Where are all the Boomers going?



The following are excerpts from two of many articles I have found that address baby boomer retirement. I believe we need to examine the boomers and adjust our community values to both attract and accommodate the "new" generation of retirees. Currently more than 75% of our property owners are retired and relatively affluent. Strip mall and hotel developers are not going to reinvigorate our residential community and return home values to where they should be. If we wait for outside interests to create some sort of commercial presence in five to ten years from now, we may miss an opportunity to make our own changes that we will most likely have to make eventually, if we want to remain a viable community. The 2010 census shows that Longboat had a shift in demographics where the number of residents decreased by 41% in a decade. The generation that made Longboat great are no longer here. We need to find a way to welcome a new generation.  The boomers are the answer and we need to find a way to bring them to our community.


Retiring Boomers Impact Demand For Housing

By MARCI SHATZMAN, October 11, 2009

Jeffrey Katz has been selling real estate for seven years to house hunters in the adult communities, and in the past two years he's noticed something new. "Boomers are focused on how old the community is," said Katz, who's with REMAX/Advantage in western Boynton Beach. They think a new community will attract younger seniors. "They want to be among their contemporaries and not their parents' [generation]," he said. Katz said 90 percent of his clients are Baby Boomers who are moving here to retire or buy a second home.

Baby Boomers take on Retirement


May 2, 2010 By Joni
 
The active lifestyle that baby boomers have enjoyed throughout their working life continues into their retirement life. It isn’t enough to just be not working anymore. They demand more from life. Everything this generation does is studied and surveyed. They were the first to be targeted by market analysts and set new standards for generations to come. How business markets to the boomers has also changed. The priorities set by the boomers, no matter what the venue, have become the standard across the country.


The activity level of the newly retired has also impacted our communities. Well known for their activism in political and social issues their entire lives, this generation has brought that energy to their personal lives as well. No longer is a house in the suburbs enough. Now communities are being built to once again feed the need of this aging generation. These communities include a wide variety of amenities to attract these seniors. Fitness centers, walking trails, social outlets and hi-tech security systems are the new standard for these neighborhoods. Convenience to shopping and community centers located nearby is a must. Golf courses, complete with a country club atmosphere, are hi-lights that are very attractive to the active senior and not to be ignored.

We are at a difficult juncture between two generations that has a particularly profound impact on retirement and second home communities. Longboat Key is unusual in that it is almost entirely retirement oriented. On top of that the climate encourages a majority of the residents to seek cooler places for much of the summer. Additionally, aside from the village at the north end, a predominance of large condominium complexes and the lack of a viable community center do not contribute to a sense of community. Each condominium is in a sense self-sufficient. We have wonderful clubs and organizations that are made possible by the efforts of dedicated individuals. We have the Key Club that is the jewel of the island. However, the club is more exclusive than inclusive because of high membership costs that prevent a majority of Longboat  residents from finding a sense of community there. Times have changed. Boomer studies are revealing that the next retirement generation wants to belong. They are active and social.

Longboat Key offers an unusually attractive shopping experience only a few minutes away at the circle and downtown Sarasota. Many thriving retirement communities would love to have such sophisticated shopping so close at hand. I lived for a time in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. On a good day it might take an hour of fighting traffic congestion to reach shops in Beverly Hills. And those were weekdays.

What we do not yet have to offer the boomers is that sense of being part of a vibrant social and active community. Yes we have amenities but they are underdeveloped. We need to open up our beaches to perspective residents. Bike riding on this island is at times dangerous. I have been in many communities that have in the past decade adjusted to the times and created new and attractive activity experiences for their residents. Perhaps the time has come to also change with the times. It could be fun.

A Need for Pluralism in Government

The 2000 census had 65% of our population over 65 and a median age of 67. The median age of homes in Longboat Key was 22 years, with 4% of them rented. 60% or more of the homes on Longboat are not occupied most of the year. An unknown percentage of our homes are homesteaded by residents who summer off-island, which adds to our seasonal fluctuation in population. 75% of our residents are retired.

The 2010 census may show that we and our homes are 10 years older now. The median age may be considerably older. The average home age will most likely exceed 30 years. We already know that Longboat lost more than 2,400 residents between 2005 and 2010. It will be interesting to see if the percentage of non-resident ownership has increased. This will be a good indicator of the direction our community is headed in the next few years. We may want to find some way of reversing these trends.

I grew up in Larchmont NY. I recently returned to my childhood community and found a vibrant prospering community where the average house is perhaps 60 to 80 years old. The homes are well maintained and worth a fortune relative to their size and age. I mention Larchmont to counter certain politicians who tell us our community is aging and we need hotels and more stores to being us back to life. By comparison Larchmont is a fossil compared to the age of our homes.

I believe that certain business interests along with a clique of pro-developer, pro-business expansion minded residents have formed an informal political entity on this island that discourages anyone, who is not of their ilk, from running for public office or town boards.

