More of a carp's view of Sun City history

Sometime in the Fall of 2014 the RCSC Board, (or was it Management) posted a communiqué to the effect that there were so many complaints coming to the Board (or was it to Management?) regarding problems emanating from Dufffeeland Dog Park that the Board (or was it Management?) was considering closing the Park down. As part of the process of dealing with these concerns a public meeting was held in Bell Rec. Center on ( I think) October 10. At least that seems to be when I downloaded my pictures. At the "any crank may speak" part of the meeting, in an attempt to prevent drastic measures from happening, I suggested starting a Dog Park Club to deal with these matters, one BoD member in particular got very enthused about the idea (see pictures) and from that humble beginning the Duffeeland Dog Park Club was formed. I posted the meeting pictures here, who knows what else I’ll uncover as I wander through the largely unexplored regions of my computer?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/60188803@N00/albums/72157710275401681/with/48525520357/

 

Interesting trip down memory lane ct. If memory serves me, i was late because i went to Lakeview first. Duh. Never was big on detail's always more focused on the bigger picture.

Let's recap for folks: Sun City had no "official" dog park. Duffeeland was privately owned and run by a resident and supported by donations from users. He had gotten sick and wanted to sell and leave Sun City. Carole Martinez was on the board and had been working hard to get a dog park built in Phase 1 behind the ballpark and on the grounds of the Sun Bowl. In fact, it had been approved and was moving forward at the same point Bob Knight was trying to sell Duffeeland.

The board was split on the decision to buy. Two things convinced them. The first was the appraisal on the property coming in at roughly double what we would pay for it. The second was never stated, but both CM and myself feel it was part of the decision making process. Once we purchased the dog park in Phase 2, the board quickly backed away from the dog park in Phase 1. No one ever stated it out loud. What they did argue was because the residents behind the park were so vocal, it would be foolish to open another one.

So we are clear, Sun City not having at least one community (RCSC) run dog park was a travesty. They were standard operating amenities in senior communities across the country. The stats on pet ownership in age restricted living settings are staggering. As i said above, not everyone on the board liked the idea. BTW ct, management was taking the calls from a couple of guys who lived adjacent to the park and they never let up. The president of the board at the time was often carrying their message.

In a thread i did after leaving the board, i simply admitted i had been an abject failure during my time there. Sure we got some things done, but no where near enough. Duffeeland was one of the few things we did well. What we did on the board was what i did for a living. I never met a microphone i didn't love and the bigger the crowd, the better the outcome. I always understood when we involved the stakeholders, we would find solutions that worked. I begged the board for semi-annual town hall meetings. The GM knew better; once you let people in the process of self-governance, you lost the ability to control the outcome.

The Duffeeland meeting was the classic example. The president was livid at me arriving late. Carole and i pushed for the meeting and he was left running it for the 10 or 15 minutes. Once i got there, i was more than happy to engage those in attendance and the vast majority wanted that park. As you remember ct we had several stops and starts on how to make it work, in the end, the park users found the right solution. The dog club was started and assumed loose oversight. To this day, it works pretty darn good.

I learned the hard way in my previous life, listening to people who had a vested interest would almost always be better than leaving the decisions to those who were looking for the cheapest or easiest way out. As a community, we would/could be so much more effective if we had an ongoing effort to get owners involved. We don't need thousands, but there's no reason we can't add hundreds. To do that takes a commitment and a goal of growing the circle. It was how Sun City was built. It was always a collective effort, with those not leading the charge being important, but the outcome being positive.

Duffeeland is one of those examples of people not carrying about getting credit for what they do, but what they have created for the community. How the hell does it get better than that?

 

Nice to hear from folks who were there - of course, we have pictures to prove it.

 

I have added an image to each of the following wikipedia articles, but would like to add some more to the gallery at the latter article. So I figure a golf shot, a swimming pic, is any one lawn bowling now? Softball?? What are other representational pictures to use without making it an attempt to raise my property values?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Bowl_Amphitheatre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_City,_Arizona#Gallery

 

Good job on adding the images. The problem i have with sites like that are they are almost always clinical in nature. As i noted, my tendency is to write more over-the-top. In all likelihood most people didn't notice that so consider this a type of PSA (Public Service Announcement).

 

If by "clinical" you mean "fact based", yes that's important on wikipedia.
For example the Donald Trump article there is problematic enough without allowing folks to add over-the-top commentary.
Which is part of the reason I returned here - I miss some of that stuff.

 

In an attempt to post some of my more current pictures (I still plan on dredging up the past when I find it) here is a shoot from the Library's 10th anniversary bash from a few days ago. As usual, if you throw an (free) event in Sun City, they will come.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/60188803@N00/albums/72157710312193402

 

Is Sun City West allowed here? If so I just posted some pictures from an event there from February 2017, with a brief explanation of what i saw. It's here.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/60188803@N00/albums/72157710313073926

 

Judging by the cops, the guns and the banners, not everyone was there to pay homage to our representative. He was a generous man thou, having offered 5 million dollars to an aide to carry his baby...and i don't mean lug her around Walmart to buy baby formula.

 

Well most of the folks there were not there to "pay homage" to Franks, partly because he was not in the past tense yet. This was around the time that Republican congresspersons stopped doing town halls and that sort of interactive public events because . . ....... people said mean things to them. Also, no doubt, the open carry laws that they had championed were a bit unsettling to them as a reality.

 

Some were probably looking for his mythical "nuclear bomb smuggled inside a marijuana bale" that he said was the reason border security needed to be increased. Never mind the fact the smallest possible bomb would dwarf the size of a marijuana bale which typically weighs 10-lbs and is the size of a small loaf of bread.

 

Aren't myths wonderful things? And it is always fun deciding who sees them as archetypes and who as revealed truths.

 

Although not exactly SC history, I just added another (making 3 in the past few days) picture to the gallery at the wikipedia "Sun City, Arizona" article. What more is needed? A golf picture? Maybe the Railroad Club? Who I'm going to post some of soon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_City,_Arizona

 

Good point, carpy.
So I added a Railway Club shot.

 

I was hoping to get a little more direction from you folks, after all, Sun City is (mostly) your home too. But I did just add a shot of the Sun Dial to the wikipedia article here, largely because I had the picture so did not have to go out and take one. Still working on those golfers. Any volunteers as a model?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_City,_Arizona

 

Okay, I'm only doing one pool, one of anything. That is sort of the wikipedia way, atleast in my cabal. But the car show would be nice, when is it? Probably not in Summer.

 

Looks like this will be the next car show:
OCTOBER 17 — CAR SHOW – Sundial Center Northeast lot 2 to 5 pm.

Great photos you've added to the wikipedia listing for Sun City. My suggestions would be a shot of Lakeview Lanes(noting this is one of 2 bowling houses, one of the 7 fitness centers, the billiards room at Bell(3 locations), Bingo when it's in full swing at Sundial, the covered pickleball courts at Marinette, the indoor walking track at Fairway, the library at Bell(noting there are 2 extensive County Library locations) and perhaps the mini golf course at Bell(noting there are 4 locations). These photos should be a broad enough selection of activities for people of all ages & level of physical abilities. Photos that show the wide range of participants would also be good.

 

Eventually on wikipedia, were I to do all that, someone would show up and want to know how much I was getting paid for it. I will point out that all you need to do to post your pictures on wikipedia is to be a registered editor, which is free and has no down side.

 

A picture of the Visitor Center would be nice.
They have all sorts of info on Sun City.