Sun City's age police hunts down young as economy forces families to move in with grandparents

[Liberal_in_LA]

Retirement Haven Hunts Youthful Violators

Sun City Journal
Retirement Haven Hunts Youthful Violators
Joshua Lott for The New York Times
By MARC LACEY
Published: August 28, 2010

SUN CITY, Ariz. — From behind the wheel of his minivan, Bill Szentmiklosi scours the streets of Sun City in search of zoning violations like unkempt yards and illegal storage sheds. Mostly, though, he is on the lookout for that most egregious of all infractions: children.

Jane Freeman, 90, has lived in Sun City, a pioneer retirement community, for 40 years. Bill Pearson, 62, is the city museum’s resident historian.

With a clipboard of alleged violations to investigate, he peers over fences and ambles into backyards of one of America’s pioneer retirement communities, a haven set aside exclusively for adults, where children are allowed to visit but not live.

Mr. Szentmiklosi, 60, a retired police officer who settled here four years ago, has remade himself as the chief of Sun City’s age police, the unit charged with ensuring that this age-restricted community of sexagenarians, septuagenarians and even older people does not become a refuge for the pacifier-sucking, ball-playing or pimple-faced.

One recent morning, as he slowly wheeled between ranch homes and palm trees, Mr. Szentmiklosi kept a sharp eye on the driveways and yards, surveying for any obvious signs of youth. It could be a stray ball, a misplaced pint-size flip-flop. In sniffing out children, he said, he relies on his three decades as an officer.

But it is when he strides up to a home, dressed in shorts, sandals and a polo shirt, and knocks on the door that his detective work really begins. He tells the suspected violator that a neighbor has complained and he asks gentle questions to get to the bottom of things, all the while peering around for signs of youthful activity. His work is helped by a simple reality: children are hard to hide.

They leave tracks and make unique sounds. Newborns bellow, toddlers shriek and teenagers play music that is not typical around Sun City.

Mr. Szentmiklosi and his fellow child-hunters have their work cut out for them. The number of age violations in Sun City, a town of more than 40,000 residents outside Phoenix, has been rising markedly over the years, from 33 in 2007 to 121 in 2008 to 331 last year, a reflection of a trend at many of the hundreds of age-restricted communities nationwide.

This year’s figures are expected to be even higher, said Mr. Szentmiklosi, who knows that despite his patrols Sun City is probably harboring more children that have not yet been detected. The economic crisis is aggravating the problem, he said, forcing families to take desperate measures to cut costs, even if it means surreptitiously moving into Grandma and Grandpa’s retirement bungalow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/us/29children.html?hpw

[Crazy Dave]

1. Typical of deed restricted communities

It's what people want when they move in and willingly sign a contract but when they want to change their minds and break the rules then it's ok. That's only when "they" break the rules. It's not ok and they're the first ones who will turn in their neighbors if they break the rules.

[RKP5637]

2. Yep, typical human behavior... It's OK for me if I decide so, but not for you. I've seen

so many often move into HOA housing developments which require a certain look and then if they decide to violate what they said they wanted, then they scream bloody murder when sanctioned.

[aikoaiko]

16. reminds me of basic game theory

It pays off best when everyone else follows the rules, but I cheat every now and then.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[XemaSab]

4. I think the creepy thing is that the residents tolerate (nay, encourage) a full-time narc

The people next door to us are redneck trash who have had a toilet in their front yard for months.

I would call the city and complain, but we have three dogs who sometimes bark, and we also have wood and mulch stacked on the side of the house.

I know I live in a glass house, so throwing stones at the trashy neighbors doesn't seem like a cool thing to do.

I don't know how anyone there thinks it's cool to have a dude who rides around looking for code violations when the odds are that EVERYONE will be in violation at some time or another. Can't they all just get along?

[demosincebirth]

5. When you move in, they have many rules that you agree to and sign

[Edweird]

11. We're not talking about a Trans-Am on blocks, this about family 1 step away from homelessness.

That makes the Sun City 'Columbo' a d!ck.