I have talked to dozens of residents over the past three years, urging them to run for commission. Alas, not a single resident wanted to confront the political colossus that has emerged within our community. Several residents have said that they did not want to put out the effort only to end up as an ineffectual member of the commission or a board, who is ignored or treated rudely by those who are currently in power. The result is that the voice of those residents who do not want to see our residential community commercialized has, for the present, been effectively silenced.

If the current pro-developer, pro-business majority on the commission and the planning and zoning board want to thwart a robust and healthy political process on this island, one need only look at this year's non-election to see that is exactly what is occurring.

My questions to you are threefold. One, do you believe that having elections where no one runs are beneficial to our community? Two, do you believe that having a "politically correct" commission and planning board promotes new innovations? Three, do you feel that increasing commercial development will have a beneficial impact on the value of your home?

We are currently creating a political vacuum on this island as a result of the ascendancy to power of a cohesive pro-commercialization political group. This group of people have effectively choked-off any political opposition to the degree that no one is willing to challenge incumbents. Favored candidates can count on the support of several community organizations and groups.

Positions on the commission and the various community boards look like a game of musical chairs. Commissioners reach term-limits and return to positions on boards they had previously occupied. We have ex-commissioners returning to office a second time. It is difficult to find a new face in the crowd.

For perhaps the last five years an island clique has been forming a miniature Rolodex of political players who all think along similar lines. Our community has reached a point where no one, who is not in the group, wants to occupy positions on the commission or the various boards.

Anyone who is considering running for office is confronted by a unified group that now controls our community's politics. If you do not agree with the group then you will be confronted by a daunting opposition that has proven to be quite effective if one looks at recent elections and board appointments.

Is having in effect a single political party good for Longboat? If people with intelligent new ideas are discouraged from participating in local government, then how will beneficial change come about? Are we better off having a small group of like-minded people control who is allowed to serve in local government? Does it trouble you that no one offers to run for office, election after election? Last year was different. The Key Club played a major role in our election process. The results demonstrated that commercial interests have finally managed to gain control of town government.

The next mayor of Longboat Key should be, by tradition, Bob Seikman. However, Comm. Seikman does not appear to be part of "the group" and more than one columnist has written about who the next mayor may be. If commissioner Seikman is denied being mayor then all I have written in this piece will be in a sense prophetic.

I feel I need to repeat that I believe the town government needs to focus on the issues that confront our residents such as public amenities and activities, better utilization of public spaces, improving our community image and better community marketing instead of the interests of a few business owners. Certainly businesses on our island need as much help as we can give them. If the commission wanted to immediately help our local business owners, they would not force them to pay taxes for beach dredging as if they were located in the "A" beach tax district, when all but a few are located east of GMD in the "B" tax district. If I owned a business on Longboat I would feel singled out.

Where is our commission when it comes to our taxpaying residents? I see most of the commission's efforts directed towards the Key Club and expanding commercial interests on Longboat, while the rest of our community is left to languish in economic despair.

The Chimera of Tourism on Longboat Key



Chimera [ chi·mae·ra ] something totally unrealistic or impractical: a wildly unrealistic idea or hope or a completely impractical plan.

Many years have passed since the voters of Longboat approved a referendum to allow rebuilding 250 tourist units on the island. To date not a single unit has been spoken for. How many more years will it take before there is once again a thriving tourist presence on the island. Even the remaining tourist rooms  on the island go unfilled much of the time. If you are waiting for tourists to one day return to  Longboat to purchase your home, you may be here longer than you intended.

"Governor Rick Scott considers 'destination casinos' for Florida"


Would the Key Club expansion make an attractive and exclusive gaming casino? I do not believe the great majority of Longboat Key residents want to see a gambling casinos in our community. However, gambling will attract all sorts of tourists and day visitors. If Loeb Partners want to build a casino, and Tallahassee mandates "destination casinos", will Longboat residents have a say,  since this commission has greatly relaxed our land use codes? Be careful what you wish for.

This week the Longboat commissioners received an invitation from the Sarasota County Economic Development Council to attend the EDC's seminar on How to Market to the Baby Boomers. I have devoted a previous column to the idea that the fastest and most realistic approach to re-vitalizing our island community is to attract the Boomers, to our beautiful exclusive island community, as home buyers. Once again I will emphasize that Longboat Key does not appear in anyone's list of the 100 best places to live or retire in America. We really should be in the top five on every list if we want to attract new residents to our island. I believe this is simply insufficient marketing on our part and that with more effort we can gain high national and international visibility as a very desirable place to live, retire or vacation.

Unless the Sarasota area somehow magically creates a large vibrant business and industrial infrastructure, no one is going to be able to find the high paying career positions they would need to move to Longboat Key as working-age families.  Dr. Fishkind has assured us they are on their way if we build the new Key Club. Hopefully they will eventually come to our island. However, I doubt that will be any time soon if they need to work for a living.

We need to see what other communities, that are effectively attracting Baby Boomers, are doing to be successful community marketers. Much of Longboat real estate is priced at a level that has been seriously impacted by the recession. Many Baby Boomers have suffered economic reversals. But there are millions of Boomers who have the money and the mobility to make Longboat their new home. We simply need to attract them, and they will see what we see in our paradisaical community.

