Flamingo Drive. Tropicana Park.” Ft, Myers. Paul Goldfinger ©  January 14, 2018.

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor@Blogfinger

No one calls them “trailer parks.”  Mobile/manufactured home communities can be found all over Florida,  but Tropicana, in the south west part of the state,  is a special sort.  It sits among the big boys—-fancy gated condo and private home developments with tile roofs and walls surrounding the properties. Most of these affluent “over 55” places are on waterways with boats parked in the back, and most are surrounded with walls.   In order to get in, you need to aim your clicker at  the iron gates which then slide open, and after you go through, they close rapidly behind.

But mobile home parks are not necessarily desolate places with cars up on cinder blocks. Many, such as Tropicana, are not even mobile–all units are on foundations.  I call mine an “immobile home.”

Tropicana is like a village, with nearly 500 units, winding streets and palm trees. It is actually quite attractive.   There are no garages and no parking allowed on the streets, but each unit has a carport.  Our carport was blown apart a few years ago by a “mini-tornado.”  Since we  were the only ones hit so hard, I called  the Sheriff’s Department about my theory of an act of terrorism, but they ignored me.  It was just Florida weather.

Most people who own places here are from the mid-west. Our neighbors are from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and other heartland states.  Some Canadians vacation here, and few Jersey plates are seen. Only 10% of homeowners or renters live here year round.  The parkland  is owned by resident shareholders, and the official name is Tropicana Co-op.

Culturally southwest Fla.  is quite different from what we north-easterners are used to.  At Ace Hardware, a burly guy with a crew cut didn’t know how to work the bicycle hand pump which I was considering.  He said it was a “new fangled gadget.”  I met a retired pediatric dentist who made money as a kid milking cows in Kentucky.  Next week they’re having “hot dog day” here, but you have to sign up in advance and tell them how many dogs you will eat.

Here’s a link to our article from last September about Tropicana.

Retirement in southwest Florida

THE NUTMEGS  (with the rest of the story:)

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