A welcome voice comes from Bob Matlock and the Daytona Beach News Journal. An editorial by Matlock with the same title appears in the January 11 edition of the paper. Matlock tells the story of his own adult gated manufactured housing community, Plantation Oaks of Flagler. Matlock gives an overview of the residents therin, many who are retirees of corporate America, as well as college professors, pharmacists, dentists, judges, nurses and police officers. “Why did we move here?” Matlock asks. “Because we chose to! Because we love the lifestyle offered here. We downsized to give us more time to enjoy the things on our bucket lists for retirement. We love our manufactured homes.” Which, Matlock points out are built to the highest federal standards and to codes that are, in many respects, more strict than for site-built homes. Exterior walls, he says, are 6 inches thick and have 12-inch steel beams underneath. Whatever you do, don’t call it a trailer. Matlock writes that when he hears such comments, “I can only surmise the person is uninformed and emotional. Those comments are an insult to the quality of people who live here and our beautiful homes. To those people who make such comments I offer an open invitation to make an appointment with our community manager to visit our beautiful community, look us over and learn the truth. You just might want to stay.”
