Inquiry: Andrew D Blechman LEISUREVILLE: ADVENTURES IN AMERICA’S RETIREMENT UTOPIAS

The Villages is a mammoth “active adult” community in central Florida that sprawls over three counties. Most residents commute on campus via golf carts. There is a different golf course for every day of the month, and more are being created. The Villages has its own carefully controlled and edited daily paper, radio station and TV station. Residents are free to play, drink and debauch 24/7. But behind this utopia are some ugly realities: this is a privately held business. No one under 55 years of age is allowed to live there; diversity is almost non-existent; everything is controlled by the whims of the developer; there is mandatory conformity on all levels; and there is a not so subtle political agenda to the propaganda the residents are fed everyday. Still, most residents are happy to give up social responsibility, a challenging intellectual life and diversity, to live a gated hedonistic life centered solely on a “Stepford” vision of life. Writer ANDREW D. BLECHMAN journeyed down to The Villages and his book LEISUREVILLE: ADVENTURES IN AMERICA’S RETIREMENT UTOPIAS is by turns funny, surprising, and deeply disturbing. Don’t miss this Inquiry.