A Thoughtful Reflection On Our Community.

The "moderator" was on this site for months looking around. The icon was in plain view for all on this site to see. It's not my fault if you didn't pay attention. There were a lot of posts that made the owner of this site take action. Like it or not if you can't write a post without using foul language you should not be posting at all. Nextdoor would not tolerate it, and neither does Facebook.

 

You mean like the time you told him to go swill another cocktail, and the later in the evening it gets the less coherent he becomes? That kind of gratitude? You all are so darn quick to criticize me you forget all the nasty things that came from your keyboards.

 

It's too bad Carole, at one point in time 55Places used to post the yearly rates for every age restricted community they had on their web site. As the number of communities exploded it became a nightmare trying to keep up with the ever changing numbers. I used to post comments and answers to questions on the site but that went away as well.

They still have the best data base for age restricted communities. There's a ton of information on the site. The guys that built and own it were both Del Webb salesmen at Del Webb Huntley IL and i met them when they came to town. We started at the museum and from there we went to the just finished Fairway Rec Center. They were blown away as they expected to see vintage, aging amenities.

The vast majority living in Sun City have no idea what comparative costs are unless they have lived somewhere else or they may have seen the sheet the RCSC produces every year when they show them other Webb developments. It would be great if someone took the time and compared the 70 plus senior communities in Arizona.

We are simply to good a value to not promote our community in ways those living here can appreciate and understand.

 

Bill,
The information at 55Places is great. The website with the community information has extensive information about each residential makeup of each 55+ living community, number of homes built and how many are for sale now. The only information missing is the costs associated with the HOA. This is where it could be time consuming,, as an example, multiple 55+ communities in the neighborhood called Mission Royale. Have different HOA charges depending on the subdivision. From what I can gather there are at least 3 different subdivision at Mission Royale. Would providing a range of HOA fees be considered not on point? The other information is freely available on the website. Just a matter of how much information to include. Any ideas on preference?

 

I was looking at some of the other community amenities and found this. I like this idea for our members.
The CantaMia at Estrella Village Center also features a learning center, demonstration and teaching kitchen, library, computers, and a variety of multi-purpose rooms.

 

Josie, I never said what you just quoted. What I was thinking and expounding on, is that maybe having a real estate ( commercial ) property person as an adjunct to the board may be helpful if we are concerned about a person looking at stimulating business growth in the community. I did not mention a land purchase. I would like old shopping centers owners to consider doing tear downs with the hope that maybe we can get new development in the town, and that is all I mean to say. I think everyone who has ideas should and some knowledge would be so welcomed to just expound on this community blog without getting slammed. Let's show some respect for the variety of viewpoints. I love SC and probably will live out my life here. I only want to see the place improve and get better for everyone. Good Day!

 

Nice! It's also a great segue into the world of 55Places for those who haven't visited. I know its been a while for me. I used to make it a daily stop. It was founded by Bill Ness and Danny Goodman joined him a few years later; they were way ahead of their time. As they tell the story, they noticed a trend starting to unfold after the turn of the century. Age restricted communities were no longer relegated to just the warm weather climates. They were also on the rise in popularity.

While still working we did a lot of programs on the future and the one statistic that exploded off the page was more than 10,000 baby boomers per day would hit retirement age. Bigger yet was the period of reaching 65 was going to continue for 18 years (those born between 1946 and 1964). It was all data that would dramatically change as a good portion of those seniors would be looking at and weighing options.

The two young men took a chance and gambled on their future. They built a resource driven web site that was far and away the best single site for those looking for information. I know lots of people living in Sun City used the site to help narrow down their options. When i stopped by today at 55Places, i saw 8 states pictured on the front page with almost 1900 senior communities included. There are a lot more states with senior communities, so the options for seniors these days is nearly endless.

