OurColony.net

Customer Rating:
Summary: Leasureville
Comment: The author of this book missed a golden opportunity to create a viable work about the vast changes
happening to the baby boomer population just now beginning retirement. Instead, he chose to
concentrate on such silly things as how "age restricted" developments are, in his sad little mind, a
"vast discriminatory action". Obviously he is upset because he is too young to move to the
Villages. He also has an ax to grind with anyone who became very rich by hard work, and/or is a
Republican. He claims he prefers his broken down hometown with derelicts living above stores,
crumbling infrastructure, and smelly dumpsters to the beautiful, clean, well managed towns available
to the residents of The Villages. The fact that he openly admits to driving a car that left a
puddle of oil everywhere he went in The Villages, and that he didn't care about it is a sign of his
lack of character. He spent a very small amount of time actually at The Villages, and didn't even
interview some of the people he chose to demonize. This is just another sign of his lack of
character. I also have a problem with his assumption that any woman who plays softball must be a
lesbian.

Anyway, being a resident of The Villages maybe I am a bit protective of our
wonderful life here. I do think the author was able to accurately portray our daily life, and the
love we all have for this place. He is correct when he says all we do is play all day and drive
around in golf carts. We worked all of our lives, scrimped and saved to be able to earn enough
money so that we can live like this. Maybe he will understand when he grows up, but with his major
character flaws I doubt it.

Customer Rating:
Summary: I LOVED this book - Dennis Nagy (Author Dating 9-11)
Comment: I am seriously thinking about retirement in the villages, this book was THE BEST ! If you are
thinking of retiring to ANY adult (over-55) community, this book is a great primer. It talks about
the social atmosphere, the politics, the government and the finances. It's NEVER boring and always
insightful. I DID disagree with the authors conclusion, but thats probably because I am at least a
generation and a half older and I can appreciate the laid back aspects of the other retirees that he
profiled in the book. This was worth every penny and I couldn't put it down...now I am lending it
to many of my friends.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Leisureville
Comment: A very interesting and thorough job of investigative reporting by an up and coming author. It will
be interesting to look 35 years in the future and see if the author spurns retirement community
living that he so vermently opposes at this juncture in his life. He takes seniors to task for
dropping out to a childless environment. I'm retired and work part time in The Villages as a
Facility Supervisor at one of their recreation centers. I chose another 55+ retirement community to
reside in for various reasons I won't go into for purpose of this review. Be that as it may,
children are far from absent from this environment. Family pools abound with the little rug rats
year round. The Villages sponsors an 8 week program for grandchildren in the summer that is called
Camp Villages that provides a mariade of activities for kids.

While not a perfect
community, The Villages, of 64,000+ residents spread over 3 counties and some 40+ square miles
provides a unique lifestyle not found anywhere else in the United States.

Well worth
the read for the millions of baby boomers considering their retirement plans and what retirement
communities have to offer.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Leisurevilles - Not for Everyone
Comment: Many Baby Boomers, as we draw closer and closer to the magic number that will allow, or maybe
require, us to retire from full-time employment, find ourselves at least a little bit tempted to
move into one of the hundreds of age-restricted communities that are popping up all over the
country. After all, we reason, we have spent a lifetime paying taxes (including school district
taxes for decades after the graduation of our last child), commuting to and from work, and
tolerating the unruly behavior and noise of all those kids who live next door and down the street.
Don't we deserve to live our last couple of decades in peace and quiet, among people who share our
interests and concerns, and away from the noise and clutter of those not as far into life's journey
as we are?

Andrew Blechman became intrigued by the concept of age-restricted
communities when two of his neighbors moved from their longtime home in New England to The Villages,
a Florida community designed for people wanting to immerse themselves in a lifestyle of leisure
activities and relative isolation from the rest of the world. Blechman became so curious, in fact,
that he moved in with his old neighbors for a few weeks to live that lifestyle for himself.
Leisureville: Adventures in America's Retirement Utopias is largely the product of what he learned
from the time he spent there.

Anyone considering residence in a community similar to
The Villages would be wise to read Blechman's book because of his firsthand reporting of what it is
like to live in a place almost completely dedicated to boiling life's experiences down to a few
simple pleasures. Golfers and those into arts and crafts seem to love the place, as do those who
want to cram in as much drinking and sex into the remainder of their lives as possible. But you have
other interests, you say? Well, then in all likelihood you will want to avoid the lifestyle offered
by The Villages and other communities like it and opt for a more traditional retirement location.


Do you resent being pandered to or brainwashed? If so, you will probably find the
community-controlled newspaper, radio and television outlets that pretend that nothing bad ever
happens in places like The Villages to be more than a little ludicrous. Even the "reporters" who are
supposedly paid to function as news gatherers eventually come to resent all of the censorship
necessary to keep smiles on the faces of community residents.

