Retirement community faces obstacles and critics.
It's a Saturday night at RainbowVision Santa Fe and Susan Abod is warming up for her jazzy vocal performance in the Silver Starlight Lounge. As a sparse crowd enjoys generous $5 martinis and salty crackers on the table, Abod***image1*** introduces her original song, "You Look Swell in Nothing," with a stab at flattery.
"Don't you think you look good with nothing?" the smiling cabaret singer asks the mostly, but not entirely, gay/gray audience.
"Not anymore!" comes the response, followed by laughs all around.
While the audience on this particular night at the trailblazing residential community is sanguine, overall reviews of RainbowVision are mixed.
A spate of recent lawsuits filed in Santa Fe Magistrate Court has brought major construction problems to light. Monthly fees have been raised, and some services scaled back. An Oct. 5 story in the Los Angeles Times even highlighted the concerns of residents who worry that too many non-gay people are moving into what was supposed to be the country's first gay retirement community.
Officials at RainbowVision downplay the criticisms.
"RVSF is a $35 million project," RainbowVision Properties, Inc. Executive Vice President Ava Stern writes in an e-mail to SFR. "For a project of this size, the difficulties the business has encountered are minor."
Those difficulties include the flooding of approximately 20 units this past summer, major design flaws with the foundation and balconies of some condos, not to mention as much as 40 percent of the units sitting empty.
"If I knew what I know now, I would have never got involved," Gary Gordon, owner of three units he rents out, says. He declines to elaborate due to a pending lawsuit. Gordon's business partner, Wendy Haig, adds, "huge problems with their contractors" has harmed the value of her investment. Haig volunteers that she paid RainbowVision $4,000 in back fees last week after a lengthy dispute.
In an interview, Joy Silver, president of RainbowVision Properties Inc., says that it will take three years "to reach stabilization." But she makes a point of saying that contractors must shoulder most of the blame regarding "flooding or mold issues." Silver says she expects a settlement with some of the contractors "shortly."
While she affirms that fees have recently risen by 25 percent-from $600 to $750 a month-she says that's because the services at RainbowVision-which include featured guest chefs, entertainment and the Billie Jean King Fitness Center and Spa-had been underpriced.
While Silver adamantly denies that amenities have been scaled back-"Absolutely not!" she says-she acknowledges that the days the restaurant offers full-service meals has been reduced to "follow the business pattern."
As for concerns about a shift of focus from the GLBT community, Silver confirms that RainbowVision has a strong GLBT identity, while its advertising also includes images of mixed-gender couples.
"I don't see it as a shift in marketing at all," she says. "But to be inclusive in your advertising is an art." Nonetheless, Silver embraces RVSF's out-in-the-open GLBT sensibility: "I think we all know we're making history," she says with more than a hint of pride.
Yet Pat Carlton, 70, says she wasn't looking for a mixed community. "I wanted a gay place to live. I have no family. None," she says. "But I do have a partner and we wanted to be free."
Despite the problems, some residents see the martini glass as half full.
Hilda Rush, a 95-year-old native of Berlin, Germany, invited by Silver to tell SFR about her experience, says she's "never felt so comfortable in my life."
Another resident, 60-year-old Judith Masur, also invited by Silver, says she doesn't have a problem with straight couples moving in. "They wouldn't be living here if they didn't want to be living with us," she points out.
SFR contacted another full-time resident who spoke on the condition that her name not be published due to fears of alienating neighbors. While she describes Silver as a "great visionary," she disputes her occupancy figures, saying only about 30 individuals are true residents.
RVSF is spread over 13 acres and houses 147 units. It recently announced plans to offer non-residents RainbowVision memberships for a one-time fee of $200, and $50 monthly dues, which could generate additional revenue. But even that's not without some controversy.
A recent article in the New Mexico Voice, a GLBT newspaper, quotes from a letter that circulated among some residents stating, "We bought our condos believing that this would be a private living community, not a busy recreational center."
Masur, who describes herself as an ontological coach, plays down the divisions.
"There's no one who lives here that doesn't want this to work," she says. "Everyone likes it," she adds, pausing. "Well, almost everyone."