[dionysus]

14. +1

[pipi_k]

15. The family one step away from homelessness...

what if they didn't have any relatives with which they could live?

What would their Plan B entail?

I know you don't know the answer to that, but it's something I wonder...what would they do if they didn't have grandma and grandpa...

and what if 15 or 20 other elderly residents have kids in a similar situation? Let one do it, and you have to be fair and let everyone do it.

[Edweird]

17. I have no family and nowhere to turn. My 'plan B' is my Chevy Suburban.

This 'detective' is a self-important @sshole.
"Let one do it, and you have to be fair and let everyone do it." - Given how bad things are and how they are not improving, I am not against this. I would be perfectly ok with a (temporary) national suspension of age restrictions.

[seattleblue]

20. The whole purpose of Sun City and similar communities is age restriction.

The people who live there have agreed to age restrictions and most of them want to live there because of that. They don't want younger people around. Not my idea of a community but its their idea and they have signed a contract to enforce it.

[Edweird]

21. Hm. You sure about that? I undertand the reason for the age restriction is to assure housing

the old people - not 'because they don't want kids around' (although there are no doubt people like that), but because there is a lot of need for affordable housing.
At any rate, this is about helping out family in desperate need.

[Mariana]

27. My parents are acquainted with a bunch of people

through their various social activities who live in an age restricted community in Florida. The homes there aren't cheap. They live there because they don't want kids around. That is the attraction and the whole reason for the existence of the place.

Several times I've been at my folks' house when some of them have been over to play cards or whatever, and the kids that live behind my folks made some kind of noise. They make ugly faces and say stuff like "I'm sure glad I don't have to listen to that all the time." These people would turn in their neighbors in a second for having a grandchild live with them, regardless of the circumstances.

I tell my parents I don't know how they can stand to be around those people. My parents LIKE kids and my stepdaughter lived with them while she went to college, at their invitation.

[seattleblue]

28. The people who live in Sun City are not in need of affordable housing.

[Scout]

30. +100 n/t

[KamaAina]

22. There used to be restrictive deeds based on race.

There no longer are. Is this a bad thing?

In the realm of public housing, there used to be plenty of senior and disabled communities. Then the senior lobby decided they didn't want any whippersnappers playing all that loud music, even if they did use wheelchairs. Result: A full=blown accessible housing crisis.

[seattleblue]

29. Sun City is not public housing.

The courts and legislatures decided that race restrictions were not good public policy so they were ended. That is not the case with age restrictions.

[KamaAina]

34. Public housing? These restrictions were commonplace in private developments.

William Rehnquist owned property in one. Though the deed was unenforceable, it became an issue at his confirmation.

[Mariana]

25. Lots of people don't have a plan B

or even a plan A, often through no fault of their own. That's why lots of people are in fact homeless. Circumstances don't always allow for effective plans to be made to avoid destitution, or they may make formerly well-thought-out plans unworkable.

[XemaSab]

18. Word

n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. Thank You!

:thumbsup:

[dionysus]

9. +1. some douchebag got the city to make me remove my dish for being on the side lawn of my house.

city hall said they only enforce the code when someone complains. what happens is, they told me, some landlord gets popped for a code violation, then gets pissed and scours the neighborhoods, narcing out ppl for any violation they can find. assholes.

[Skittles]

12. I call BS on many of the "complaints"

in an apt complex an upstairs neighbor asked me if I had complained about the placement of his dish - I told him, absolutely not - turns out no one had complained - they just SAID someone had :mad:

[dionysus]

13. could be... the deal in my case was, a law was passed the previous year that you can only have a

dish on a side lawn, or back lawn, not a front lawn. while the dish was on my side lawn, a side lawn on a corner also is a "front" lawn to the city.

i went to city hall to apply for a variance, and the guy at the desk told me not to bother, because...
it cost's $300 to apply for a variance, and they decline 99% of them. he said that they enforced it because i had two seperate complaints, and he explained how some people go nuts and narc ppl out once they get busted for a code violation.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

24. Actually the city can not do that

FCC claimed preemption some time ago over HOAs and local ordinances

[pipi_k]

10. But there's a difference...

It's a closed community and people know what the rules are. Kids can visit but not live there.


