I'd forgotten how much time, how many hours i put in during my first years in Sun City to understanding the how and why's. Not only studying Sun City's successes, but following other senior communities around the country. My morning news feeds still open to stories as does my Facebook algorithms still drive me to those kinds of sites. Mostly, i have been ignoring them, choosing to focus on what we have, what we are. As my enthusiasm wanes regarding us, let me share first some cuts from an article i read in Forbes this morning and then a link to the article itself. I think you will find it "cutting edge," much like Sun City was when it opened: A Special Model For Community It is easy to talk about community, but Amblebrook is intentional about facilitating community and creating a sense of belonging. Amblebrook’s developer Crown Community Development went all-in on amenity offerings, building many of the facilities and amenities before many homes were even built. Having this “wellness campus” ready and available for residents to use much earlier than the industry norm helped Amblebrook’s residents to build and establish connections right from the beginning. The first thing you see at Amblebrook’s Welcome Center is not a salesperson, but a Café and Coffee Shop where both visitors and residents meet and connect. While the Welcome Center is the jumping off point within Amblebrook, it is just one of several hubs within the community. There is a Demonstration Kitchen called Nourish Interactive Kitchen, and an art room called Canvas Studio that even includes a kiln for ceramics. There is a theater space for watching TED talks, movies, and speakers. In collaboration with a local healthcare provider and other wellness experts, there is a state-of-the-art wellness facility offering spa programs, physical therapy, massages, and other wellness-related care options. For residents who want to be active, there are indoor and outdoor pools, a full gym, indoor and outdoor pickleball courts, a dog park, walking trails in nature, and more. Those who have moved to Amblebrook have made more meaningful friendships than they’ve ever had before in their lives, and it’s their high level of activity and engagement with each other that forms these bonds. Residents attend lectures and community events, participate in clubs and organizations, take vacations together, and socialize daily. All this activity is naturally a prescription for better health (mental, physical and emotional) and a longer lifespan. A Real Sense Of Belonging To learn more, I interviewed some of the residents. According to one woman, “Everybody who lives at Amblebrook has a rich background. We have physicists, doctors, lawyers, and people with jobs that I didn't even know existed. The life experience is phenomenal. Residents give lectures offering their expertise to each other.” Another man added, “We always find things to talk about with our neighbors and are always learning new things from them. Everybody has something different to add. I’ve been teaching people to play canasta and chess. We've got Civil War experts who take their friends over to Gettysburg for tours.” Based on my extensive research about positive aging, it is important to stay relevant, engaged in life, and connected to others. While there is no one answer to where to live, communities such as Amblebrook facilitate what matters most. As Robert Waldinger concludes in his book “The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, “strong, positive relationships are a key predictor of happiness, well-being, and even longevity, more so than factors like wealth or success.” You can read the entire article here. It is simply stunning to see how closely the developers of Amblebrook followed the Sun City pathway to success. But, why not, it worked brilliantly. We were the first and then we elected to run from something that was unique and try and become what everyone else was. People wonder why i get crazed when i think back to 2012/2013 when we had the chance to buy the Lakes Club. Had we done that, we would have been on the same road Amblebrook is traveling now. Instead we focused on cheap golf and cheaper amenity costs. Go figure.
Before anyone goes there, let me fill in the blanks regarding the costs of Amblebrook, which by the way appears to be a community organization and the attached HOA, like most new developments. Here's the numbers from their website: The HOA fee monthly fee is $350, which includes access to all community amenities. This specifically covers lawn maintenance and care of individual homesites and shared areas (some rules may apply), as well as snow and ice removal from common walkways and areas, homeowner driveways, sidewalks, and walkways to the porch roofline. It's not cheap, for sure, nothing/nowhere is these days. It does however provide us a blueprint for what we could/should do with the Lakeview remodel. Imagine if we owned the Lakes Club and the potential for that entire area. If only eh?
As long as i'm playing the what if game, i came across another link this morning i found fascinating. I spent a good many hours on 55Places the first ten years in Sun City. It was/is the preeminent site for comparing senior communities (more than 3000 of them these days). In 2010 i took the two owners (Bill Ness and Danny Goodman) through the Museum and then on a tour of the newly opened Fairway Rec Center. They were blown away. This link is for an article on the newest senior communities opening. If you take the time to look through the list, virtually everything is way smaller than Sun City or Sun City West. Many have a single rec center that is small but nicely appointed with a pool and fitness area. Most of them come with comfortable gathering spaces. Something that's not hard to do, with less than 100 home sites. Click here to read the article.
