A Thoughtful Reflection On Our Community.

What I do is absolutely none of your business. How about you stop trying to attack and harass people simply for posting on the site.
There was an ongoing discussion about the community and then here you come again and hijack the conversation to make it about you. Plus attack someone about their posts.
Your intrusive comments are not appreciated by most and wish you would either post your own thread where you can attack yourself or just allow others to have space to express their thoughts without you attacking them.

 

Take a deep breath and enjoy this reminder SCG about the lives of those less fortunate than us: It is impossible to hate yourself to happiness. I wake every day grateful for what life has given me/us. A simple man, contented with a simple life. Having found serenity nearly 49 years ago, i have no need to be anything more than one of the hundred thousand cogs in the wheel that has helped Sun City evolve and sustain us an incredible place for seniors of average means to retire or move to while still working and live a truly unique way of life.

Attacking those who enjoy Sun City and all it offers is pathetic at best. It's the new normal isn't it? Hating everything and everyone who doesn't share your limited vision and perspective may work for some; for me...i'll take the high road and just smile knowing the foolishness and folly from those who know so little about our community...and who have done absolutely nothing to make a difference...other than whine and bitch at everyone who does love it here.

Life is what we choose to make it, and mine is exceptional. Joy is everywhere, if we are only willing to look.

 

Bill,
I have always admired and respected your ability to find the best answer at the right time. This continuous assault of everything posted is so old and tiring. About the time ideas are shared and a mutual conversation starts, here comes the intrusive attack on someone about what they were trying to express. Or worse, a completely different topic, usually geared towards a particular person hijacking the thread, and not on target of what was being discussed.
I was so grateful to be able to return to posting on TOSC after being in a completely different life role. Something I always enjoyed doing was going to be open to me once more. Or so I thought. It appears, to me, there are a few people who were regular contributors, no longer posting. I would guess one of the reasons is due to the strain of trying to continue a valid conversation, only to have the opportunity ripped away due to a singular person changing the narrative. Then be attacked when trying to defend your position within the original post. I have not been a regular contributor for a number of years. I would hope this barrage of hate and contempt has not continued for these last 4 years.
I truly thank you for your continued contributions to this board. Your perspective is always appreciated by me as it’s usually on target and factual as well as informative to read. As for me, I will muddle through despite my lack of understanding why this continues to be an issue.
I have said it before and I will reiterate it again. This board is a great tool for this community. I find it to be a very useful resource for anything Sun City. I am especially grateful for the folks who offer the opportunity to come here to read, share, and post on this site. I would hope this site remains a great resource, now and for the future.

 

Trolls have always ruined these types of forums and message boards and consequently it is what it is. The owners of the site have never been involved and trusted those of us who do post to self-administrate. Seriously, just smile at the inanity of someone angered at posters for liking comments and attacking them for liking comments and then pretending they care about how the site is administered.

Smile at trolls and then ignore them.

 

OK.
Each member of TalkofSunCity.com may have no more than one username/account. If you encounter issues with your log-in or password, contact an administrator. Multiple accounts will be merged into one username account. If your account is suspended/banned you cannot re-register under a new user account or this will result in immediate suspension of the account.

 

So now you are going out of your way to find fault with me and what I do? What logins I have or use is between myself and TOSC. You need to mind your own business and leave me and others alone.
Why not start your own “Woe is Me” thread and post all of your grievances about your being right and how everyone else is wrong. This way you can hijack your own posts, change your own topics and leave others alone. The rest of us would surely appreciate your not impacting what is being discussed. Unless you’re a moderator of this board, STFU

 

What happened to nice Carole. Bill kicked me off chit chat for not "following the rules", but it appears rules don't apply to some on TOSC. Maybe they will eventually. Not sure when we will be hearing from them again on this site, however I can still contact them. What you said to me was totally uncalled for. Your buddy has a mouth like a septic tank.

