Small town for pensioners – The Villages: Where young people have to stay outside – Doc

150,000 people live in “The Villages”, a small town specially created for retirees in Florida. The rest of the world lags behind the front gates.

After years of hard work, the seniors in this seemingly utopian test-tube city want to keep to themselves and enjoy their retirement.

Legend:

Happy hour at the resort starts at 11 a.m

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Ten free years

Under the brilliant Florida sun, so the promise, there is a place where you can add ten more years to your life in the most pleasant way.

With 54 golf courses, 96 swimming pools, countless leisure facilities and clubs, “The Villages” are a kind of Disneyland for 150,000 pensioners.

Happy hour starts at 11am. Belly dancing, synchronized swimming, golf or karaoke – the silver agers are enjoying their retirement.

Toni Hyde at a karaoke night in a bar in

Legend:

Toni Hyde at karaoke night in a bar in “The Villages”: “We know we live in a bubble, but it’s a nice bubble.”

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ageless life

Located behind well-guarded front gates, The Villages is the world’s largest senior town where you are never reminded of how old you are. For where everyone is old, old age does not exist.

There are no cemeteries that could disturb this impression, and when the ambulance comes, then without a siren.

«Villagers» teeing off on the golf driving range

Legend:

«Villagers» teeing off on the golf driving range

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From caravan park to mega settlement

The Villages was founded in the early 1980s by Harold Schwarz as a trailer park and is still run as a family business by the Morse family, Harold Schwarz’s grandsons. Nearly identical pastel-hued single-family homes with white-painted fences and perfectly manicured lawns now stretch over 142 km2, an area twice the size of the city of Zurich.

The pensioners’ settlement is a mixture of a privately run company and an officially organized small town; a quirk of Florida legislation created specifically for the construction of such retirement communities and allowing for constitutional objections to age segregation.

Bird's eye view of The Villages retirement resort in central Florida

Legend:

Bird’s eye view of The Villages retirement resort in Central Florida

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Republican white stronghold

98 percent of the people here are white and two-thirds are Republicans. Most of them voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. The “Villages” are considered a refuge for “blue-collar workers”, the American working class who want to live like kings after many years of hard work.

“You don’t have to be a millionaire to live like one” (“You don’t have to be a millionaire to live like one”), according to the promotional videos of the “Villages”. The prices of the houses range between 80,000 and 2.5 million US dollars. Anyone who buys a house here can take advantage of everything, including the golf courses, for a monthly payment of around $140.

Terry Marksberry with pistol at target practice

Legend:

Terry Marksberry during shooting training: “80 percent of personal wealth in this country is in the hands of people who are 65 years of age or older.”

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Minimum age 55

People under 55 are not allowed to live here, but can only visit for a maximum of 30 days per year. Young people here are either visitors or work for “The Villages” in one of the many restaurants, as a gardener, plumber, on the golf course or as a dog groomer.

The residential buildings are all arranged in artificial villages, which are located outside of the city centers, which are designed like movie sets.

Billboard in the retirement resort: everything is privately owned, even the hospitals are run by the Morse family.

Legend:

Billboard in the retirement resort: everything is privately owned, even the hospitals are run by the Morse family

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To go shopping, the residents drive their golf carts to the nearby shopping malls. They are home to huge supermarkets, banks, lending companies and home improvement stores, all owned by the Morse family. In each “village”, there are 96 in total, there is a leisure center with a swimming pool.

care in the periphery

Care facilities and the company’s own hospital are located on the outskirts of the city. The private school for the children of the employees is located directly behind the city limits, because the permanent stay of young people within the retirement resort is not planned.

Access barriers for cars and golf carts to the «Villages»

Legend:

Access barriers for cars and golf carts to the «Villages»

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closed society

Barriers keep the world out there in check. Cameras take pictures of everyone who drives in. Retirees in safety vests ask visitors what they are up to. However, no one may be denied entry.

The streets are built with taxpayers’ money and are therefore open to the public, just like the leisure centres. It is not surprising that this “opening” of the community built with public funds first had to be legally enforced.

Gun store owner Linda Vernon holds picture of Donald and Melania Trump in front of gun wall

Legend:

Gun shop owner Linda Vernon equips the seniors with guns and pistols

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Sudden cesspools

The many golf courses and green lawns make “The Villages” one of the largest water consumers in the chronically water-stressed state of Florida. As a result, the groundwater level sinks and drags earth mass down with it.

The result is water shortages and sudden cesspools that sometimes swallow up entire houses. The Villages management disputes the correlation between cesspools and water consumption, but opposition to the retirement resort is also forming in the neighboring communities.

Cracks in the walls

Legend:

Cracks in the walls as a result of a cesspool

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aggressive expansion

The rapid growth of the settlement threatens the environment, and it is also leading to a gentrification of the region. Many low-income residents of the region sell their lots to the wealthy “The Villages”.

The remaining landowners soon find themselves in the minority. At the political level, this means that “The Villages” have by far the most voters and thus dominate the social agenda. The non-“Villagers” are at a disadvantage.

Protesting residents put up billboards with a petition

Legend:

Residents protesting against the expansion of the settlement

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resistance forms

The remaining residents have meanwhile formed an interest group and are defending themselves with petitions, protest signs and citizens’ initiatives.

Since most of the infrastructure, such as streets and village squares, was financed with taxpayers’ money, “The Villages” have to grant access to the residents, but they try to protect the “bubble” as much as possible with barriers, prohibition signs and their financial and political power.

Journalist Lauren Ritchie

Legend:

Journalist Lauren Ritchie from the “Orlando Sentinel” has been writing critically about the “Villages” for years: “It’s a really strange social experiment.”

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The popularity of the retirement resort makes “The Villages” the fastest growing small town in the USA. For the remaining residents, resistance to the project is therefore becoming more difficult with each passing year. It therefore remains uncertain whether they will be able to stop or at least slow down the expansion.

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