cutter houses on large lots and commuting long distances to work. These suburbs have to rebuild from the bottom up.<br /><br />Languishing older malls are a good place to start. In Phoenix, three abandoned strip malls clustered around one corner have been converted into a restaurant, an upscale grocery, a chic bakery and a cocktail bar. It's called La Grande Orange, and it has become a huge attraction, for both customers and local home-buyers. National Harbor, a mix of hotels, residential units, marinas, parks, stores and indoor and outdoor entertainment venues, is being built on the footings of two previous failed projects in Prince George's County, Md. When completed, it will extend along a mile and a quarter of the Potomac. Outside Minneapolis, the parking lot that surrounded a dead shopping center built on landfill was turned back into wetlands—which in turn attracted new "lakefront" townhome development.<br /><br />Perhaps the biggest retrofit of all is happening in Tysons Corner, Va., the virtual archetype of an auto-dependent, sprawling edge city. Located near the junctions of three major highways, it boasts 25 million square feet of office space and four million square feet of retail space. Decades ago developers hailed it as the wave of the future—one of hundreds of new satellite centers that would render our old downtown commercial centers obsolete. But Tysons Corner has lately been losing out. Its perpetual traffic gridlock and its lack of human energy have caused home-buyers to choose other places. Some companies that were headquartered there have even moved back into the District of Columbia.<br /><br />Now developers and landowners are seeking to make it more walkable, with a more integrated mix of uses. In June, the county's Board of Supervisors adopted a comprehensive plan that would transform Tysons Corner into a "24-hour urban center where people live, work and play." Its hallmarks will be green construction, access to public transportation and abundant public amenities, like parks and bicycle trails—something that sounds very much like a real city.<br /><br />There are countless other opportunities for reclamation, all across America, as Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson document in their 2008 book, "Retrofitting Suburbia." Under-used golf courses can be transformed into parks and nature sanctuaries; abandoned car dealerships can be landscaped and developed as new, mixed-use neighborhoods. Developers can cut streets through formerly walled-off corporate campuses and add restaurants, stores and public spaces.<br /><br />Historically, America's economic growth has hinged on its ability to create new development patterns—economic landscapes that simultaneously expand space and intensify our use of it. The rebound after the panic and long depression of 1873 was based on the transition to an urban-industrial economy organized around great cities and their early streetcar suburbs. Our recovery from the Great Depression saw the rise of massive metropolitan complexes of cities and suburbs. Today the challenge is to remake our suburbs, to turn them into more vibrant, livable, people-friendly communities and, in doing so, to make them engines of innovation and productivity.<br /><br />—Richard Florida is director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and the author of "The Rise of the Creative Class" and "The Great Reset."<br />Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights ReservedAndrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-34902113557192045512010-09-06T05:46:00.001-04:002010-09-06T05:47:43.327-04:00The American Spectator takes on age-segregation<span style="font-weight:bold;">The American Spectator<br /></span><span style="font-style:italic;">THE NATION'S PULSE:</span> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Active Adult Communities and the 'Grace of Chaos'</span><br />By James M. Thunder<br /><br />On August 10, Colin Mason of the Population Research Institute wrote the essay "Are Children the Enemy of Productivity?" He quoted Frank Cottrell Boyce's article in the Guardian:<br /><br />There's a belief that to do great work you need tranquility and control, that the pram is cluttering up the hallway; life needs to be neat and tidy. This isn't the case. Tranquility and control provide the best conditions for completing the work you imagined. But surely the real trick is to produce the work that you never imagined. The great creative moments in our history are almost all stories of distraction and daydreaming -- Archimedes in the bath, Einstein dreaming of riding a sunbeam -- of alert minds open to the grace of chaos.<br /><br />Mason agrees with Boyce that children do not distract us from productivity, but he added that he believes they actually enhance our productivity and enhance our lives generally. Children, he writes, "remind us that the greatest insights in the world were discovered not while ponderously meditating, but while delighting in the simple pleasures and pains of life."<br /><br />Boyce's and Mason's words reminded me of when I was 42. My wife and I and our daughters, ages 16 to 5, moved to a suburb outside Milwaukee. Our next-door neighbors were a retired veterinarian, Dr. Frank Gentile, and his wife, Irene, both about 80. As it turned out, they knew my sister and her family who lived in the next suburb.