Greens fees are only charged on the 18 hole courses. They are quasi-governmental units that give the developer the right to finance his development with bonds and pass on the cost of infrastructure to the eventual residents of the district.
Most people who live in The Villages have a golf cart. Many married couples have two of them. There are undoubtedly many more by now.
Some of them are very cute, fixed up to look like miniature Rolls Royces, Jeeps, fire engines, boats or whatever strikes the owner's fancy. The Villages has more than 90 miles of golf cart paths; golf carts are the preferred means of transportation for many residents, even those who don't play golf. Golf carts are used to go to the town squares, grocery stores, restaurants, and just about anywhere else you'd like.
Grocery stores, restaurants, health spas, and most other businesses can be reached by using a golf cart. You can also rent bicycles - even electric ones - and get some exercise while cruising The Villages. Each town square has a band shell and free concerts. These squares are the hubs of community evening activity.
Thousands of golf carts line up while their occupants enjoy the music and fellowship and head home when it's done. According to The Villages, as of April , residents enjoy more than three thousand clubs that cover just about any hobby or interest a person could have.
The clubs are managed by residents. They also have sports teams and leagues and all kinds of other activities that are free to the residents. Florida back roads travel is fun if you start your trip from The Villages Florida. If you start elsewhere, you won't find many back roads remaining in this booming community. On the other hand, it's a great destination for fun, dining, and shopping even if you don't live there.
The traffic inside The Villages itself is moderate and well controlled. There are numerous traffic circles on the main interior roads and fewer cars than you'd expect. Well controlled planning and zoning has put most commercial enterprises either on the main highways bordering The Villages or in the town squares. Most Villagers are getting around instead on their golf carts using separate paved paths well separated from the automobile traffic.
Stories abound about promiscuity, wild times, key clubs, and all kinds of rampant sexual behavior. My friends who live in the community tell me this rumor is nothing more than an urban myth. I have not researched this either in person or on line. Some of the local Floridians who lived in Sumter, Lake and Marion counties before The Villages was developed have a real love-hate relationship with the community. After the board required that Morse meet a series of conditions to expand, such as helping pay for roads, Morse pushed to pass a ballot referendum changing how board members were elected.
Instead of having voters in individual districts elect board members in Sumter, commissioners after were elected by the entire county. That meant the Villages, where 65 percent of the county's voters reside, controlled who would get elected to the board.
Two years later, Roberts and another commissioner who had opposed Morse were voted out of office. Since then, Roberts said, the hold the Villages has on Sumter has tightened. Even though the county seat is 30 miles south in Bushnell, most government buildings — the tax collector, the supervisor of elections — have migrated to the Villages.
Morse's sights are set beyond Central Florida, too. He was a Ranger for George W. He has frequently let politicians fly aboard his jets. Jeb Bush and his two sons flew on one of the jets to the Rose Bowl, reimbursing Morse for the cost of a commercial airline ticket.
Rick Scott's re-election committee and is a member of Romney's Florida finance team. For Flynn and other Democrats who live in the Villages, Morse's politics sometimes upset their otherwise pleasant lives. Curt Hills, assistant managing editor at the Daily Sun , didn't return phone calls.
When Democratic candidates drop by to campaign, local reporters don't usually cover them. Meanwhile they lavish front page coverage on top Republicans who visit. Every half hour, those bulletins can be heard on the streets as they are piped into the speakers attached to the street poles that ring the Villages' two market squares. The rest of the time the speakers ooze nostalgic rock from the likes of Joni Mitchell, Steppenwolf and the Beach Boys, plus an occasional ad for a local vascular vein center.
Flynn cites several examples of what he calls "participation suppression. Yard signs are verboten. Candidates can only hand out leaflets at federal mail dropoff areas. Democrats say they feel marginalized because, when they hand out fliers at the market square, they are relegated to a corner with no shade, Flynn said. Republicans set up down the street in prime office space.
When Florida's governor came to the Villages to sign the state budget last year, Flynn said Democrats were told they couldn't protest and then told by sheriff's deputies to leave.
Yet when U. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, spoke at the Villages, tea party hecklers lined the street in protest as deputies looked on. Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek was denied a venue when he ran for the U.
Senate in Dianne Dorman owns a thriving boutique of glitzy women's clothing across from the Harley-Davidson store that just opened. The Villages is their bubble, and it's not bursting. Dorman and Pat Theros, a sales assistant in her shop, say the dating scene is hot. Widowed women move here looking for a mate and will rent an apartment until they find someone, Theros said.
One reason why line dancing is so popular is it's a way for people to dance if they don't have a partner and want to lure future suitors. Bartenders say business is brisk and they are busy most nights hurrying to keep up with orders. While it's often portrayed as a wealthy enclave, the Villages is decidedly middle class, where drink specials can still determine the way a night will go.
Professionals from all fields are here, including teachers and those who had blue-collar jobs that paid well despite not requiring a college degree. Again, over-building and greed began to shatter the Florida real estate dream.
By the northern press was warning people about sham Florida investments. The category-4 storm smacked the coast, devastating Miami and pushing Florida into Depression three years before the rest of the country. Again the sunshine beckoned, this time calling those ready to retire. The construction of major Florida interstate highways and the invention of affordable, residential air conditioning made the move to Florida easier and more appealing than ever. Like land sales in the s, large chunks of pastureland were purchased by developers who, in turn, sold lots to Northerners hankering for a piece of paradise.
Michigan businessman, Harold Schwartz was among those selling the dream. Similar to others in the business, Schwartz sold land in Florida and New Mexico on the installment plan. However, sales took a big hit in when Congress banned land sales by mail. Still holding a lot of Florida land, in the early s, Schwartz and partner, Al Tarrson, began work on Orange Blossom Gardens, a mobile home park in northwest Lake County.
This wide spot in the middle of a pasture was the seed for what would become The Villages. Wanting to turn things around, Schwartz bought out his partner and asked his son, Gary Morse, to help him with the business. Morse moved from Michigan to take over operations in Realizing that communities like Sun City, with a golf course, stocked ponds and hobby shops , were successful, in part, due to their amenities, the father-son team began to improve the development. Realizing that a successful community needed more than activities to keep its residents happy, the family developers began a plan to create a self-contained community that provided everything its residents would need.
The plaza drew a bank and a medical office, but to fill the plaza and lure more tenants, the family started and managed several business of their own. Orange Blossom Hills also began to design and manufacture their own homes. A bowling center and a grocery store moved in, and the size of the recreation department doubled. Home sales also flourished.
In the early s, a golf course and the first recreation center were built on the new side of the highway. Orange Blossom Gardens got their first home-owned bank, and the first phase of La Hacienda Hotel was opened.
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