The other day 3G posted some thoughts on issues Sun City is or will be facing in the coming years. There's any number of them that go beyond the RCSC's purview. What history has taught us, nothing happens in a vacuum; seldom are problems solved without human actions and more importantly interactions. The reality is the RCSC is the one dominant organization with the where-with-all to help pull the pieces together. The rest of them, short of Sunshine Services, are cash poor. Their mission is fairly well defined and narrow in scope, though abundant in delivery. All of which sent me scurrying to see what i had missed along the way of posting history on this site. Reading about over the threads, my message has never varied. It was most often centered on rebuilding a sense of community and a sense of ownership. Obviously it isn't the job of just the RCSC. It really is a community process and should and could be driven by using several of the problems that exist. Yesterday was the perfect example. Crime is an issue that the RCSC has no direct ability to fix. It is a community problem that all of us own. The POSSE does a good job but they too need our help. The comment was made repeatedly we ALL need to work towards solving it together. My first thought was living on the corner of a busy street, how about mounting camera's on my roof to capture vehicle activity on both Hutton and Glen Oak. My second thought was what about forming that old standard block watch (which has been trademarked). Apparently, calling it neighborhood watch is okay. One street, one person cannot do it alone. During yesterday's presentation i thought back to the meeting where the RCSC talked about security. There were two potential options they reviewed, both would help with deterrence. The first was more expensive and was facility detailed, the second was cameras on busy streets that identified vehicles that may be suspect. The two together were expensive and both required upgrading our technology. This would be where i would normally lash out at how far behind we are as a community regarding our IT, but by now that is common knowledge. What is important is going forward, we need to fix it fast and start doing everything we can to insure the community is made as safe as it should be. That takes money and lots of it. What 3G was proposing was ideas that worked to fix some of those challenges we will be/are facing. This is a significant one and more importantly not one that is just on the RCSC. Collectively we have to get involved, not just a handful, but the majority of us. The POSSE can help formulate a plan of action, we have to be willing to do our part. Over the past 15 years i have written volumes on Incorporation. Those pushing for it were for many of the same problems we have today. In a normal community with a mayor and a city council, taxes would be raised to increase the police presence, buy the cameras to read license plate readers (like they did in Youngtown). We're not a normal town with all those trappings, we are a community that existed all these years because that was what we wanted. In 3G's post regarding vacant store fronts, FYI suggested SCHOA should work with the Chamber of Commerce. We don't have one. The closest thing was the Sun City Visitor Center when it was a stand alone organization. Now the RCSC owns it and they function accordingly. SCHOA has a vendor program but that too has limitations. The point here isn't to bash anything or anyone. I've always understood the decision to be unincorporated left us vulnerable. It left us to deal with the problems from within. Those living in Sun City in the first 40 plus years were a part of the greatest generation. They took ownership and responsibility as just a part of who they were and what they did. Boomers are different. Society has changed. People don't know their neighbors like they did back in the early days. Part of it is due to technology, part of it is due the splintered nature of how we live. We can find all kinds of reasons or excuses, but ultimately if we want to stay the course of Sun City's path, we can't ignore the only thing that will solve our problems, is working as a community. If we don't want or aren't willing to do that, then maybe its time to consider those who argued for incorporation were right. My end game has always been we should never lose those values that made us what we are. Ultimately if the members/owners don't care, then maybe there is no other solution.
Totally agree BP and thanks for creating more awareness. If we had a big box full of money and all the answers I'd be posting the plan right now. Unfortunately we have neither so it will take concerned and dedicated citizens to take us or drag us into the future. It's all achievable without incorporation which would add to the cost of living in Sun City which many can not afford.
I would agree, incorporation should be the last option we ever consider. Most people living in Sun City have no idea just how ugly the fight was, or worse yet it was ever even an issue. I've come to understand, at least in some cases, if people know what it took to make Sun City what it is, they would better appreciate our unique qualities and why any of it matters. Volunteerism was an essential ingredient to the Sun City lifestyle. It was ingrained in the minds of every buyer. The folks who built Sun City, DEVCO, and the pioneers who shaped it, saw the enormous value when residents gave back their time energy and expertise. It wasn't an accident we were tagged the "City of Volunteers." That identity became who and what we were, both in Sun City and Sun City West. Did you know: When the Sun City Visitor Center was a free-standing organization, they became the clearing house for applying to become a volunteer? While i was a volunteer and on the board, Paul Herrmann, the director and only paid staff member, decided to make it a one stop shop to volunteer. He became the clearing house which worked great because new owners and potential buyers almost always stopped by. Posted on the walls were how many hours residents gave back to their community and how much money it saved us because of the services they donated. It was a message that resonated across the community. It worked. The day we dropped the message and lost the City of Volunteers and became the Original Fun City, things began to change. I understand the reasoning, i think it was a bad choice. It is why i am critical of carving the membership out of the process of decision making. Had it been left to those living in Sun City, so be it. Letting one person decide what is best is a fools game. Historically we know the process works best when it is inclusive, not exclusive. No point in belaboring old news. The signs have gone back up, but that's just an entry sign into the community. Now we need to embrace the bigger picture and see if we can restore that sense of community and sense of ownership that made us unique. I don't know if that is even possible. Times have changed, people have changed and especially after the pandemic, we have changed as a society. The question is, is it for the better or for the worse? There's only one way to find out, by working towards an end where we have defined goals and purpose. We know people are interested in crime in Sun City; can it become a starting point? Are there other areas where we can rally the RCSC membership to start looking forward? I like to see the positive in the things we do. I have used the negative to stimulate interest, but being angry fixes little. More often it just divides us more. There's only one organization that has the where-with-all to lead the charge, the question is, do they have the interest?