<br /><br />We moved away a few years later. And Frank and Irene moved into an assisted living home and passed on.<br /><br />But my family does not forget them. I have memories of snowblowing their driveway and sidewalk and watching election returns with them. My daughters recall with great fondness their invitations to eat cookies with them after school in their kitchen. One of my daughters and I and Frank sang in the same church choir.<br /><br />During these same years, we became family to my sister's widowed father-in-law, Jack Schlosser, who was in his 80s and lived nearby. He came to many events of both my sister's family and my family. And one of his grandchildren lived behind us.<br /><br />In this past year, I've known a couple of people who have moved into active adult communities. Active adult communities are planned, often gated, residential areas for people ages 55 and up, without children under the age of 18. Our three elderly friends outside Milwaukee could have moved to one of them. If they had, all three of our generations (elderly, middle-aged and children) would have been deprived of fruitful, loving relationships.<br /><br />The number of active adult communities continues to grow in our country. Why?<br /><br />Residents are repelled by certain aspects of urban or suburban life: the noises of children and of teenagers, crime, and high property taxes that supported schools. And they are attracted by amenities -- bike and walking paths, golf courses, clubhouses, swimming pools, tennis courts, a full plate of indoor recreational activities. While these same amenities are typically available in urban and suburban communities, active adult communities provide them together and close at hand.<br /><br />I submit that active adult communities are inimical to a rich human life. While still active, while still mobile, while still employed, the residents have purposefully disengaged from their elders, from teenagers, from children -- except on the specific dates and time and places they select. On the spectrum of what should be regarded as examples of faith-based land use planning and what should not, active adult communities fall on the extreme of "not."<br /><br />When I was in college, I would return home of course. In church, it would feel quite odd to be among young children, teenagers, middle-aged people and the elderly. At first I was happy to return to campus and be with my same-age peers. Later, it was the campus rather than the church that seemed odd. I started calling college campuses "youth reservations." But at least college campuses have redeeming value. They are devoted to the development of the intellect and the transmission of knowledge. They are populated by people intending to remain no more than four years and then go out and change the world. Residents of active adult communities, on the other hand, could remain 20-plus years, and to what good purpose are they devoted?<br /><br />There may be value in being a "gun-free" or "tobacco-free" or "drug-free" zone, but where is the value in having grown-ups post "child-free" signs? Where is the value in having them post signs declaring "under-age-55-free zones"?<br /><br />I submit that the groomed and tranquil landscapes of active adult communities are a blight on our larger communities and our nation.<br /><br />In utter contrast to this blight is the recent development of one-room portable modules that house elderly persons. They will be placed temporarily on the lot of a caregiver's permanent home. The Commonwealth of Virginia recently passed legislation allowing such siting to supersede local zoning laws. The juxtaposition of permanent and temporary housing structures may not be aesthetically pleasing but, in similar fashion, school districts around the country have sited temporary classrooms next to school buildings for the sake our schoolchildren. Hopefully, these modules for the care of our frail elderly will blossom across the landscape. Virginians have welcomed "the grace of chaos."<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">James M. Thunder is a Washington, D.C. lawyer who has spoken and published on what he calls "faith-based land use planning."</span>Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-34332248563294641322010-09-05T16:17:00.001-04:002010-09-05T16:18:36.780-04:00The Villages' big IRS problem (pt. 2)IRS-Villages dispute shows no sign of resolution<br /><br />Lauren Ritchie<br />COMMENTARY<br />September 1, 2010<br />Second of two parts.<br />OrlandoSentinel.com<br /><br /><br />In May, the Internal Revenue Service agent conducting the review of $355.4 million in outstanding bonds issued by the Village Center and the Sumter Landing community development districts suggested a settlement in the ongoing war between the two.<br /><br />The district should redeem all its bonds and repay the debt. It should pony up $16 million in back taxes on the bonds and should agree never to issue tax-free bonds again.<br /><br />The settlement suggested by the agent wasn't received with dancing in the streets. Though there is no written rejection in the files at the district office, the answer that filtered back to the IRS was quite clear.<br /><br />And it touched off a new set of skirmishes in what has become an expensive battle — already $209,000 spent in mostly lawyer fees — that I described in Sunday's column.