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1st Impressions Mask Community's True Makeup

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 15, 2007

Updated: 12/14/2007 09:56 pm

Recently, I heard on the radio that the city of Clearwater had placed dead last as a desirable retirement destination. The poll cited too many old people as the reason for its lack of appeal.

As a resident of west Pasco County, I had to laugh. Clearwater is practically juvenile compared to our neck of the woods.

Seven years ago, I moved into a lovely house in Hudson in the Beacon Woods East subdivision. My assumption was that I had just crossed the border into the aging demographic of 55-plus, a land of early bird dinners and not much else. At first glance, my bias seemed astute, as I settled into my ultra-quiet Boyer Court cul de sac, filled with the trademark oversized Buicks and gray-haired retirees walking tiny dogs.

My expectations were reasonable. According to the Florida Commission on Human Relations' housing directory, there are 50 55-plus communities in Pasco County, 30 of them in Port Richey, New Port Richey, Holiday and Hudson.

My first inkling of a shifting demographic came a few days later when my Zephyrhills Water delivery boy joked that I had just moved into the land of the "newly wed and nearly dead." The mention of newlyweds created an immediate paradigm shift in my brain. I soon noticed that two doors down lived a family with two little boys. Months later, after the death of an elderly resident, the house across the street sold to a young couple with a new baby. In the past seven years, I've watch two new high schools being built, condo communities designed for empty nesters taken over by young families and the Trinity YMCA busting with young children.

My former Boyer Court cul de sac has served as a microcosm of the area's growing youthfulness. My neighbor, Cindy Corey, one of the original residents of the street, provides the background of this evolution. She and her husband, Craig, bought their house in 1986, when they were 30 and had three small children. There were only two houses on the block back then. The other was occupied by the Arnones, a retired couple. As the 12-house cul de sac was built in the next few years, the Coreys remained the only young couple. Retirees bought the other houses, except for the "drug house," as Cindy calls it. But that's another story.

Cindy reminisces about an idyllic world they thought of as a "safe place to raise children." She and Craig had moved up from St. Petersburg to escape the growing crime. Back in 1986, "There was nothing past the (Gulf View Square) Mall," she said. Little Road was two lanes that dead-ended at Fivay. The neighborhood was a nest of back roads, with Hudson Avenue just getting started. The Corey house was surrounded by wild watermelon, deer, bobcats and gopher turtles.

"We thought it would be country forever," she said.

Cindy worked as a nurse at Bayonet Point Hospital, and Craig commuted to Tampa. It took him an hour and a half or more to get work. The only movie theater was the tiny Cinema Six, and the old Hudson Library was "a little, dinky, musty, damp, wooden-floor building on old Dixie Highway." But, the schools were great.

Today, the cul de sac is a mixture of ages, with four of the original owners - including the Coreys and the now 80-plus Arnones - still on the block. My former next-door neighbors, Fred and Maureen Schallis, went from being one of the youngest couples on the street to one of the oldest in a 10-year period. Now, the once-quiet subdivision is alive with bikes, skateboards, go-karts and doll carriages.

As for me, I moved into the Heritage Lake community last year after turning 55. This 55-plus community has been around for 25 years and boasts 932 residences, 16 villages, a very active clubhouse and a gigantic heating swimming pool. While most of my immediate neighbors are in their 80s, I'm anticipating the next wave. AARP estimates that 83 percent of seniors own their own homes and that nearly 8 million of them will move in the next two years.

Apparently, the Zoomers (active, empty-nesting baby boomers) have now crossed the 55-plus mark and are heading this way.

Lynn Rothman can be reached at rothmal@phcc.edu.

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