Another benefit of these communities is that no one cares “what you did before” moving here.

The value of aging? I think that there is a purpose to aging and a meaning in it even if it is to serve as a role model for the younger generation on aging gracefully and purposefully. We over 70-year-old people work in the workforce, we volunteer in meaningful ways, and we are there for family. Sounds important to me!!

This community is really for older folks who are still in relatively good health. A broken hip and they are out of there and in independent living within 2 months time. The article is disingenuous on this issue.

Maybe there will be no aging in future. One need only consider the shallow, selfish entitled brats we call the Millenials and it's easy to envision them passing legislation that would do away with the older people. Much like the society of that mouldy sci-fi pic "Logan's Run". I expect to receive no mercy at the hands of that generation, hands that will be outstretched only to arrogate to themselves the assets I have earned in a lifetime.

Residents keep saying they want "fun," but nowhere are they offering a trade-off between *quality* and *quantity* of life. Where are the testosterone and steroid injections to help prevent frailty (perhaps at the cost of more cancer)? Fit seniors are *cheap* seniors—and happier to boot. Developing minimum-harm performance enhancing drug programs for senior could go a long way toward solving the financial challenge of an aging population.

Where are the children? They do not have to be your own. The something to do, something to love, something to hope for comes from participating in a community that perpetuates the good of society. There is only one way to feel valuable and that is to become valuable to others. Volunteer. Stop expecting others to worry about you and start worrying about them. Help people better their lives. The people in this article are still young at 55 and the plan is to be living a fantasy for the next 30 years or longer. Good luck with that. You create your own worth and it has nothing to do with trademarked frozen concoction makers.

Beth Baker has written a great book on creative housing options for older adults called "With a Little Help from Our Friends." One of my favorite books! I'm particularly optimistic about cohousing and home-sharing as alternatives to Life Plan communities (this is apparently the new name for CCRCs!).

Saw Jimmy Buffet on "Tonight Show / Jimmy Fallon" months and months ago, discussing this. Thought it was / is genius. Not necessarily for me ... but could tell it would be wildly popular with a certain set. Fun read. Though, I don't really see what happens when you're no longer able to limbo, etc. Doesn't seem to be a CCRC. Do you have to move so people don't see what aged aging usually means?

This story is easy for me to understand, as a parrothead. After more concerts than I can count on two continents, I can tell you that Buffett fans tend to be alike in some important ways. And no, being a white Republican isn’t one of them! Parrotheads tend to be generous; like to dance; be friendly; want to share in the fun; not take themselves very seriously all the time; and recognize that life is short. They also tend to like costumes, and know that “getting into the part” is part of the fun. In many respects, they are like folks who do Comicon or Sci-fi festivals. The lesson here is to find your heart’s tribe, and cling to them.

I'll pass on Margaritaville, thanks. We need to distinguish "aging" from "declining." If you are reasonably healthy physically and mentally, you can live independently as you wish at any age, with perhaps some modifications here and there. If you are declining in health, you need assistance on a continuum from minimal help now and then to complete care. So aging is not the issue. The issue is decline, and it is different for everyone. Who will take care of me? How much will that cost? That's what we need to plan for, not tiki huts.

A lot of issues skirted here: what if you don't like Margaritas? Or are in AA? What is the racial makeup of this community? Is there any diversity of social class? What about the widening gap between rich and poor? Is this option as out of reach for the merely middle class as the retirement cruise ship or the floating condos? Do only the mega rich have choices in the future? What about GUNS (this is FL, after all). And what about climate change (FL, again). Scratch the surface of any utopian community and it bleeds. The only surface scratched in this article was that granite countertop.

So, have overlooked something? That's entirely possible. But I can't find a single African-American in the photos. And when I word-searched the text, no mention. Seems like pretty important part of the story if everyone in the place is white.....

Most important concept introduced in this article (in my humble opinion) is "it will be hard to change how we value old age without changing how we value the labor needed to support it". As co-founder & researcher of a senior advocacy non-profit who studies senior housing via public records & compliance documents, staffing & their support is a number one predictor of resident outcomes. Whether that outcome is maintaining one's quality of life or deteriorating from caregiver burnout, neglect, apathy or ignorance. We're all gonna need a little help from our friends. And some of those friends are going to be paid $10/hour, work double shifts and be inadequately trained. To treat caregiving as a valued profession, complete with a decent salary and opportunities for advancement, is where we should also set our sails.

Margueritaville won't work for 60 and 70 year olds any better than for 20, 30 or 40 year olds, displaced from a meaningful work life by robots and artificial intelligence. Opioids, not Margueritaville, are the answer for many without the resources, or government "entitlements" like Social Security, or corporate entitlements like funded pension plans. Better to put people in hibernation for trips to distant stars than a vacuous life of hedonistic pleasure. Pleasure should be the desert, not the meal. But there are other alternatives out there. Has anyone mentioned "Soylent Green" or "Logan's Run"?