<br /><br />IRS Agent Dominick Servadio responded to the district's disdain for his idea in July by officially opening new investigations on another $60 million worth of bonds issued by the Sumter Landing Community Development District.<br /><br />Complaints about agent <br /><br />The district retaliated by calling Servadio's boss and complaining.<br /><br />On July 20, he fired back in a letter: "All of the complaints/issues you have raised are totally without merit, and I would only hope that in the future you would have the courtesy to direct any similar comments or complaints to me instead of going behind my back.<br /><br />"I can only assume that the intent of these recent phone calls is to distract attention away from the examination issues, or possibly to indirectly intimidate me or impede me in the performance of my officials duties.<br /><br />"I can assure you that you will accomplish none of those things."<br /><br />He stated that "everyone's best interest" would be served if the district honored his request to deal directly with him and quit calling his bosses.<br /><br />The district's next move was to file a Freedom of Information Act demand, wanting to know with what third parties (especially the evil media) Servadio had discussed the case. That's because the district seemed convinced from the beginning that this is all about a conspiratorial smear campaign by Villages haters or else a career-building maneuver by the agent. (That's standard response to criticism in The Villages. Anyone who questions the financial structure is either jealous or has a secret agenda to destroy the happiness of 80,000 lucky people. It couldn't be anything else.)<br /><br />The IRS just laughed and said no. It wasn't releasing any documents from an ongoing review to determine whether nearly a half billion dollars in bonds should be considered tax-free.<br /><br />Outcome of dispute unclear <br /><br />Since then, Servadio has been promoted. A field agent in Charlotte, N.C., was assigned the case, and in March she asked for hundreds of pages of information about how the districts function and what they own.<br /><br />The agent wants evidence of the written consent for establishing the districts from all the landowners whose property is included in the district, a legal description of the external boundaries of the district and a land-use plan showing what is intended for the property in the future.<br /><br />Meanwhile, an IRS appraiser from Palm Beach County came tocalculate the value of what the district bought from the developer with the bond money. Part of the dispute involves the IRS contention is that the developer made as much as 700 percent profit, which Servadio said would never have happened if the developer hadn't controlled the district.<br /><br />So, there you have it. Nobody's position has changed much, and the dispute is just humming along through the system.<br /><br />Millions of dollars are still at stake, and the future for homeowners in The Villages is no more clear when this investigation started several years ago.<br /><br /><br />Copyright © 2010, Orlando SentinelAndrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-59236865822369860422010-09-05T16:15:00.000-04:002010-09-05T16:16:44.190-04:00Update on The Villages big IRS problems (pt. 1)IRS relentless in probe of Villages bond transactions<br /><br />Lauren Ritchie<br />COMMENTARY<br />August 29, 2010<br />First of two parts.<br />OrlandoSentinel.com<br /><br /><br />A year has passed since the Internal Revenue Service suggested that The Villages retirement community redeem more than $344 million in bonds the IRS says were improperly issued as tax-free.<br /><br />The agency wanted $16 million in back taxes and a promise by community development districts never again to masquerade as a legitimate government.<br /><br />The Villages thumbed its proverbial nose at such a notion, and then it was on.<br /><br />What's happened in the interim may be entertaining for those of us watching from the outside but probably isn't amusing for 80,000 residents of the community that sprawls over Lake, Sumter and Marion counties.<br /><br />It's got to be unsettling and frightening to wonder what's in store. Not to mention expensive. The district already has spent more than $209,000 of residents' money so far, nearly all on high-powered lawyers on both coasts.<br /><br />Here's a refresher on the situation:<br /><br />As The Villages was built, its developer Gary Morse created a form of government called community development districts, the same type scrutinized in this column last week.<br /><br />Some 294 of these Florida districts have issued bonds, and 42 percent of them are in trouble. Either the districts cannot collect enough assessments to pay for the bonds or the reserve accounts have been raided to make the payments, or the developers behind the communities have gone bankrupt, leaving unsold lots and unpaid assessments.<br /><br />Villagers can take a deep breath on those fronts. Morse and his family are extremely well capitalized — fabulously wealthy is probably a better description — and because homes in The Villages continue to sell, default on the bonds is an extremely remote possibility.