Perhaps we need yet another resident committee to do the research and the work to analyze what the Baby Boomers are looking for, and then formulate a path forward for our community for the next decade.

At the end of the day, if no one knows Longboat Key is here, if our marketing message gets lost in the marketing clamor for new residents, our community will most likely recover more slowly than more energetic communities. If one looks at the Anna Maria Island communities one sees a vibrancy that appears to be lacking on our island. There are more things for people to do on Anna Maria. 1000 residents of the Villages play Pickleball. There is a very active Pickleball league on Anna Maria. You may not want to participate in community social activities, but Boomer home-buyers might. http://www.usapa.org/ I personally know numbers of Longboat residents who regularly drive to Anna Maria to use their community center and play Pickleball.

Rather than let the county potion of our community center land lie fallow year after year, perhaps the town could request that Sarasota county use some of our tens of millions in taxes to build a few Boccceball and Pickleball courts. These facilities cost less than $5,000 each to implement and would greatly improve our community image. Longboat has a sizable infrastructure fund we receive from tourist taxes. Perhaps those funds might be used to provide much needed activities on our island. Let's not be "Deadboat Key".

Perhaps we need a whole lot more residential retirement community marketing and a whole lot less energy spent planning for commercial tourism, that may take decades to materialize.

All Together Now

The median age of Longboat Key residents is 68. We are an upscale residential community composed  for the most part, of retirees, many of whom spend only a few weeks a year on the island. Whether we like it or not that is our major demographic, and we as a community must deal with what we are.

I read a comment in one of the newspapers some time ago that used the term "Deadboat Key". I have spoken to several real estate sales people who have said that younger home buyers do not want to live on Longboat because it is "unfriendly" and there is nothing to do. Is that true?

I live in the village. Here, the residents are out and about in the neighborhood. It is a friendly welcoming enclave of modest homes. Every month we have a village get-together and potluck dinner. Anyone is welcome. The village has several activity groups and a lively social network. I have lived in the village over 25 years and it is the best place I have ever lived. Most of my friends and neighbors share my appreciation for the kicked-back friendly intimate lifestyle we enjoy.

I believe Longboat needs to become more user-friendly. Even though some people do not want our island to be known as a community of affluent retired people, that is what we are if you look at our population.

I have always supported the tennis center because I believe it enriches the lives of hundreds of our residents and offers a popular social activity to visitors and perspective home buyers.

Even though tennis is a good physical activity, along with golf and of course swimming in the beautiful gulf, many of our residents may be interested in less strenuous activities such as Bocce Ball and other outdoor activities requiring less stamina than tennis. Our climate may discourage many residents from participating in the more active social activities such as golf or tennis much of the year. Perhaps a few town Bocce Ball and shuffleboard courts with shaded seating might allow residents to get out more and find social interactions year-round.

I want to promote many more community activities that draw the residents together, provide more social activity choices and improve our image as a great place to live and buy a home.

The town has an infrastructure fund with proceeds from the tourism taxes collected by the counties. Perhaps a small portion of those funds might be used to create and promote social activities on Longboat to be enjoyed by all. Other communities such as "The Villages", an upscale planned retirement community on central Florida, have a robust social activities infrastructure that is well attended and supported by the residents.

Here are a few ideas I have that might be worth examining:



Bocce Ball courts can add utility to our existing parks at relatively little cost. Shaded seating affords residents the opportunity to exercise and meet other island residents in relative comfort year-round. Perhaps the town could organize league play and even an invitational tournament that would attract off-island players to our island as the triathlon drew hundreds of contestants to Longboat for a day.

I have a friend who moved from Longboat to "The Villages" several years ago, and is still happy with their decision. My friend loves all the community social activities that are available. Weekly dances in the village squares are very popular as are outdoor activities. We have ample room in one of our parks to install an outdoor dance floor with appropriate LED lighting. Add a DJ and you have a starlit evening to enjoy.

Longboat has no centralized organization to promote and manage community activities. Perhaps we need one. It is a lot of effort for our residents to sponsor activities which tend to be restricted to a particular condominium association or neighborhood. Perhaps we might all enjoy more community-wide activities. The St. Jude's luncheon and various other fundraising functions are always well supported.

If the town managed weekly potluck dinners in the park then they would be able to manage attendence each week. If the town installed numbers of shaded outdoor picnic tables and benches in the public areas, perhaps more people would organize activities in the parks. With a median age of 68, I doubt that many of our residents want to have to stand in the hot sun to be a part of an otherwise enjoyable community social gathering.

I believe our community needs to find more ways to come together and to offer an expanded living experience to residents and visitors alike. Perhaps local government is the most able to create and organize community resources in an intentional effort to grow our community.

We need to be a part of the competition to attract the baby boomers to Longboat. The current retiring generation has different asperations than the people who built our community a generation ago. The boomer's aspirations are more active, and if one looks at "The Villages" they want an increased sense of community.

We can easily increase social interaction on Longboat in a number of ways. Certainly a community center will be a major asset in attracting new residents. In the meantime, there are many other activities that can be organized.

Perhaps the vision plan might address community activities more and pay less attention to the tourists.