Well it's good to know that in at least this part of the country the most ardent parrot-heads are well contained.

I hope this is the alternative to the Villages. The Villages are Red, like Republican, Racist, Russian, NRA Red. If Margaretavillle gives more liberal, intelligent seniors a place to live together, that fills an important need. Could really help the state of Florida too. One little concern though: everyone in the photos are white. We all know it's the African-American women that are leading the nation out of its nativist, nationalist, racist errors. To me the perfect 'Margaretaville' includes at least 10% African-Americans, 10% Asians, 10% Hispanics, 10% Muslims, and 10% Jews. And one yoga center for them all to share... ;)

Places like Margaritaville are first and foremost a business venture, an attempt by the experienced developer Minto Communities to hone their brand and skills. They have created a carefully coiffed community, with a specific message, vibe, and culture. This one happens to be Caribbean Fun, a make-believe resort where you live. They are designed with the "wants" of the customer in mind. Someone living in a Caribbean resort will want easy access to great food, simple entertainment, meeting friendly people, and in this case most of the restaurants and amenities to be priced within a lower middle-class price point. Such "senior" communities do not have staying power. Their goal is to provide senior living, which at its center requires consideration for long-term varied types and levels of healthcare. Good healthcare is expensive. This is the Achilles's Heel of any senior living community. Margaritaville's branding glosses over any attempt to provide healthcare or ready access to residents. Instead it subtly gives the idea that "we are a community of friends - and your friends will take care of you." Margaritaville sounds like a fool's folly, where customers are brought in by "the pitch" of an endless party where you stay "young" and dance and drink. But the reality is, the community is simply a set of houses surrounded by "fun" tiki huts. This is a branded masterful marketing effort, with no provision for long-term healthcare. Buyer beware!

Buffett is a brand marketing genius. I just hope that these people mind their P's & Q's (pints & quarts) and make sure that their meds mix well with alcohol. But hey, who I am to judge? If you want to check out, dancing poolside, to Cheeseburger in Paradise with a stuffed parrot on your shoulder, why not? Spend those kid's inheritances too, all of it.

I'm 74, live on a farm in Ohio, and make what are lovingly called trash film (good short movies made with a minimum of skill that people love watching). I'm writing from Mexico City where two of my films are being screened at STUFFMX film festival. I've also followed my films to Germany, Serbia and Spain this year, and will go to Montevideo in December. I do have the good fortune to be able to travel to festivals that love my work, but I would still be making film even if I couldn't. Margueritaville would be a place for me to go to die. To those in their 70s and 80s, I would merely say: launch a new career. You don't need to be the best at it. Just enjoy it and see where it takes you. For me, If I live to be 124, I'll still be making movies.

Surely you jest... The future of aging in America is – and has been, for some time – NYC... Same things that attract tourists – in increasing numbers – appeal to old people... > Museums > Parks and Botanical Gardens and Zoos > Broadway and Lincoln Center > Several hundred distinct interesting neighborhoods – each with several to several dozen great places to eat or walk > Great Universities > Lots of other old people Now, with the trend to fast casual – and very affordable – dining... Even before that, lost track of the number of times have walking toward a restaurant on 2nd or 3rd or 8th or 9th Ave – and ate instead at someplace along the way because it looked so good... Take a municipal bus or commuter ferry during non rush-hours.... On the boat the first week it went to Rockaway – saw whales while walking the reconstructed boardwalk... Subways don’t even pretend to go where they’re supposed to – on some lines on some weekends... Have become absolute pizza and soup dumpling snobs... Had croissants at Almondine, when no lines – or any other food places, within several blocks... Know every TKTS location – and when to arrive... Best ever there – fifth-row center orchestra for “Cats”...Walked by the booth at 2 PM – no one else in line... One last shout-out – to all of the aging-in-place NYC denizens who set the stage for all of this... Am on to you – all of the anarchistic and argumentative stuff – just trying to make sure not too many people move into the nabe...

And just out of curiosity, what if you haven't had a drink in 25 years and don't intend to? Seems like the "fun" is in the salted drinks, and a sad deniel of death. I would rather live a sober life, then choose the time of my own passing.

My takeaway from this booze-centric article is "30 percent of those 65 and older have an annual income below $23,000" I'm one of those folks and this stuff, once again, is only for the affluent. When you see me, put a coin in my cup, wouldja?

Personally, a Greek island or an EU town with a declining population issue (and a good train line) sounds much more interesting. Simple matches aging's diminished skills.