<br /><br />'Blue-sky' transactions <br /><br />In the Villages, two main community development districts have sold bonds to buy the infrastructure and recreational facilities — things like lights, roads, sewer and water plants, clubhouses, golf courses, gatehouses and more — from the developer.<br /><br />That's the way it worked, too, in the other Florida districts that have issued bonds. However, The Villages bond deals differ in two key ways — and that has brought them a load of continuing trouble from the IRS, which contends that the developer perverted law to make himself rich at the expense of retirees who buy homes there.<br /><br />First, the seats on the district governing boards in other developments typically are turned over to the residents as buyers purchase lots and move in. Not so in The Villages, where the districts selling the bonds in question are controlled by the developer and deliberately are set up so he can keep them out of the hands of residents for as long as he wants.<br /><br />Second, these districts — remember that they're controlled by the developer — are using part of the bond money to buy "blue sky" from the developer. In this case, it is simply the right to collect assessment fees from residents. The developer gets all the fees in his bank account now instead of having to wait for them to dribble in over 30 years. Lucky residents get to repay the bond through fees — with interest — for 30 years to come.<br /><br />What a beautifully magnificent source of unfettered, risk-free cash for the developer. The other districts in Florida buy things they can touch, such as water plants. "Blue-sky" transactions haven't been included in their bond deals.<br /><br />Community development districts that buy infrastructure from developers are a rip-off to the consumer, never mind The Villages' "blue sky" purchases, which are just a secondary piece of legal thievery.<br /><br />In subdivisions without districts that issue bonds, buyers pay for the infrastructure in the price of the house. In those with districts, they do, too. But in addition, they pay a second time for that infrastructure — with interest — as they pay off the bonds, which often add an extra $20,000 to the price of a house.<br /><br />Three-year probe <br /><br />All of this caused the IRS to start looking into the district's bonds three years ago and asking questions about who the district really is and who it benefits. It came to the conclusion that a developer-controlled district benefits only the developer and should not be viewed as a real government with the privilege of the ability to sell tax-free bonds.<br /><br />The district has contended that it is, indeed, a legitimate government under Florida law and as such, should be recognized as such by the IRS.<br /><br />Oh, my. What a mess.<br /><br />Now that you are up to speed on the background, we'll take a look Wednesday at the latest moves on both sides and what they might mean for the average homeowner.<br /><br />Copyright © 2010, Orlando SentinelAndrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708833831663000550.post-31201252995574686612010-09-03T04:34:00.003-04:002010-09-03T08:17:05.694-04:00Kids as Contraband -- Sun City Leads the Way!Article in the NYTs that discusses the phenomenon investigated in Leisureville -- special enforcement details designed to hunt down families and kick them out of age-segregated communities.<br /><br />_________<br /><br />August 28, 2010<br />Retirement Haven Hunts Youthful Violators<br />By MARC LACEY<br /><br />SUN CITY, Ariz. — From behind the wheel of his minivan, Bill Szentmiklosi scours the streets of Sun City in search of zoning violations like unkempt yards and illegal storage sheds. Mostly, though, he is on the lookout for that most egregious of all infractions: children.<br /><br />With a clipboard of alleged violations to investigate, he peers over fences and ambles into backyards of one of America’s pioneer retirement communities, a haven set aside exclusively for adults, where children are allowed to visit but not live.<br /><br />Mr. Szentmiklosi, 60, a retired police officer who settled here four years ago, has remade himself as the chief of Sun City’s age police, the unit charged with ensuring that this age-restricted community of sexagenarians, septuagenarians and even older people does not become a refuge for the pacifier-sucking, ball-playing or pimple-faced.<br /><br />One recent morning, as he slowly wheeled between ranch homes and palm trees, Mr. Szentmiklosi kept a sharp eye on the driveways and yards, surveying for any obvious signs of youth. It could be a stray ball, a misplaced pint-size flip-flop. In sniffing out children, he said, he relies on his three decades as an officer.<br /><br />But it is when he strides up to a home, dressed in shorts, sandals and a polo shirt, and knocks on the door that his detective work really begins. He tells the suspected violator that a neighbor has complained and he asks gentle questions to get to the bottom of things, all the while peering around for signs of youthful activity. His work is helped by a simple reality: children are hard to hide.<br /><br />They leave tracks and make unique sounds. Newborns bellow, toddlers shriek and teenagers play music that is not typical around Sun City.