Simeone asked me in a private message why it appears all former board members think they have all the answers, yet as stated by some SC has been a mess starting in 2006. Not my words, don't shoot the messenger. If this website truly solved problems, why do we still have so many?

I would encourage all to look at the other TOSC sites in this country. Notice how professional they are. People who are looking for information/help be it a car part, fixing a golf cart or a kitchen faucet
Help is a key stroke away. Neighbors helping neighbors. Not endless redundant stories about SC history, or an endless loop of what should be done here, yet all who post say they care but it's just words. Why would people want to join this site when the person with the most posts says stuff like this?

I could give two shits whether people like or dislike me.

I just shared an email with some close friends. I revealed to them, i have become jaundiced to anything they say or write. They simply don't care what a document says.

Year after year after year, no one was ever held accountable

When i do things, get involved with stuff or even when i write, i don't really care if the things i am doing or saying is well received or if people like me. It's just never been a priority in my life. I don't have many friends, try and get along with people, but if we don't, that's okay.

Not a betting person, but if I was my money would be the PAC location will still be the main topic here in 2027, that is unless the GM just does what he wants not caring what members want.

Have a blessed day.

 

Nice!

 

Since you enjoy practicing psychiatry without a license, why aren’t you not accusing Carole having multiple personalities?

 

Psychiatry, history, law and every other subject is your forte. How am I practicing without a license. Sometimes you don't make a lot of sense. Carole has 3 accounts, not personalities that I know of. If you bothered to read the rules you might understand.

 

You haven’t exactly led us to the Promised Land with your posts.

 

Can I help if a read a lot or my career required as much knowledge as possible about a plethora of subjects? Do you read books, can you read, can you ever stop whining, will you ever get over your persecution complex, will you ever give up your imaginary friends? Do you ever want to expand your horizons or spend your life in the Oak Lawn state of mind. My brother has it to his detriment. Unless you grew up there, you will not understand, that’s why I left and never regretted it.

 

All cruelty springs from weakness.

Hurt people hurt people.

 

Josie,
You are not the victim in any of this, you are the perpetrator. You go out of your way to attack every one and every item posted. You may try to paint yourself as the righteous person but you are anything but. Everything you write, every poster is attacked relentlessly and repeatedly by you and your belief that you are the only person that is “right”.
I will not respond to anything you author going forward. As long as I respond to your hate speech, I am enabling you to continue to attack me and others. So, while it’s been real trying to deal with you in this genre, I will not tolerate or entertain anything you author. You are not “right”, there are far more intelligent and interesting posters that are engaging in dialogue that is not pity based and it’s just exhausting to deal with you.
Have fun with the crickets, they are going to be the only audience you have.

 

This is a follow-up to my gentrification mention for the area. Having lived through gentrification of three neighborhoods in Chicago, it requires three areas, transportation, cheap commercial leases and a neighborhoods rehab of residential housing. The three neighborhoods for you Chi-town people out there, Uptown, Lincoln Park and Wrigleyville before the Ricketts family turned it into an overpriced shithole (sorry). Also had a stop over in Newtown/Boystown.

Transportation locally is not good other than automobiles so I will let that rest.

I have noted that houses in my hood have rehabbed by flippers and sold in the $350k range or residences purchased and a gut rehab done by the owners. I have noticed at least five more rehabs being done nearby. Why point this out, because we are talking potential residents with money. They would probably come from areas which much to offer. I will come back to this.

I had just read an article from Business Insider that the hottest commercial real estate at the moment are strip malls because of favorable lease agreements. Why is this important, because the spaces in strip malls are generally small so to speak. This would allow person or persons to open small businesses. Would you rather buy a coffee from a small business or a soulless Starbucks outlet? How about a micro brew in a larger place leading to the question would prefer a beer brewed locally or mass produced panther piss from Budweiser? These make good anchors to the mall. As for food, Pacific Rim immigrants or immigrants in general like to open restaurants highlighting their ethnic food. No pun intended, but this is food for thought.