The site has changed a lot since it was first posted. It used to show the fees associated with every community. It also had an interactive blog that got hundreds of comments. Both were massive investments in time with little return other than driving traffic, much of it were repeat customers rather than newbies looking for their perfect retirement home.

An interesting footnote, they brought in a consultant, Debra Blake, who i knew from her days with the Del Webb corporation. She was one of a small number of Webb employees who survived Black Friday (when Pulte bought the company). I met her when she was in charge of marketing in the area and she brought her advertising and marketing people in from around the country to see the museum and more importantly the ads DEVCo used to sell Sun City. It was always fun because those coming in were astounded how good those early ads were.

My best guess is she helped them understand the labor intensive stuff wasn't generating much in the way of revenue. Making money off the internet is wholly different from simply driving traffic. Their changes made sense for them, but i kind of lost interest. I kind of like to write and when that opportunity went away, so did i.

The real value in posting the site is for anyone who isn't familiar with that segment of the market, it is huge. And, virtually all of them are far more expensive. Anyone who has followed age restricted communities knows most folks love where they buy. They want to feel they made the right choice. As i wrote in one of the threads, DEVCO worked hard to validate the decision to buy in Sun City.

My fear is those on the RCSC board and management as well, don't see the need or the value in marketing Sun City. In my opinion, that is a huge mistake. The options are nearly endless, and if we aren't out there showcasing all we have to offer, we simply get lost in the massive sea of others who are promoting.

 

Hi Bill,
I just want to ask you, do you think it would be possible to develop an office such as something called Business Development or something like this. My thought is what we also may need is to have a commercial real estate expert in such an office. This role would essentially allow the person to try to generate new business to come in here. Reach out to existing strip mall owners in here to see if they would consider, A. either doing a tear down and sell, B. take an active interest in getting them to upgrade the center and getting new tenants to come in...or we have a commercial expert see if we are able to buy some of these empty buildings with the idea of us being an owner to a building, thus we could have power to use the building for our own purposes, or become essentially a landlord and generate a revenue stream for ourselves. Someone stated we are not allowed to do that, but I don't know if this is actually true. When Del Webb pulled out from managing and running the community, when was this by late 70's, 1980, I feel it has hurt us in many ways. We are no longer the resort-styled place that had the look, feel and the wonderful marketing components that existed then. I think the only way we can truly bring back some money and character to the community would be by having a real estate advocate person who could help us have a plan to generate more growth, money, and a vision of some kind, so we could get new vendors, maybe some development, like your idea Bill, of maybe a developer coming in here and building some attractive staggered condo's on the Union Hills Country Club. Also a real estate guy to see if we can get new business vendors in here, like a couple of nicer restaurants and things lieke this. This would be separate from RCSC...this would be it's own office. I really feel the community will continue to slide if we don't get a real estate professional, a business consultant in here, who can help us to grow and generate new financial interest to the town. I appreciate your thought on this, Bill Happy Holidays to you and all here!

Eileen McCarty, Monday at 11:36 AM

I did not quote you. I stated my interpretation of what you wrote. Big difference. I would be happy to put it out there for others to comment on tho. Some may really like the ideas.

 

Yes, that is what I said. It is in a line of thought with many ideas included. Bill was talking about the idea came in of purchasing LaRonde Center in a previous post. I concurred with him, that if we would have gone that route, it could of been a very good business revenue making venture for us, and that is where I expounded on the idea, Josie.
It is only an idea. I care about us being more successful in many areas of the community. I think SC Grand owns some real estate and is a landlord. I have some friends that live in there. Just opening up ideas for us to grow.

 

Hey Eileen. As you are quickly finding out, some arguments aren't worth or worthy of engaging in.

Choose wisely and the site will make much more an enjoyable experience.

 

Excellent advice Eileen. As long as you agree with Bill and Dave life is good. Check out the thread Purely Politics for some insight to what happens if a person is a conservative, Christian, or God forbid a Catholic. It was quite the election fiasco here.

