U.S. baby boomers have been on the planet for nearly 70 years, long enough to reshape almost every aspect of American life. Rock culture, consumerism and political activism are part of their legacy.
So too are the lasting changes they've made to the landscape. The Villages, a massive master-planned retirement development in Florida, is a case in point.
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Schwartz’s son H. Gary Morse, who died in 2014, and the family-held Holding Company of the Villages drew boomers to their multi-billion-dollar enterprise with visions of a care-free, play-filled lifestyle for their final years.
Like the suburbs of the baby boomers’ youth, The Villages is 98 percent white and affluent.
All of which begs the question: What happens to this landscape when the boomers are gone, leaving behind generations that have shown themselves to be less enthralled by golf and more at home in the melting pot of the city?