Some Good Points Get Buried Under the Author's Bias
Customer Rating: 
Andrew Blechman is of the opinion that those who live in The Villages and other retirement communities are a bunch of selfish, exclusionary, societal drop-outs. He gets upset when his retired neighbors opt out of life in his northern town, which he specifically selected for its charming diversity so that his kids would grow up in a multi-culti paradise, and move to The Villages in Florida. So he decides to go check it out for himself. What he finds there appalls him: promiscuous seniors! drinking binges! lesbian softball players who fail to recognize his liberal credentials and own up to their true selves for the sake of an interview in his book! and an endless parade of golf carts!
But worst of all: these people don't want to live among families with children. They want to live in age-restricted communities, far away from screaming toddlers and self-involved teens on skateboards. And for this he deems them exclusionary, possibly bigoted, and definitely not doing their fair share.
Well, I'm not a retiree, but my parents are, and they plan on selling their house and moving to The Villages just as quickly as they can. And I support them in their decision. They've worked hard all their lives and if it makes them happy to live there, I'm happy for them. And if they are safer, I'll be even happier.
Because, in truth, Mr. Blechman, the way too many kids behave these days, I don't want to live with them either. And I don't blame our seniors for wanting to live in communities where they don't have to worry about being run down by some kid in heelies. Because if some boy skates into my mother and they both fall down, he gets up and gets on with his life. But my mother could easily wind up with broken hip.
We live in a time when kids do not get the attention and loving discipline from their parents that we got from ours. As a result, our communities are becoming less civilized with each generation. No small wonder people want to move to enclaves filled with like-minded people. Mr. Blechman should take a long hard look at the world outside retirement communities and ask himself just how solicitous it is of the needs and concerns of seniors before he condemns them for wanting their own communities.
That said, Leisureville does have its better points. Mr. Blechman provides a fascinating look at the history and development of retirement communities, starting with Sun City and Youngtown in the '60s and '70s and moving up to The Villages in Florida. His chapter on a peculiarity of Florida law that give the developers of communities almost total control over those communities is very insightful and merits careful reading. His description of The Villages' virtual takeover of Sumter County government, if accurate, is downright frightening. I've been to Sumter County and it's a lovely, bucolic county, quiet and very rural. The Villages are taking over the northern half of the county, and the consequences for longtime residents seem to be political disenfranchisement and the wholesale destruction of their way of life. These chapters alone make the book a worthy endeavor.
So if you can get past the author's sneering bias, the tales of Mr. Midnight and his loveless sex life, and the careening golf carts, you'll find an informative book about a kind of community that your parents, or you, might be moving to one day. It's worth a look.
A Must for Anyone Interested in Local Government
Customer Rating: Blechman raises three issues that are of paramount importance, all of which make it worthwhile reading for anyone -- especially in the Northeast -- who is grappling with generational issues in local government; it should also be of interest to those who are concerned about the long-term physical and resource impact of age-restrictd communities.
First, if we do value our seniors, why aren't we doing more on a local level to encourage them to stay in integrated communities? The cost of public education, health and other benefits, and an aging infrastructure are clobbering the tax base, but we may need to find the extra money in strained municipal budget to better support programs that make life in the communities in which they've lived for decades easier and more rewarding for them. That said, seniors have hardly helped their cause -- it is tiresome to hear well-heeled retirees complain that they shouldn't shoulder some of the burden for the exact same municipal services that previous generations willingly provided them when they were raising children.
Second, what is going to happen to The Villages and Sun City as they decay? These are not particularly well-constructed or sustainable communities. If the people who live there do not invest in their future -- by repairing infrastructure and building a strong team of municipal employees -- the housing stock and streets will eventually decline. These seniors are fleeing that very problem, but it will follow them if they live long enough. Local communities may yet wind up paying for these developments.
Third, Florida and especially Arizona are already in serious trouble with water usage. These seniors may not be around when water shortages become a fact of daily life, but their children will be.