So unless you and your neighbors have signed contracts stating that nobody will have a barking dog or wood stacked up along the house or a toilet in the front yard, then yes...everyone just has to get along.


I don't know why people can't be allowed to have a child-free environment if that's what they want, and for people to respect the rights of others to live solely with people their own age.

If families with children are having such a tough time making ends meet, there's always the choice of having grandma and grandpa move into their home...or rent a place for all to live in away from others who never expected to have their rights to quiet violated.

[tammywammy]

19. Yes, knowing that children aren't allowed to live in the retirement community,

I wonder why grandparents moving in with their children & grandchildren wasn't an option.

There was another OP on here quite a while ago about this same thing, retirement communities and children.

edited to add: Ahh, yes this was the other story
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/retirement-community-figh_n_328396.html

Retirement Community Fights To Evict 6-Year-Old Girl

A retirement community in Largo, Florida is fighting to evict six-year-old Kimberly Broffman from the home of her grandparents Jimmy and Judie Stottler, the only parents she's ever known. According to the development's bylaws, all residents must be older than 55.

Kimberly is the only person expected to vacate the home.

Kimberly's grandparents have tried selling their house to leave the neighborhood, but because of the crash in the housing market, there are no buyers. They have lowered the price from $225,000 to $129,000.

The fight between Kimberly's grandparents and the community has been going on for years, but soon a judge will decide if the girl must leave. According to NBC News, there is a real possibility that she could be placed in state foster care.

[lib2DaBone]

6. Mr. Szentmiklosi is what they call a "Law Enforcement Leach"...

..He is obviously one paycheck away from the street himself.

He spent 30 years at some City Police Department.. now his 401K is worth nothing.

So his goal.. is to insert himself into Sun City or any other place where he can get a paycheck.

Law Enforcement is a business.. prison is a "business".

For an interesting read look up Wackenhut (Geo) Prison Systems or Correction Corporations of America.

[Snarkoleptic]

7. Wonder if he looks like the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

[Matariki]

8. BoingBoing linked to a similar article - "Top 7 insane homeowners association rules"

http://theweek.com/article/index/104150/top-7-insane-homeowners-association-rules

This one was particularly insane. The man had to stay in jail until his lawn was resodded. Reading it makes me think we live in a land of absolute mad men.

<exerpt>
The Beacon Woods Civic Association in Bayonet Point, Florida, took 66-year old resident Joseph Prudente to court for failing to properly maintain his lawn after a $600-per-month increase to his adjustable rate mortgage threw him on hard times. Though Prudente was ultimately jailed for failing to resod his lawn, other members of the community took pity on the faulty landscaper, and paid for new sod, flowers, mulching, and functioning sprinklers. Their charity was enough to spring their elderly neighbor from the slammer, but Prudente still faces court and association fines.

[TransitJohn]

23. Mr. Szentmiklosi at work

[JCMach1]

26. One big reason to outlaw deed restricted communities!

Age discrimination plain and simple...

[booley]

31. Yeah they are breaking the rules BUT

.. And it's a pretty big but, the alternative seems to be their kids become homeless.

If it was me I would cringe at the possibility of getting in trouble but I sure couldn't turn my kids away because of some contract. This isn't about the grass being too high or a car on the lawn. This is a sign of our failing economy and people's desperation.

Seriously, what does it say about us a people when words on a piece of paper mean more then human beings?

[TwilightGardener]

33. I have never understood why some old people want to segregate themselves

from young people. As I grow older myself, I can't imagine anything sadder and lonelier than being surrounded by no one but old farts 95% of the time. When we put my grandma in a nursing home, she looked around and hissed that it was full of nothing but OLD PEOPLE. My sentiments exactly.