<br /><br />Mr. Szentmiklosi and his fellow child-hunters have their work cut out for them. The number of age violations in Sun City, a town of more than 40,000 residents outside Phoenix, has been rising markedly over the years, from 33 in 2007 to 121 in 2008 to 331 last year, a reflection of a trend at many of the hundreds of age-restricted communities nationwide.<br /><br />This year’s figures are expected to be even higher, said Mr. Szentmiklosi, who knows that despite his patrols Sun City is probably harboring more children that have not yet been detected. The economic crisis is aggravating the problem, he said, forcing families to take desperate measures to cut costs, even if it means surreptitiously moving into Grandma and Grandpa’s retirement bungalow.<br /><br />The vigorous search for violators of Sun City’s age rules is about more than keeping loud, boisterous, graffiti-scrawling rug rats from spoiling residents’ golden years, although that is part of it. If Sun City does not police its population, it could lose its special status and be forced to open the floodgates to those years away from their first gray hair.<br /><br />The end result would be the introduction of schools to Sun City, then higher taxes and, finally, an end to the Sun City that has drawn retirees here for the last half-century.<br /><br />At 50, Sun City is not old by the standards of Sun City, where the average resident is in his or her early 70s.<br /><br />To remain a restricted retirement community, at least 80 percent of Sun City’s housing units must have at least one occupant who is 55 or older, allowing for younger spouses or adult children. But the rules are clear on one thing: no one, absolutely no one, who is a teenager, an adolescent, a toddler, a newborn, any form of child, may call Sun City home.<br /><br />“Visits are O.K. as long as they’re limited,” said Mr. Szentmiklosi, who describes himself as a doting grandfather and insists that he does not have an anti-child bone in his body. “You can have children visit for 90 days per year. That means if you have 10 grandchildren, each one can visit, but they can only stay nine days each.”<br /><br />Mr. Szentmiklosi, the compliance manager for the Sun City Homeowners Association, said that although the city was scrupulous, it remained compassionate. For instance, it allowed a young woman with an infant who was renting a home without the association’s knowledge a year to move out.<br /><br />But the association also plays hardball, issuing fines and threatening legal action to pressure youthful violators to leave. One reason Sun City is so vigorous is because of what happened on the other side of 111th Avenue, one of the main roads traversing the neighborhood.<br /><br />Although Del Webb, who developed Sun City in 1960, gets credit for inventing the idea of a community of active retirees, the concept actually started years before on an adjacent tract in what was called Youngtown. But the developers there were not diligent in drawing up their legal paperwork. A challenge by the family of a teenage boy led the state to strip Youngtown of its age restrictions in 1998.<br /><br />So on one side of the road, little people can be seen running around. On the other side, many people remember the Great Depression, and not from reading about it in a book.<br /><br />“It was so much quieter before,” said Librado Martinez, 80, a retired machine operator who lives on the Youngtown side of the line and has to put up with children playing ball in the park in front of his house. “You heard no screams before.”<br /><br />That peace is what Sun City residents want to keep. They rose up last month to block a charter school, which is not governed by the same rules as other public schools, from moving in.<br /><br />“They were concerned about children roaming the streets and terrorizing things,” said Marsha Mandurraga, who works for the school’s founder.<br /><br />To prevent future incursions, Sun City’s leaders are using their clout to urge state legislators to change the law to keep Sun City school-free.<br /><br />“I’ve raised kids,” said Chris Merlav, 61, breathing through an oxygen tank and resting on the side of a Sun City pool designed for walking, not swimming. “After a while you get to the point where you don’t want to be bothered anymore.”<br /><br />Mr. Merlav, who moved here from Rochester, had evidence at hand that he was not anti-child. His 20-year-old stepdaughter, Danielle Anastasia, was lounging in the pool with him. She understood the desire of Sun City residents to be with people their own age. “It’s like me hanging with my college friends,” she said.<br /><br />Some of Sun City’s more hard-line anti-child activists can sound as though they somehow bypassed youth completely.<br /><br />“There are people here who have never had children, don’t care for children and don’t particularly want children around,” said Jan Ek, who runs Sun City’s seven recreation centers, eight golf courses, two bowling centers and assorted other entertainment venues, some of which sometimes open up for child visitors.<br /><br />At Sun City’s museum, the resident historian, Bill Pearson, 62, played a videotape used to lure retirees to the development in the 1960s.<br /><br />The narrator said then what many residents still say now: “Of course we love them and enjoy their visits, but you deserve a little rest after raising your own.”Andrew D. Blechmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06827975657783915243noreply@blogger.com0