Purple (hair) ‘Daze’
Published: May 4th, 2010
By: Jim Mullen

Purple (hair) ‘Daze’

Reality shows like “Jersey Shore” and “The Real Housewives of Some Godforsaken Backwater” will now have to compete with “Sunset Daze,” which follows some residents of an age-restricted, active retirement community in Surprise, Ariz. You have to be 55 or older (there is no upper limit) to buy a home there, and you have to know how to drive a golf cart at NASCAR speeds so you don’t waste an extra moment getting from one of the development’s myriad golf courses to one of their tennis courts, swimming pools or the nearest singles bar.

This suburb of Phoenix is in one of the fastest-growing areas in the country, the Southwest. No other places in this country are growing, are they? For the first time in years, Florida actually lost population last year. It may be the economy, or maybe Florida is full to the brim with retirees and can’t take any more – while Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico still have plenty of empty deserts to fill.

Plenty of room to build one-story houses free of hip-breaking stairs, with maintenance-free rock gardens instead of lawns to mow, without a snow shovel in sight, without roving gangs of self-centered, needy teens who think the world should stop when they walk into the mall. Surprise! Surprise doesn’t need them.

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