Who The Heck Is Carol Vinzant And Who Cares About Her Opinion Anyway
Carol Vinzant is a New York City-based freelance writer. Recently she wrote an article for AOL.com's Money and Finance section in which she identifies Clearwater as the worst place in America to retire.
Vinzant identifies four problems with Clearwater: 1. bland culture; 2. extreme weather; 3. high real estate and homeowners insurance; and 4. too many old people already living here.
As you might expect, I have a few comments.
Bland culture. You know, I keep hearing that Tampa Bay is a cultural wasteland. Mostly I hear that opinion voiced by people who originate in or identify with New York City, like Carol Vinzant. Frankly, I think such comments are arrogant and elitist.
I will be the first to admit that Tampa Bay does not offer the variety of cultural opportunities as compared with New York City. I don't think there are many cities in the entire world that can compare with the cultural menu available in the Big Apple.
We in Tampa Bay have our own culture, and it is far from bland. It's vibrant, exciting and grows richer with each passing year. Space does not allow me to enumerate the cultural opportunities that are available in Tampa Bay. Clearly Carol Vinzant is either uninformed of our cultural offerings or she does not appreciate them or the rich heritage from which so many of them originated. In either case, to say Tampa Bay is culturally bland is very insulting.
Let me say just two things: first, when I retire I would rather go fishing on a pier in Clearwater with my culturally-deprived grandchildren and watch them have fun than drag them to some art museum in Manhattan where they won't appreciate or understand what they are seeing. Second, if this is such a cultural wasteland, why doesn't Carol Vinzant do one of two things ... either show us culturally deprived locals how to improve our access to the finer things in life, or just stop writing stories about us. Either step would be appreciated.
Extreme weather. I guess "extreme weather" is symbolic language for "hurricane". Hurricanes and tropical storms are just about the only "extreme" weather problems found here, and in all honesty they are highly infrequent visitors to Clearwater and the Tampa Bay area.
Find me a spot on this planet that is not subject to some kind of weather problems. Tornadoes. Ice storms. Blizzards. Fires caused by draught. Floods caused by monsoons. Mudslides. For Pete's sake the entire world is going to have weather changes brought on by global warming, according to the scientists.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't let the remote threat of a hurricane deter me from retiring in Clearwater -- or Pensacola, or Mobile, or New Orleans, or Galveston or anywhere else for that matter. People who live in Clearwater know how to prepare for these things and know how to evacuate if necessary. Only the foolish "hunker down" and try to "ride it out". To downgrade Clearwater as a retirement area because of the threat of seasonal hurricanes is irresponsible writing and nothing more than fear-mongering.
High real estate and homeowners insurance. Okay, these are problems. The price of real estate was driven up in the last few years primarily due to the activities of real estate speculators. The market is correcting downward now. How long this correction will take before the market "bottoms out" is unknown. Prices will come down. Period.
The high price of home owner's insurance is not a market-driven problem because insurance is a regulated industry in Florida, but it is something that insurance regulators are trying to correct. It is a very, very complicated issue. Everybody from the governor down is working on this problem. I'm confident that an agreement will be put in place soon that can be followed by all parties.
Now, Ms. Vinzant, if you want to talk about high real estate prices and costly insurance premiums, let's discuss your hometown of New York City. Would you like to compare values per square foot to say, Clearwater versus Manhattan? I kinda think I know where my retirement housing dollar will go farther.
Too many elderly folks. There's a serious breakdown in Carol Vinzant's logic on this issue. 21-percent of Clearwater's population is over the age of 65, according to the U.S. Census. If Clearwater was the worst place in America to retire, why would so many retired people already live there?
As I approach my retirement years, I'm looking for a place that has lots of retired people around me. I share a common living experience with those people. We have similar histories. Lived during the same times. Share the same views on life. Have the same needs, the same outlook on life, similar cultural views and the like. We went to the same movies, read the same books, watched the same TV shows, listened to the same music and grew up pretty much the same way. We reached adulthood about the same time, worked hard for a living, raised our kids to the same moral and ethical standards that we all believed in. I don't share that tradition with a bunch of 30-somethings half my age. That's why dedicated retirement communities are so popular! Birds of a feather flock together because they want to, Carol.
The other reason I want to live where there is a high concentration of retired people is because retired people have special wants and needs. By having a high concentration of retirees, specialized businesses and professionals can be found who meet the needs of the elderly. I want access to those kinds of services -- elder care specialists, elder care attorneys, geriatric physicians, hospitals and nursing homes, recreation centers, mental health clinics, financial advisers, restaurants and all the other things needed by retired people.
The fact that Clearwater has a high concentration of retirees means that all those kinds of specialty services are available there. That makes it the ideal place to retire, not the worst place in America as Carol Vinzant and AOL.com would have you believe.
If ever there was a misguided and ill-informed bit of writing, Carol Vinzant has posted it on AOL.com. I think most of it is just her opinion, and who cares what she thinks anyway.
I advise readers of this blog not to take her comments seriously because she is flat wrong about Clearwater and is probably wrong about the other cities she chose to downgrade in her story.
If AOL really wanted to help people select a retirement destination, they should have run an article about the best places to retire. Who cares where the worst places are?
And as everyone should know, the best place to retire is where there are people who love you.
