The Villages - Is Leisureville on, or off, the mark

[topretirementseditor]

Just finished reading the book "Leisureville" by Andrew Blechman. Knowing a lot of people who live there and having visited the place once myself (albeit very briefly), I wonder what others think of the portrait that Mr. Blechman paints of the community. Please feel free to share your opinion of the book and The Villages in particular - we want to hear what you think!

[madman]

A friend was telling me about The Villages and this book. Quite a bit of the book is devoted to talking about the underbelly of the place, the bar flyies and the sexually active folks. He says sure there is some of that, but too much made of it in the book. Mostly The Villages is people in their 60's and 70's who exhaust themselves everyday playing golf or 20 other sports, have a cocktail, ahd hit the hay by 10 - on a big night!

[topretirementseditor]

Dear Visitors,

Since i think this is a volatile topic (everybody on late night TV loves to talk about STD's in The Villages, thanks to books like this), we thought we would post a review of 2 different books about the Villages in our Tips & Picks section. Plus a link to the Villages own Forum, where you can see for yourself what the residents are interested in. See http://www.topretirements.com/tips/Best_Communities/The_Villages_-_Facts_and_Opinions.html

[oldnassau]

Reading the book would benefit TOP members, although not as Mr. Blechman intends. Repeatedly, the retirees with whom he speaks, or who speak to him, quite clearly contradict him. He tries to present the Villages, and several other retirement communities, as sterile, lock-step, isolated, vacuous – like the towns in the movie "Pleasantville" or the novel "Fahrenheit 451" - but the Villagers praise the activities, security, economy, and socializing around them.

He seems to want retirees to live with/near their families, to babysit their grandchildren, to be celibate. That many of the 55+’ers want to play golf, be with their own generation, and, openly, have sex (with variations), upsets him.

Most retirees’ reaction to his patronizing attitude would be “Who the hell is he to tell us how to live?”

Mr. Blechman's self-righteous rejection of the retirees' life-, or love-, style reminds me of John the Savage's reaction to the sybaritic culture of Brave New World.

He has a website: I think he would get deluged with angry responses.

Perhaps when Mr. Blechman, like the Beatles song, is 64, his perspective will be more tolerant.

[lenf]

As part of our decision process in moving there, I tried to ask the question "How do you like it here?" of the people I met, in numerous different ways.

You get some perspective of things that might be an issue in some people's mind, but overall people seem VERY happy with how things are run, activities available, the food offerings, etc.

I noticed in your article that you follow the "Talk of Villages" web site and on there you can find a fairly honest discussion of how things are. They seem very upbeat also.

I found less than normal griping, but not a "Stepford" mentality-I get the true feeling that people are generally happy and lead a fulfilled life there!

[Justin]

I have lived in the Villages for many years. It is going down hill. Everything is too crowded and expensive now. People are not friendly. We have crime and are not gated. The Buffalo are gone and everything is about greed. The man who started the Villages is turning in his grave seeing how the residents are treated now. Hundreds of homes are on the market and can't sell. I don't trust a thing the developer says. Look at the siding mess and the lawsuit he lost. The developer does not have the best interests of the residents in mind,just making money. Now the IRS is on to him. Would like to get out but cannot sell my house.