Just finished giving another personalized tour at the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum. Probably 50 of them since we opened last November and every time i marvel at just how special creating Sun City was. The experts said we would fail. Shows you what experts know about human nature and the quest to succeed. It is especially painful these days as i talk about John Meeker's push to create a community based on ownership and a sense of community. They went through some amazingly difficult times, ugly battles with deep seeded resentments and they had no cause to rewrite by-laws, diminish the role of the community at large or kick board members off who they didn't agree with. They knew damn good and well who owned the community and more importantly who they were elected to represent. It most assuredly wasn't the organization. As i look back, to those early days, i ask myself, how did we become so far removed from something so well constructed, so beautifully built? The community safeguards kept everything on track and in line. We didn't worry about Title 10 or Title 33, they cared about what they thought was the best direction for the community. It was that freaking simple. I've been around long enough to remember how they stripped back our rights, pieces at at time. It was the proverbial slippery slope and once they started down it, they couldn't stop. They can't help themselves from making it worse. The meeting next week has the potential to be the ugliest cluster-flock of all. One would have hoped they got the message; people were angry about how they treated Karen McAdam. People were angry they pushed through Mountainview plan 2 after the second reading. People were angry they refused to commit to a pickleball venue south of Grand Ave. People were angry when they found out they had played the same game the year before when they fired Director Brehm. Apparently none of that mattered. As i sat reading the Agenda, all i could see was great big blinking FU. Don't like it, tough shit. It's our board, it's our Sun City, you just pay your dues/fees and appreciate all we do for you. Sorry, Sun City was built better than this. Sun City deserves better than this. It's that freaking simple.
"how did we become so far removed from something so well constructed" Through lack of community interest, The board/external sources don't care what you think or want. The population of Sun City haws given exclusive control to the board/external sources. Its NOT going to change
It pains me to think that with every tour you give at the museum you must now be reminded of just how far we have strayed from our founding and know deep down inside that this really isn't the place you want to live anymore! You might as well live in some highly restrictive home owners community where they tell you what color to paint your house! Come on folks, let's organize and get this ship back on course! “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” Edmund Burke
27,000 plus rooftops, give or take a few. 2000 home sales per year, give or take a few. I did the math long ago before i ran for the board. I had already seen the drift from our tenets and values and made the statement over a ten year period, more than 50% of those living in Sun City would turn over. I looked at it as a long game, if we simply educated the new buyers to how and why Sun City was so successful, in time we could return to our roots. I suspect, the gm also looked at the long game. With that massive turnover we would grow further away from the things that made the community special. Those moving here would know nothing and if we didn't teach them, they would simply become comfortable with whatever the board and management did. Think about it; get rid of the tag line "City of Volunteers," change the quorum to an unreachable number, insulate and isolate the board from any push back. It was a Faustian bargain for sure, less work, less time for board members whose biggest goal was to lower their handicap. Nothing wrong with enjoying their retirement, but at what cost to the community? If you search the archives of this site, you will find hundreds of threads i started to try and reach the masses. It was a fools game on my part. In each of the 5 magazines i wrote, 2 for SCHOA, 3 for the RCSC i always mentioned our history, why we were special and so unique. It was a fools game on my part. Most people moving to Sun City just wanted to enjoy their new home and all it offered. Boomers were built different than the Greatest Generation. Most of you don't know this, the residents of Sun City battled the powers that be to keep Sun City from becoming incorporated. That fight went on from 1961 till the mid 1990's. Everyone from John Meeker to most of the local organizations pushed and promoted it. From the very beginning the battle cry was "revenue sharing." The argument that if Sun City incorporated, almost immediately they could be getting 5 million dollars back to use as they saw fit. As the population grew, the numbers got even bigger. The simple truth was, people living here knew better. They understood over time their taxes would mushroom as they paid for all the City services and they became another Peoria, Surprise or Glendale. They didn't want that. They loved the idea we were self-governed, self-sufficient and without the burden of high taxes and people who ran the city as they saw fit. Know we have unfortunately become exactly what those living here tried to keep from happening. With each passing day new people move in who know nothing. That is exactly what the RCSC wants. I'm saddened to see what they have done. Intentionally or unintentionally, they have helped destroy the very thing that made Sun City special. Tragic.
