Residents watch passers by from a restaurant in The Villages, billed as Florida's Friendliest Retirement Hometown.
Photograph: Tampa Bay Times/ZUMAPRESS.com
THE FASTEST GROWING US CITY?
Some may consider it a pity
that a place where there are many more golf carts than kids
is now our fastest growing city--
another sign that America is on the skids?
And one further hears a well founded rumor
that what retirees there long ago once did in Niagara
they now often do again , provided they are well with no tumor
and have managed to get a stash of Viagra.
Plus, later if they're weary, not too far from the house,
they might try to rest while visiting Mickey Mouse.
HZL
3/26/15
Bloomberg
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The latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau are in, and the fastest-growing city in the U.S. is not an oil boomtown or a magnet for new immigrants, but a senior living community outside Orlando, Fla., with a reputation for attracting active retirees.
The Villages, a sprawling senior community of 114,000 residents, increased 5.4 percent in the year ended July 2014, making it the country’s fastest-growing metro for the second straight year. That’s triple the growth rate for the state of Florida and far faster than Myrtle Beach, S.C., the second fastest-growing U.S. city, which expanded 3.2 percent.
The explanation is partly semantic. The Census considers the Villages a metropolitan area, based on the area's core density. Some smaller areas, known as micros, grew at faster rates than the Villages, with Williston, N.D., topping the list at 8.7 percent. The Villages is lumped in with such cities as Houston and Dallas, which saw the largest increases in absolute terms but grew more slowly on a percentage basis.
Still, it’s worth spending a moment marveling at the growth of the Villages, which is all the more impressive considering the demographic trends working against it.
First is attrition. The 2010 Census found that 96 percent of residents were 55 or older. A quirk in the way the Census has defined the Villages means that number might overstate the elderly population in the metropolitan area, but it’s a fair bet that there are more deaths than births on an annual basis.
Then there are trends in senior living, which include competition from a boom in new senior living construction and research indicating that aging baby boomers would rather grow old in their homes than move to senior developments.
So how has the Villages kept up such fast growth?
A Bloomberg story on the community last year described a veritable senior-living utopia, with low crime, no kids, and lots of golf. (There are more golf carts in the Villages than there are taxis in New York City, according to that story.) There have also been racier tales. The New York Post highlighted the local dating scene and a supposed black market for Viagra—a salacious tale that probably wasn't terrible publicity. To appeal to the widest range of seniors, it helps to offer something for everyone.
RETIRE TO THE BEDROOM
January 25, 2009 | 8:09am
LADY LAKE, Fla. – It’s 11 p.m. at the Bourbon Street Bar, and Roselyn’s gyrating her hips to the blues band, Sue’s sipping a cocktail and flirting with her new boyfriend, and Alan is scanning the crowd for cute girls.
“See those two?” a buxom blonde asks, pointing to an elegant couple at the bar. “They were caught having sex in their golf cart a few weeks ago. It happens a lot!”
Welcome to ground zero for geriatrics who are seriously getting it on.
It’s a Thursday night at one of a half-dozen hot spots at the 20,000-acre Central Florida complex called The Villages, the largest gated retirement community in America – and one of the most popular destinations for New Yorkers in their golden years – where the female-to-male ratio runs 10 to 1.
It’s a widower’s paradise, and the word on the street is that there’s a big black market for Viagra.
Though The Villages – which spans three counties with 40,000 homes and more than 70,000 residents – boasts 34 golf courses, nine country clubs, two downtown squares and a slew of restaurants and bars, getting lucky is one of the residents’ primary pastimes.
The huge complex began growing rapidly in the mid-1990s, and reported cases of gonorrhea rocketed from 152 to 245, of syphilis rose from 17 to 33, and of chlamydia from 52 to 115 among those 55 and older in Florida from 1995 to 2005.
The state’s sexually transmitted disease rate among those over 65 is one of the fastest growing in the country, one report claims.
In 2006, a local gynecologist reported that she treated more cases of herpes and human papillomavirus at The Villages than she did when she worked in Miami.
“I get offers for sex all the time,” brags Dave, 70, who, like others who spoke about their sexually active set, asked that his real name not be used, “especially by women in their 70s. They say, ‘Are you busy tonight? I’ll show you a good time.’ ”
One overly charming lady-killer known as “Mr. Midnight” boasted of one of his conquests last year: “Absolutely beautiful. I’ve had her a few times. She comes over, takes a shower, jumps in bed, and then gets dressed and leaves. She’s simply the best.”
His story was told by Andrew Blechman, author of “Leisureville,” about communities like The Villages.
“There is lots of romance around here,” said Jean, a 63-year-old retired teacher. “But most of the men want a one-night meaningful relationship.”
Her friend Louise agrees.
“A lot of the men down here are cheaper than heck,” she says, “and a lot of the women are extremely brazen. Some girls will go into the parking lot with a man and come back a half-hour later like nothing happened!”
“We’ve had some of those complaints,” said a laughing Lt. Laurie Davis of the Lady Lake Police Department, ticking off other offenses, like drunken driving in golf carts, illegal drug use, and bar fights.
“Whatever you know about 20-year-olds, it’s the same with seniors,” said Roselyn Shelley, 68, a divorced former dancer.
Sue Rice, a blonde who will only admit to being over 60 but who looks to be about 80 and dances like she’s 14, has hooked up with Larry Tucker, an ex-banker about a decade her junior.
Tucker sports a gold charm around his neck that reads, “Bankers do it with interest.”
“Feel this,” Rice says, bouncing up from her bar stool and pinching her slim waist. “My body is the same as it was in high school! He can’t keep up with me!”
According to Alan, a swarthy 62-year-old, there’s a thriving black market for little blue Viagra pills.
“I did it once,” he said. “I paid 12 bucks for a single pill.”
Local cops just try to keep up.
“You see two 70-year-olds with canes fighting over a woman and you think, ‘Oh, jeez,’ ” Lt. Davis said.
*Some names have been changed.
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