But more importantly,
Blechman points out the important social issues that need to be considered before committing to life
in any of America's "Leisurevilles." Is it right for retirees to yank their support from the
communities whose services they have enjoyed for a lifetime? Are they abandoning their generational
obligations by deciding not to serve as readily accessible role models to their children,
grandchildren and great-grandchildren? Now that they have the luxury of so much free time should
they be using some of it to better their communities by working for social or structural changes
from there?

Those are just a few of the questions that Blechman asks in his book.
There are good arguments to be made on both sides of the issue as to whether or not age-restricted
settings like The Villages are a good thing or a bad thing. For some people, these communities offer
exactly the lifestyle most suited to their retirement years. For others the very thought of moving
into such a community is mind numbing, at best, and horrifying, at worst.

Leisureville
moved me one giant step closer to deciding what kind of retirement setting will be best for me and
my wife. But I also came away from the book with the understanding that, although age-segregated,
gated communities have no appeal to us, they will appeal to many others - and are absolutely perfect
for some.

Personally, I am certain that we would be bored in a community where golf,
alcohol and casual sex are such prominent parts of the lifestyle that everything else seems
secondary. For us it is more important to remain close to family and to enjoy the benefits of living
in a diverse community with so much more to offer than golf courses, bars and community centers. I
sincerely believe that aging is as much mental as it is physical, and that the mental part is much
easier to govern while surrounded by family, a diverse group of fellow citizens and neighbors,
museums, university access, and live sports and entertainment choices.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting but a bit too biased
Comment: I have lived in The Villages for over 5 years and I'm a Social Psychologist (PhD) and physician
(MD). After reading a review of Blechman's book in the Boston Globe and seeing an editorial by him
in the Los Angeles Times, I was prepared not to like his book and to write a scathing review. />
After reading Leisureville, and personally knowing some of the people he interviewed, I
find my opinion of his work to be somewhat mixed. There is much about his book that is well done.
And there is much that is poorly done from the standpoint of even handed social science.
/>Blechman never claims to be a sociologist or psychologist or anything other than an author with a
firmly entrenched point of view, viz.: age segregated communities are bad. He not only doesn't like
The Villages (pop. c75,000)(www.thevillages.com), he doesn't like Sun City either. He also doesn't
like the lifestyle in retirement communities. He lets you know this in the first short chapter where
he bemoans the loss of his neighbors who are moving to The Villages. By page 9, he asks "How could
two bright individuals be drawn to something as seemingly ridiculous as The Villages?"
/>As you read through the book he tries to make the point that homogeneous communities without a
diveristy of age, class, lifestyle, interest, etc. are intrinsically bad. His last chapter is a
summary of his position based on his non-scientific observations of The Villages, Sun City, and
Youngville. Biased as his outlook is, there is still a lot in the middle that makes his book worth
reading.

There are research data which support some of his positions. Homogeneous
communities do not support tolerance and understanding. They tend to increase 'groupthink' and
insularity. When a group is ideologically homogeneous the positions adopted by its members tend to
become more inflexible and more extreme. This leads to less tendency to compromise or debate and
more reactionary thinking.

Do we need to worry about the social and political effects
of ageism because of age segregated communities? Do religiously segregated communites like Ave Maria
or fundamentalist Mormon communities threaten civil liberties? Are gay/lesian communities a threat
to life in America? How far do you want to take Blechman's rejection of homogeneous communities. />
Some of the things he writes about regarding The Villages are right on the mark. Its daily
newspaper is, indeed, a joke. It is so right wing that it presents Ann Coulter as an intellectual
and fosters several local columnists who emulate her style.

The governance system using
the Community Development Districts and their control by the developer are, in truth, a black spot
on the body politic. There is little organized opposition to the status quo outside of the 5000
member Property Owners Association

Much of the rest of Blechman's book is actually
pretty accurate. We do go everywhere in our golf carts, we do have wonderful restaurants, over a
thousand clubs/interest groups, lots of golf at very reasonable prices ($20-30 per round on
championship courses), pools,
dances, entertainment in the villages squares, opera, theater,
concerts, recreation centers, good friends, neighborhood parties, etc.

Blechman does
spend a bit too much time on sex in The Villages and his sources of information are not particularly
representative. Sexually transmitted diseases are reportable and statistics are kept by county
health departments. I have not treated an excessive number of STDs and I have not seen health
department data suggesting that they are particularly prevalent in retirement communities in general
or The Villages in particular. I find Blechman's emphasis on the topic of sexuality to border on
pandering.

The author is good at wordcraft. Despite his obvious bias he raises some
interesting questions about The Villages and about age segregated communities in general. If you
want to know more about The Villages, come for a visit rather than make your mind up based on this
book.