The scenario here has been tried before...for a different point of view, read "Leisureville: Adventures in a World Without Children".

People are different and viva la difference. We want some togetherness, we want some privacy. We want people of different ages to be part of our community. We like summer, fall, winter, spring. Contrasts spice up life. And it is too easy to make a decision that locks you into a community for life so be cautious.

I am so hoping that life extension techniques will advance at a breakneck speed over the next 10 years so that I could stay relatively young forever. Old age is no fun.

Great song, that's about it.

Rumor has it that the final phase being built onto Margaritaville's over 55 community is - The Grateful Dead section. What a long strange trip it's been.

Never mind sinkholes, rising sea levels, and more destructive hurricanes in a season it’s harder to reason with (right, Jimmy?), the entire premise behind this venture is increasingly shown to be nothing more than false assumptions based on a faulty misunderstanding of the difference between lifespans and longevity. See this for details: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20181002-how-long-did-ancient-people-live-life-span-versus-longevity

This was a pretty long piece, but some quick thoughts as I was reading it... Fear of death creates fear of aging, and with it, inevitable death. Why do we fear it so much? Because society has beaten it into our heads, that it's to be avoided or prolonged at all costs. We have expressions like 'death and taxes'...'I'd rather be dead', etc. Much in life (and death) is about perception. We fear death because it's the 'unknown', but yet... every day of our lives is the unknown, for we never know what the next hour may bring...how our lives could forever change with one phone call...with one step off the sidewalk... No one has come back from the dead to confirm that indeed, we have something to fear. So for me, it's not that scary. Sure, it's 'final' but...I'd rather that than endless existence. If you fear becoming old, ergo unwanted, discarded, 'invisible', so it will be. 'Own' your age. Be a spectacular older person. Have friends of all ages. Volunteer. Dress spectacularly. And when life gets in the way of all that, improvise as best you can. Go to a dance, set up a chair (or your wheelchair) in the middle of the floor, and move your torso as best you can. Enjoy the music. Decorate your walker with metallic tape all around the legs. Instead of a basic geriatric looking cane, buy a purple cane or a fancy walking stick. Etc. Re: dementia/Alz., we need to learn from those amazing Dutch! https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-hogewey-dementia-village-2017-7

I didn’t need convincing, but this confirms that I have no interest in being in such a community. The social aspect is positive, but my idea of fun is not to have a margarita. I didn’t do that when I was young, and I won’t develop a taste now that I’m 67. Living in a city, with the more cultural options, the better, is what I would choose. I compromise by traveling, and will, so long as I am able. For example, within a few days in January you can catch a great Monet exhibit and an impressive Bruegel exhibit, take in a concert and maybe an opera in Vienna. That is my idea of fun! And to add to the mental stimulation, figuring out the layout of a city I haven’t been to before, figuring out how their public tranportation system works (I love good public tranportation systems - do you have that in Margaritaville?) is great for using the brain. I’m all for helping seniors to live in cities, with public libraries, and all the wonderful things that cities have to offer!

I work as a home health physical therapist and have seen a vast range of living arrangements for seniors including having younger relatives move in to help or trading reduced or free rent of an extra bedroom for personal care services. Senior living is as varied as seniors themselves. In senior communities, the benefit of a close knit community is a bit of a double edged sword. Everyone knows everyone which can be great but for many, the loss of privacy and intrusive neighbors are annoying. But when someone loses a spouse or companion, neighbors appear with food, cards, flowers, and offers of assistance. One misleading point in the article asserts that to avoid disaster, we will need to develop new technology and convince seniors to congregate. In general, if there is a technology need, there is already a solution, tub transfer benches to allow safe showers, devices to help people dress, smart pill boxes that will automatically tell your loved one to take their medications at the correct time and will contact a daughter or doctor if they don't. If you live in Florida or Arizona or other hubs of retirees, the notion that seniors don't congregate is laughable. (Just try and elbow your way through the walkers to the early bird specials at some popular restaurants here in Sarasota.)

My in-laws moved into a new 55+ community some years ago. Having had older parents myself whom I helped care for before they passed, I asked my in-laws what in-home care, public transportation and other key services for seniors were available for them in the area. "Oh, we don't need any of that -- all of us neighbors will take care of each other!" Fast forward 10 years, and the community is filled with people who rapidly can't take care of themselves, much less their neighbors. Spouses are ill or dying. Major medical and mental health needs abound, and the already struggling surrounding small rural community didn't (or more frankly couldn't afford to) develop the health and related infrastructure to support what is a sudden population boom of 7,000 increasingly medically needy people. While AI may offer some support somewhere down the line, these communities are -- like Margaritaville -- a state of mind, but not a state of reality.

