SUN CITY

Abstract

Geographically Sun City is a town of

40.000 people. It is located in the desert

12 miles north of Phoenix in Arizona. The

winters are dry and mild. The summers

are hot as hell. And the sunsets are always

spectacular. Historically Sun City was

founded in 1960 by a local tycoon who

owned The New York Yankees through the

Fifties. The town is the first active adult

community in the US and the mother of

all similar communities that have spread

out through the country during the last

44 years. Sociologically Sun City is a

mixture of a middle class suburb, a gerontological

ghetto, a classical American

utopian community and a social laboratory

in which the inhabitants have been experimenting

with new ways of senior

living. And finally Sun City and other

retirement communities are often seen as

being either a good or bad way of living

in old age. This way of looking at things

has not done much good to the

understanding of Sun City.