Now the question is, are there real estate agents locally that have the chops to put something like this together? I will also not try to fool you as this is a process that could take a few years according to my experience. I believe the coffee shop and brewery are the keys.

My SO lives in north central PHX and 12 years ago showed me a flyer left on her car. She said this might interest me and she was correct as it was an ad for North Mountain Brewery which is an anchor in the hood and has flourished with it being popular with families and holding special events. Try the Belgian ales they are terrific. Also, yes a coffee shop opened a few years later and is still there. Also the house prices have benefited. Public transportation is convenient to downtown or the light rail.

I know every has an opinion but would like to hear the locals think about this as we have nowhere to go but up.

 

Dave,
I would love to continue with the topic of the renovation of the neighborhoods and where we go from here.
With the rental rate becoming so large in the area, I have concerns about “owner buy in” and how much longer it will be before the residential makeup is more rental based than owner based. These neighborhoods are being flipped quickly and turned into rental properties at a very quick rate. If one drives through phase one, it’s not looking any brighter, in my opinion, for a turnaround any time soon. The retail space is used for thrift stores. Again, quaint, but not the kind of anchor retail to build a local economy on. Except for a small dollar type store, the retail space at 107th and Peoria is not a regular draw for marketing the area. Go up to Grand Avenue and there’s a grocery store with some small businesses within the strip mall, but nothing that I see is a draw for local entertainment or dining. The other corner does have a small cafe, but we have not gone there for years, as the food was not good as far as we were concerned.
We don’t pay the amount of monthly assessments other communities do, part of which can be attributed to the local storefronts being carefully chosen for offering specialty restaurants and shops geared towards the 55+ buyers. Bakeries, coffee shops, bistros and pub style bars are what I see offered in other 55+ communities. Education, classes on food, cooking, travel and lectures of interest to the community on various topics. None of which is offered here. There are no community performing arts theaters, there are theaters close by, managed by municipal government, which offers programs of all types to everyone in the area.
We have the Peoria Performing Arts Center or the Sundial is easily a choice as well. The Peoria Performing Arts center has struggled since its opening from what I have read previously. The attempt to make it affordable and still draw in the talent is a struggle. The RCSC has a well funded entertainment program that offers shows for the members on at various locations in the community. They are well attended and are not costing the members $14m to participate in.
Ran long, my point being, the amount of rentals in the community is going to decrease the overall value of homes as ownership is down. Yes, houses are selling, but who’s buying? The availability of retail space is controlled by the landlords of these properties. Right now, I see little retail activity that would make a buyer want to purchase in the area that matches what other communities offer. Right now, Sun City is the cheapest game in town for housing prices. Is that a good thing?
I have looked into other places in Pinal County and there are options available that are affordable, offer activities that are going to attract more people for the future and have rental restrictions which keep ownership levels up. It’s one thing to say Sun City is cheaper, but what is it costing us as a community?

 

Just throwing out a thought here: Do we really need to have shops, etc.? People seem to be moving here anyway with what we have. I'd be curious to ask some of our local real estate folks if not having full strip malls was a reason that they didn't buy here but bought at Sun City West.

Chamber of Commerce's or local Tourism/Hospitality industry drives issues such as this. We have nothing like that. We are not a city. None of our community supported organizations - SCHOA, SCCAN, etc., should be held responsible for bringing in businesses. That isn't their job. The little bit of marketing that RCSC did has been greatly diminished.

I understand your concern about the community, etc., but I don't see how we - Members - can bring in businesses. I'd much rather have a Community Center that had a coffee shop/pastry shop/ sandwich shop in it for Members to frequent without having to pay a fee to do so. We have no such gathering place in Sun City.