I live in a retirement town half an hour out of Tucson. We have neighborhoods for people who live on 23K a year and there are millionaires here too. We are united by our membership ($500 a year) in Green Valley Recreation which provides us with the choice of a dozen pools and rec centers, half a dozen gyms, clubs for just about any interest at all, live entertainment and so much more. If you are bored here, it is your own fault. Did I mention volunteer opportunities, a huge array of courses, not just from Green Valley Recreation but also from the U of AZ. All this is close by, plus shopping, movies, and lots of natural and historic attractions. With a good sized city close by we have a plethora of dining and cultural opportunities available too. What most of us wanted was not to be bored and isolated in our retirement years. We know that the future may bring huge challenges, but the resources that may be required are also available here too. Because Green Valley is half a century old most of the kinks have been worked out, which may not be the case with these newer towns. Plus Arizona is so much prettier and more interesting than Florida!

"If you make it to your 65th birthday in the U.S. today, you can expect about 20 more years and have a good chance at 30." My observation is that, conceptually, those 30 years can be divided into three parts. The first is Retirement Stage 1, where people whoop it up and -- at long last -- enjoy the heat and light generated when we light candles at both ends. That is what we are reading about today, in this column. Retirement Stage 2 kicks in when people start looking down the road and thinking, "I don't want to end up like that," or "I don't want that happening to me". Visions and examples of human mortality rear up to be taken into account or ignored. Talk of "Independent Living" and "Assisted Living" become part of our vocabularies. Retirement Stage 3 is when Nature seriously begins taking back the gifts that were bestowed upon us when we were young: mobility, balance, cognition, hearing, memory, vision, strength. Where do we get skilled nursing services? Who will provide us with memory care? How far must we travel? How will we get there? Will I have to move? Again? There is no Retirement Stage 4. We can take the future as it comes, or we can prepare for it. Unfortunately, in this country, the tolls on the road that many people wish to travel are impossibly high.

Although I fully agree with the knowledge that life's meaning is important, it is odd to think that it only applies to a particular age group. I think we need to redefine retirement from a stage of downshifting to one that is rediscovery.

I have a friend who has lived in the Villages in Florida for several years now. She loves it-multiple pools, golf courses, restaurants, great shopping, movie theaters, interest groups, lessons, clubs. Also it is very easy to leave and travel the world which she does also. There is no lawn maintenance either but everything is kept up nicely. Also there are golf cart paths, well lit, everywhere and you can stay off the roads with cars. The houses are nice as well and under $225,000 to start at the lower level as I recall. This still gets you 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a nice kitchen and patio. The biggest problem according to her: a shortage of local doctors and less than tertiary care hospitals. This is a big unmet need considering the population. Maybe this will change. It is not in the most glamorous part of Florida but is also not on the coast. This is probably a good thing due to the bigger and bigger hurricanes. They were very friendly folks. Maybe they could be asked to sometimes take in evacuees ?

I never imaged moving to a 55+ community after retirement. However, my husband and I soon realized that our suburban community no longer met our senior needs; too much yard work, a lack of senior fitness activities, and isolation. One of the best decisions we ever made was to move to an active senior community in Florida.

When I was in college, I proposed older people live and interact with college students. Children, mature people and the old were absent on college campuses - making the environment culturally unreal. Having older people interact with college students benefited both: young people learned from the older generation, and older people socialized with young people. At 68, I wish I lived in such an environment, but with kids too since I choose not to have children. Everyone understands the smile-happiness value of toddlers! And being on an income of about $23,000 a year, there's no way I can manage any of that.

It's a real challenge thinking about what to do with yourself when you are old. For those lucky enough to be both old and healthy, it's time we were offered some new choices like the ones mentioned here. I'm astonished to read in this article the suggestion that town planners "don't know what old people want." Why don't you ask them. We want the same thing everyone does, to live in relative harmony within a community of close friendships with the things that matter, such as some home-cooking, a couple of good drinks (for those who do) along with easy, secure lifelines to family, visitors, friends and neighbors. We need ready, affordable transportation and access to shopping and entertainment. I can't remember who introduced me to the concept of downsizing but it's one of the best things that ever happened to me. Few people really enjoy sitting at home doing nothing. Almost all my time is spent at work, outdoors or with friends, so living in a small space isn't a hardship, and offers great financial value. Lastly, it always makes me smile when people discuss the concept of fun. Fun is what you make it. Fun is something so essential. It has to be allowed, provided, or invented. Fun is something we all live for. It seems to me a lot of senior communities miss the boat on this one. It's about time we started thinking and talking more about fun !

Why on earth would anyone move to an area where hurricanes are increasing in force today? Does anyone believe that it will be easier for these seniors to evacuate or batten down their houses to take the force of a hurricane and live through electricity outages, flooding, etc?