 

Amen to that! Thanks Bill.

 

Eileen, Josie is full of it as she really does spend her life making what are known as hasty generalizations. I have friends who are conservative, I have friends that are Christians I have friends all areas of the spectrum, not that one. I like intelligent people who make thoughtful arguments. Feel sorry for Josie, don’t listen to her or her imaginary friends come out.
Roger, Wilco and out.

 

It is a shame that those desiring to share and support a positive outcome for Sun City with others can only expect to be harassed and demeaned for doing so.
I do hope those folks who have a strong sense of community can and will continue to share their thoughts about ways to improve our way of life here. There is such a wealth of knowledge about where we have been and a sense of caring about where we can proceed to as a community striving to be better.
My personal observation from reviewing the 55+ communities is that striving to be the cheapest is not getting us anywhere close to where we want to be as a community. Bringing in commercial development requires land, and there’s no incentive for the current commercial property/strip mall owners to want to invest in upgrades to these properties. I would like to see a group idea of a positive way to impact the strip mall’s future to make it worthwhile to invest in the improvements that could be done to improve and revitalize the local community. In doing so this would help to make the local retail market more attractive for small businesses to want to invest in our local area. Make Sun City a destination for shopping and entertainment that only small local businesses can offer.
As I read the community description for these other 55+ communities, they have not only targeted the housing market, but the lifestyles of those who are 55+. Walking paths, bike paths, college type campuses for learning such as cooking classes. And CCTV for interactive shows that are available for the residents to view and subscribe to. There’s that drastic need for IT plus video and interactive entertainment venues.
To have these types of activities available to the current and future residents, it’s going to take money. The sorry state of the IT, media and outreach program not existent in Sun City is in great need of folks willing to see this need, address it as urgent and provide a platform for solutions to resolve these issues pronto. We don’t need a theater as much as we need technology to solve the existing infrastructure needs. Once we are 21st century present in our technology and infrastructure, then look towards theaters.

 

Defamation? So all those hate posts about the Catholic Religion, my "juju beads" and Jesus were aimed specifically towards me Dave? Not your "other Christian friends"?

 

But Bill says all those little shops will not work here because of the internet! Everyone shops online now. Nobody goes to banks anymore. Remember the speech at the exchange meeting? I will find it for you for reference.

 

2:14:36 mark

RCSC Exchange Meeting - Monday, May 13, 2024

 

Maybe Bill is correct in some aspects but there is a bigger picture people are missing. I would describe here but there is a person I would like to speak to first who, as I like to say, knows people who might be interested in what I have to say. It in involves looking at things from the proverbial 20,000 feet and is a long term plan. It also involves a lot of moving parts so to speak.

FYI, not Tom, my comments on Catholicism were directed towards the Church and their nearly 2,000 year money hustle, inventing things, hypocrisy and basic corruption sold to the membership as truth. As far as your juju beads, that’s part of the hustle. As anything directed at you, it was St Gerald’s and their attitude towards other people and their religion. You attended this Church, you were complicit, like voting for Trump. Whatever he does be good or evil, you voted for him, it’s on you. It called responsibility not some stupid made up disease to pass the buck.

Happy New Year!

 

The TDS runs deep within you. That's all garbage speak Dave, and I can prove it. So Rosary's are a hustle? You do realize that all Catholic churches use Rosary's right? And what about all the comments about Oak Lawn itself? Eileen didn't you grow up there and attend OLCHS? Dave may have a few words for you too.

 

It is fascinating to me as we come off one of the best times of year (Christmas day), we continue to see the animosity and rancor. Gotta say, whatever your religious or political beliefs, whatever your ethnicity, whatever your age and illnesses that catch up to us all, there comes a time when the nonsense should get old and tiring. I know it is for those of us who just want to share our thoughts on Sun City.

As long as i have set the plate, yet again, here is a simple reminder that will always be true: You cannot hate your way to happiness.