Retirement the Margaritaville Way

[Lucky C]

I found this article interesting even though living there is not at all appealing to me.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022 ... aville-way

Though Margaritaville is probably very different than what most of us envision for FIRE, it sounds like a success from a community perspective, fighting the issues of isolation and sedentary lifestyles many elders face.

For non-retirees in the US, many also face the issues of social isolation, as well as long commutes due to suburban sprawl / single use zoning. Higher density mixed-use zoning solves this, but people generally don't want to be crammed into close quarters with strangers they have nothing in common with. Many exurb apartment complexes are just a place to gang people together who work in the same general area with the same general income range, without any unifying identity like there would be in a village in the era before BS jobs - a mill village, a seaside fishing town, a mining town...

Perhaps an enterprising developer could find success in creating a mixed use community that isn't just a bunch of generic apartments on top of the standard strip mall lineup, with a theme that doesn't have to revolve around day drinking and beach bumming. Why not a book lover's paradise with a bookstore+cafe, quiet tree-lined trails, community book clubs and writing workshops, and of course good apartment sound isolation? Or how about a culinary village with small (non-chain) dining options, community gardens, cooking classes, pot lucks / communal kitchen, and high quality kitchen appliances in the apartments? Surely there would be some demand for more interesting places like these where residents would have some things in common, and it could be profitable even though they aren't trying to get the broadest appeal possible.

It's just sad that after the college experience of living in a walkable community with so much in common with everyone else there, the only other option for that kind of vibe, aside from joining the rare commune or cohousing development, is Jimmy Buffet.

[DutchGirl]

A long but nice read!

There are some communities in the Netherlands who for example try to live an eco-friendly life together. That's the thing bonding those people.

Not quite the same, but a street in a nearby village did away with the standard fences between gardens that we Dutch people have, and designed a larger community garden with areas for children to play in, a BBQ area, a vegetable patch et cetera. I visited there for a barbecue, it was fun.

[Ego]

Why not a book lover's paradise with a bookstore+cafe, quiet tree-lined trails, community book clubs and writing workshops, and of course good apartment sound isolation?

People who move to a place like this one are trying to get away from those who would be attracted by "good apartment sound isolation" and neighbors who keep to themselves.

“I’m not handy at all, but, if something needs fixing, in thirty minutes I can have six guys over to help me,” Farkas told me. And one had to admit that, in the communities they’d come from, where neighbors kept to themselves and had redundant skills, this would not have been so.

There seem to be two main groups who make these moves. Those who want to buy an "active" retirement surrounded by lots of friends and those who are terrified of the chaotic process of dying and want to be in a place that promises to manage that chaos.

The most profitable places are those that monetizes the active retirees and transitions them to the managed chaos. They have tiers, from fully independent living to fully dependent, with several levels in between. I have a very active friend who just moved to one of these places because his wife is a hospice nurse and she is very concerned with securing their end-of-life arrangements. He was lured by the large woodworking shop for residents and the lap pool. They had to take physical and cognitive tests before management would tell them which tier they would occupy. The Staff Physician does regular assessments to reassess the tier.