City of the sun — and the sunset

Press, 29 April 1978, Page 16

City of the sun — and the sunset

ROBIN MEAD,

of “The Times,” reports through NZPA on one of

America’s oddest real-estate booms—and its attendant problems.

It is called Sun City, and although it has been built out in the Arizona Desert, miles from anywhere, it is one of the fastest-growing towns in the United States. It is also one of the oddest. And it is one of the richest. Its 45.000 residents include 16 millionaires and admit to having more than $BOO million on deposit in the local savings and trading banks alone. Sun City owes these peculiarities to the fact that it was built entirely for what the Americans like to call “oldsters.” Everyone who lives there is over 50, and the average age is more than 65. It is a nightmarish concept. But Sun City has been so successful, and property there is so much in demand, that work is now beginning on an adjoining twin town called Sun City West — a develop-

ment which will eventually boost the population to 105.000. The twin town will be a planner’s dream. Most of the $30,000 to $40,000 houses will be built around golf courses, which stand out like green oases in the stark Arizona scenery. There are superb medical

and sporting facilities, and the towns have brought jobs to what was once an economically hard-pressed area.

But the people of Maricopa County, the area which includes these boom towns, are not at all happy. They say that Sun City is a drain on county resources, and add unkindly that a better name for the

township would be “Sunset City.”

When it comes to setting up a city government to run local affairs and provide local services, the oldsters of Sun City are just not interested. “They simply say, ‘l’m retired and I am out here to have fun, leave me alone,’ ” said Mr

Ellis Danner, president of the Horne Owners’ Association, one of the four rival civic groups which run Sun City voluntarily. “The county say that we are a drain on things like sanitation and police services because of our size, and the problem is going to get worse,” Mr Danner said. “But we have

no industry here, so we need a larger tax base for proper local services. Being part of the county provides such a base.”

To back up this point of view, Sun City can produce a formidable and very articulate array of professional talent. The residents include former

lawyers, Government officials, high-ranking military officers, and educationists, all with friends in high places and a readiness to make themselves heard.

A 71-year-old retired policeman from Cleveland, Ohio, who was playing bowls on one of the town’s many greens, said: “I work in the house a little.

moved here to get away from the cold and the snow in winter and to relax — not to get involved in local politics. 1 have paid my taxes all these years, and now all 1 want is to be left alone. The county authorities will just have too look after us.”

The degree of looking after is considerable. Sun City’s streets are jammed with big air-conditioned cars, with the electric golf carts which the population have adopted as their favourite mode of transport for local journeys, and with old but healthily bronzed inhabitants warmed by Arizona sun which shines most days of the year. They enjoy the facilities of 10 golf courses and seven recreation centres equipped with vast swimming pools.

But, as if to remind them that the days of wine and roses do not last for ever.

the street signs are often accompanied by a notice giving the location of the nearest oxygen inhaler.

There are three funeral parlours, a host of nursing homes, and the tallest building between the White Tanks Mountains in the north and downtown Phoenix, 30 miles to the south, is the triple-towered Walter O. Boswell Memorial Hospital. But the people of Sun City are happy. They claim that they do their bit for the country by providing a lot of service jobs, doing an almost embarrassing amount of voluntary work, and filling the banks to overflowing. And they like things the way they are.

“there are no hotrodding teen-agers here.” one of them said. “N.o kids making a noise. No through traffic, because there’s nowhere to go through to.”