Please Shut the Gate to Paradise Behind You

Date: 08/10/2007

Last week's Saturday Edition generated a lot of reader response.

One reader wrote to say: "I have lived in the Lake Chapala area for almost four years (thanks to IL opening up our world to the possibilities). We employ 2.5 locals full-time (maid full-time, driver/personal assistant full-time, and gardener half-time). In that time, our gardener has gone from riding a bike to work to owning a car. Instead of renting a place to live, he now owns a home (which he built). My maid is sending her eldest daughter to college and hopes to educate all her children. Our driver/PA can now support his family adequately and give his two girls a good education."

This is a good example of improving opportunities for locals. Rather than having to go to Los Angeles to be a maid, this person's maid can stay in her home town with her children.

Another reader writes in to say: "In 1991, my wife and I moved to Sedona, Arizona. It didn't take long to register that not everyone was thrilled by our arrival, or any other recent arrival for that matter. Without much finesse, they would say, upon learning that you were new to Sedona:

"I remember how great things were back in 1980 when I moved here long before you arrived.

"I remember how great things were back in 1970 when I moved here long before you arrived.

"Etc.

"This disdainful dynamic is what's known as 'closing the gate behind you.' In other words, just about everyone living in a place prior to your arrival will speak of the by-gone halcyon days of the past, not recognizing that he may have crushed someone else's 'halcyon days' with his arrival."

Once you develop an emotional attachment to a place, you want it never to change. I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and, I have to say, the developers destroyed MY desert. The hundreds of thousands of people who have moved there in the last 15 years might think it is their town and that it is a great place now that it looks more like L.A. without the beach.

But I know better.

Of course, not everyone agreed with my position as presented last Saturday. One reader, too cowardly to sign his e-mail, wrote:

"Always selling propaganda."

If the fact that developers create jobs is propaganda, so be it (though I'm not sure I understand this definition of the word "propaganda").

Another coward too afraid to sign his e-mail wrote to say: "Blah, blah, blah. You must be one of the idiots who invested in the place you're talking about (with your developer friend). You did not mention that it's also great for the locals because they have more schmucks to attack and rob. It must be pathetic to be so full of it."

The anonymous reader missed the point. I'm not defending my friend's development (though, of course, I don't see anything wrong with my friend's development). I'm defending all carefully, responsibly planned developments anywhere. They're not a blight on the landscape, I argue. They are an asset to the local economy. And an opportunity for the local population.

Finally, another reader wrote: "Not that I totally agree with your antagonistic attendee. But 'development' is not in and of itself progress."

No question. Development for the sake of development isn't a good idea…but what's so bad about turning a run-down cattle ranch into a beautifully landscaped community?

Your editor, wondering what some people have got against other people having a home of their own in Paradise,

Lief Simon
For International Living

P.S. If you don't want to invest in real estate…please stop reading now. But if you'd like to meet some of my developer friends, there'll be several at my conference in Monte Carlo. I've spent the past 10 years scouring the globe looking for the best real estate deals. Along the way I've gathered a network of top-level contacts. The guys at this conference are the best of those contacts. They'll join me and a small group of investors in Monte Carlo to talk business. This event is not for someone just getting started in real estate investing. But if you're a sophisticated investor looking for early-in opportunities…I'll see you in Monaco. Details here.