 

My concern is around the amount of property being sold and turned into rentals. There’s no buy in around seeing this community remaining owner occupied and not a rental property. How do we attempt to sell Sun City as a desirable destination when there are no real attractions to draw them in? The rec centers are for residents. What if you and some friends want to get together for coffee and a snack. Where do you go? What is close by for a quick bite to eat that offers good food and an amiable atmosphere? What is local for a small gallery show or a wine tasting? These seem to be the offerings of other places attracting the next generation of 55+ buyers. When looking at monthly costs for the local senior communities the cost is usually much higher. $250 a month or more seems to be the average. That seems excessive to me, but the homes are selling because of community benefits. Offerings that we don’t include.
Looking south, there are active adult communities offering many options for the residents such as the ones I have mentioned. Looking at a cost of $85 a month means an increase of about $35 a month but the community isn’t being overrun by rentals. There are community shops and restaurants. There is cooking classes, poetry reading, musical entertainment by quartets and other offerings not available here. It would take a complete change of mindset to make Sun City competitive with like areas. What worked 60 years ago gave us a start. We need to really examine what the future looks like in order to determine what needs to happen now. Do we want to remain relevant in the active adult arena and make changes to stay on par with other neighborhoods or allow the status quo to continue? Does being the cheapest keep us from further development and deterioration?

 

The old saying "silk purse from a sows ear" comes to mind. This is a 64 year old community, period. Dave I don't know if you ever went to Galena Illinois, but that is a town that will never die. Quaint, cobblestone streets, homes built in the side of hills and Eagle Ridge, a 5 star golf course. This is not that.

Carole who is responsible for bringing in business?

 

Sorry gang but gentrification and senior communities do not belong in the same sentence. Mixed age housing would better fit the bill. Age restricted is built on and around amenities. The Grand has almost no commercial property within the walls. Admittedly it's just outside, but still you need to get in your car and go. Sun City West is interesting as they built the center of the community (around Johnson Rec Center) with most of the shopping on access streets to it. Then they filled in the areas outside the perimeter with mostly residential. It worked well for them. But to be clear, there are no big box stores, there are no fine dining experiences...to get to those you need to get in your car and go outside their walls.

Senior communities by their very nature are more about what amenities are within, how well they are maintained and how much they cost. That's always been Sun City's recipe for success. While the 60's and 70's were all about that "small town feel," we moved well beyond that over the years. The dynamic has changed and the best thing Sun City can do is keep what we do own looking great and when we do renovate, make sure we do it right and well.

Rental homes are problematic across the country. Buying rental property has proven to be very profitable as rents soared and property values kept increasing. Suffice to say, many in this community and out have found better returns on investments from owning multiple homes rather than putting it in the bank. Odd, they could have done better in the stock market but i suspect the crashes some have experienced makes them leery. It may well be time we rethink how we view renters in the community. Like new home owners we have to, we must be more welcoming and willing to take the time to help them understand what they are buying into...and more importantly reinforcing why Sun City was the right choice for them.

I'm not going to try and pretend to know what Gen X and Gen Y will be looking for in retirement, other than affordable and good technology. Will they mind driving 15 or 20 minutes to a big box store? Will online shopping and home delivery from restaurants still be their thing? There's a plethora of restaurants just outside the walls, will driving to them be a problem? If so, we should focus on making sure the amenities they want are in place, are convenient and open hours when they are not working and are affordable.

While some will see this as a political commentary, it's not. How about the idea of a team of "community organizers?" Back when Sun City opened and for many years after, they were called hostesses. The concept was so successful, when Sun City West opened they kept the program alive through build out. The net affect was those living here were called by Meeker a massive sales force. To accomplish that end, the relationship within the community and the RCSC has to be better grounded.

While it's great we spent a boatload of money on starting to fix all the stuff we let slide, the downside has been 2024 was filled with poorly thought out decisions that angered members. How about a New Years resolution for no more stupid mistakes you had to redo and try and save face?

I know, it's my old tired mantra, but it's always worked...BUILD A SENSE OF COMMUNITY. It starts there, it always has, it always will.