Bill, I did quickly review some of the material you kindly provided. Remember the song Imagine by the Beatles. What if the song title was "Reimagine". Would that fit the current state of Sun City? This is why I and many others think it is so important to engage a professional urban planner and let them do their thing (without a stifling amount of Board guidance). Because we are so huge, there are many competing interests. Anyone caught up in the crush of ideology present in Sun City is likely to lose sight of the forest for the trees. IMHO, I would include you and me in that group. For a newer community amenity selection is much easier because the amenities are based on market research as to what the target market wants. If we desire to compete with these newer communities for the same target market customer, we should pay attention to what they are doing. I continue to maintain that we are not structured to plan for the future. Our structure is geared to maintaining the status quo. John
The integration of each rec center can be made to be the local gathering spot. Even if no one wants to modify the brick and mortar of the current building, there are food truck style vending places that could be accommodated at each of every other location. Space for small gatherings is possible in most locations by reallocating some of the designated spaces to other parts of the building and relocate a wall. Cost? Yes, available venue space, priceless. Adding kitchens for cooking classes and demonstrations? Utilize one rec center, remodel to include a demonstration kitchen and have a wired internet infrastructure to make it viewable by residents who signed up for the event. Is that going to be an option with all of the time and money spent trying to redo the woefully inadequate system in place? The need to have an interactive, accessible, modern multimedia web interface is so important for now and the future of the community. Here’s another shocker, we can’t just redo the website, then walk away for a few years, and think it’s still viable. Look where we are now? Either the RCSC commits to having an onsite web presence full time or get a good service contract with a company to maintain the media portion of the business daily. Yes, when you have an interactive, well designed website, it requires some kind of service provider to keep it clean and current. That is a daily maintenance service that’s invaluable to interacting in the digital media services. The RCSC has everything needed to provide the type of interaction described by any one of these communities. We just need to make it happen and invest in ourselves to make it come together.
Perhaps it is time to hire an urban planner to help the RCSC see the possibilities. Help the board and the members see what is quite possible with some additional strategic thinking and planning, both long and short term. If I know enough about the abilities to create a successful plan for the RCSC, think what an effective, experienced community architect could help develop? If we design it, they will come. Anyone who knows me, are keenly aware I am not a rah-rah kind of person I believe what I can, see, touch, hold and smell. So when I see the potential for the future of the community, it’s based upon reality and what can be achieved. Not just what could be accomplished but how well it would be for the benefit of the members. So, not blowing smoke up anyone’s a$$, but truly believing in what we could become if we choose to believe and build it.
Agreed John, I’ve long accepted my remarks as persona non gratis. I find it laughable but I’ve always been a realist. The minute anyone speaks out in ways the board considers to be non-supportive, they are viewed as trouble makers. So be it and frankly that’s what happens when a board or GM is insecure. Top down leadership was built on the idea you are either with them or against them. The sad thing is, nothing could be further from the truth. Bottom up leadership welcomes diverse ideas and healthy discussion. They aren’t afraid of opposing opinions, even though they are different. Ultimately that ability to work through their differences typically produces more healthy outcomes. I have long imagined (reimagined) what we can become again and I am fully comfortable with the reality I will play no roll. As I have written a hundred times, all of us are just cogs in the wheel. It’s been that way over our entire history. My frustration is I have been following the research regarding senior communities since we moved here in 2003. What I read was available to others but we decided to let a general manager tell us what we needed, where we go and how we get there. The community I posted the link to is fascinating. They simply took what DEVCO did and replicated it using that sense of community as their backdrop. Us re-imagining it and actually doing it would be simple. However it all starts with believing we have the need to change. You think so, I think so, how do you feel the board sees it?
I hate to speculate how any board or board member views the context of their decisions. My observation from being on the Board is they feel they are under seige by the most vocal members who write tons of emails to them or stand up and speak at every exchange meeting. The Board before the one I was on (that fired Karen McAdams for being too vocal) was divided and it showed. If my observation is correct, and it may not be, this Board has made "Board Unity" a top priority perhaps as a reaction to what came before (Board Disunity). Fair enough, the pendulum swings both ways. Ask any member for an opinion and you will get one and it will be the correct one. That is what I call noise that an urban planner can see right away. IMHO, to cut through that noise you need data, trends and analysis. More importantly you need the backbone and support to stand up to those without data, trends and analysis and push back on their demands. Those are my observations so far and are subject to change without notice.