For more information about real estate in the Tampa Bay area, please visit my website at http://www.thestpeterealestatesite.com/.
Vinzant identifies four problems with Clearwater: 1. bland culture; 2. extreme weather; 3. high real estate and homeowners insurance; and 4. too many old people already living here.
As you might expect, I have a few comments.
Bland culture. You know, I keep hearing that Tampa Bay is a cultural wasteland. Mostly I hear that opinion voiced by people who originate in or identify with New York City, like Carol Vinzant. Frankly, I think such comments are arrogant and elitist.
I will be the first to admit that Tampa Bay does not offer the variety of cultural opportunities as compared with New York City. I don't think there are many cities in the entire world that can compare with the cultural menu available in the Big Apple.
We in Tampa Bay have our own culture, and it is far from bland. It's vibrant, exciting and grows richer with each passing year. Space does not allow me to enumerate the cultural opportunities that are available in Tampa Bay. Clearly Carol Vinzant is either uninformed of our cultural offerings or she does not appreciate them or the rich heritage from which so many of them originated. In either case, to say Tampa Bay is culturally bland is very insulting.
Let me say just two things: first, when I retire I would rather go fishing on a pier in Clearwater with my culturally-deprived grandchildren and watch them have fun than drag them to some art museum in Manhattan where they won't appreciate or understand what they are seeing. Second, if this is such a cultural wasteland, why doesn't Carol Vinzant do one of two things ... either show us culturally deprived locals how to improve our access to the finer things in life, or just stop writing stories about us. Either step would be appreciated.
Extreme weather. I guess "extreme weather" is symbolic language for "hurricane". Hurricanes and tropical storms are just about the only "extreme" weather problems found here, and in all honesty they are highly infrequent visitors to Clearwater and the Tampa Bay area.
Find me a spot on this planet that is not subject to some kind of weather problems. Tornadoes. Ice storms. Blizzards. Fires caused by draught. Floods caused by monsoons. Mudslides. For Pete's sake the entire world is going to have weather changes brought on by global warming, according to the scientists.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't let the remote threat of a hurricane deter me from retiring in Clearwater -- or Pensacola, or Mobile, or New Orleans, or Galveston or anywhere else for that matter. People who live in Clearwater know how to prepare for these things and know how to evacuate if necessary. Only the foolish "hunker down" and try to "ride it out". To downgrade Clearwater as a retirement area because of the threat of seasonal hurricanes is irresponsible writing and nothing more than fear-mongering.
High real estate and homeowners insurance. Okay, these are problems. The price of real estate was driven up in the last few years primarily due to the activities of real estate speculators. The market is correcting downward now. How long this correction will take before the market "bottoms out" is unknown. Prices will come down. Period.
The high price of home owner's insurance is not a market-driven problem because insurance is a regulated industry in Florida, but it is something that insurance regulators are trying to correct. It is a very, very complicated issue. Everybody from the governor down is working on this problem. I'm confident that an agreement will be put in place soon that can be followed by all parties.
Now, Ms. Vinzant, if you want to talk about high real estate prices and costly insurance premiums, let's discuss your hometown of New York City. Would you like to compare values per square foot to say, Clearwater versus Manhattan? I kinda think I know where my retirement housing dollar will go farther.
Too many elderly folks. There's a serious breakdown in Carol Vinzant's logic on this issue. 21-percent of Clearwater's population is over the age of 65, according to the U.S. Census. If Clearwater was the worst place in America to retire, why would so many retired people already live there?
As I approach my retirement years, I'm looking for a place that has lots of retired people around me. I share a common living experience with those people. We have similar histories. Lived during the same times. Share the same views on life. Have the same needs, the same outlook on life, similar cultural views and the like. We went to the same movies, read the same books, watched the same TV shows, listened to the same music and grew up pretty much the same way. We reached adulthood about the same time, worked hard for a living, raised our kids to the same moral and ethical standards that we all believed in. I don't share that tradition with a bunch of 30-somethings half my age. That's why dedicated retirement communities are so popular! Birds of a feather flock together because they want to, Carol.
The other reason I want to live where there is a high concentration of retired people is because retired people have special wants and needs. By having a high concentration of retirees, specialized businesses and professionals can be found who meet the needs of the elderly. I want access to those kinds of services -- elder care specialists, elder care attorneys, geriatric physicians, hospitals and nursing homes, recreation centers, mental health clinics, financial advisers, restaurants and all the other things needed by retired people.
The fact that Clearwater has a high concentration of retirees means that all those kinds of specialty services are available there. That makes it the ideal place to retire, not the worst place in America as Carol Vinzant and AOL.com would have you believe.
If ever there was a misguided and ill-informed bit of writing, Carol Vinzant has posted it on AOL.com. I think most of it is just her opinion, and who cares what she thinks anyway.
I advise readers of this blog not to take her comments seriously because she is flat wrong about Clearwater and is probably wrong about the other cities she chose to downgrade in her story.
If AOL really wanted to help people select a retirement destination, they should have run an article about the best places to retire. Who cares where the worst places are?
And as everyone should know, the best place to retire is where there are people who love you.
For more information about real estate in the Tampa Bay area, please visit my website at http://www.thestpeterealestatesite.com/.
-30-
posted by Terry Ward at 3:43 AM
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