Paul Smith of Crown Colony Club says summer is when the major repairs get done. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
With part-time residents gone, construction workers sweat, security people manage slower pace, and diehards enjoy the peace
By John Pacenti
Crown Colony Club in Ocean Ridge is almost like a dystopian wasteland this afternoon. For religious people, the rapture may come to mind. Not a single soul is in sight.
The pool, pristine and inviting, plays host to no one. A scattering of vehicles, some covered, plays sentinel in the vast parking lot. Many of the 148 condos have their summer armor up — hurricane shutters are the decor du jour.
In many ways, year-round residents along the Gold Coast have indeed been left behind. Welcome to the lonely season. The part-timers catapult out of South Florida around Easter or Passover, start to trickle back in late September, and are back in force by Thanksgiving.
The effect is profound in the heat of August. The population in Briny Breezes drops 50% in the summer from the season high, according to a county report based on 2020 U.S. Census data. In Manalapan and South Palm Beach it falls 43%, while in Gulf Stream, Highland Beach and Ocean Ridge, the populations drop by about a third.
At night in Boca Raton, the number of lights on in condos such as La Fontana and Sea Ranch Club can be counted on one hand, making them look like giant jack-o-lanterns ready to devour the night.
Even downtown Delray Beach — which at the height of the tourist season can resemble Disney World in the amount of foot traffic — is mostly abandoned, with workers smoking outside. At 11 on a weeknight, you could drive a golf ball down East Atlantic Avenue and not hit anything.
During the day, the Gulf Stream Golf Club, St. Andrews Club, the Ocean Club of Florida and The Little Club are like ghost towns along A1A from Ocean Ridge to Delray Beach. Luggage carts are empty and sad out front. The tennis courts are under maintenance and the golf courses are being aerated.
‘Kind of quiet, subdued’
At Crown Colony, a cumulonimbus cloud does a hit-and-run, drenching the facility. Then, there is suddenly life, in the corner of the near-empty parking lot where several cars are covered. It’s affable Paul Smith. He’s building new downspouts and lifting bricks into a wheelbarrow.
“During the summer, when everybody’s gone, is when we do the major work. When everybody’s here, it’s crowded, it’s busy. Almost every spot in the parking lot is taken,” said Smith, who is the treasurer of the condo association. “Now it’s kind of quiet, subdued. So we have four or five months of just total chaos and then six or seven months of nice and calm.”
Smith is hardly alone in taking on construction projects. Trucks and vans advertising on their sides all types of renovation work — marble tile, kitchen counters, air conditioning — dot the side of A1A and stand in driveways of condo complexes on the oceanside. Ladders and scaffolding hang like jewelry off of buildings and homes.
“When all the snowbirds go home, and then we get to work on their houses, and then they come back and they’re all finished, like magic,” said Mike Monaco of Palm Beach Trim, just leaving a job at Casa Serena in Gulf Stream.
Across the street from Casa Serena, a police car sits, discouraging speeders. Upon closer inspection, nobody is in the driver seat. Though this is a common tactic year-round, it adds to the summer’s deserted feeling.
Police Capt. John Haseley agreed that summer is slower, but said that before COVID-19, the difference between summer and winter was more pronounced. The pandemic brought many younger year-round residents who have changed the demographics somewhat, he said.
“There’s a fair amount of seasonal still, but nothing like it used to be,” Haseley said.
Traffic remains the top priority whether it be in the summer — yes, those construction trucks ignore the empty squad cars if speed is an indicator — or the increased resident traffic in the winter. Despite the empty homes, one crime statistic has remained static.
“I can’t even tell you how long it’s been since we had a residential burglary,” Haseley said.
Christien Pittman, owner of Titan Security, oversees Ocean Place Estates in Highland Beach.
Views from workers ...
Christien Pittman, the owner of Titan Security who has overseen Ocean Place Estates in Highland Beach for the last 14 years, says this summer he has been surprised to see an uptick in homeless individuals moving through this wealthy community. He sees them walking down with their shopping carts on A1A. He sees them being roused by police from their sleep in the morning.
“Last month, there were some people under the stairs here. I saw them on my camera,” Pittman said. “So I go down there and there’s a whole family. It was two kids and a man and his wife.”
Pittman says he is not lonely because he knows the neighborhood, the full-time residents. He points across the street. “I’ve seen the kids grow up. They’ve seen me get older,” he said.
While Pittman is content, others who work at resorts and complexes say summer can be taxing in a dull sort of way.
David Olmos works as a valet at Delray Sands Resort. How to deal with the off-season? Pittman says he knows the neighborhood’s full-timers. Olmos can chat up the front desk person.
Valet David Olmos, 23, is waiting for anybody needing his services outside of the Delray Sands Resort — which is actually in Highland Beach. “It does get lonely,” Olmos said. “I do have the front desk person to talk to.”
Olmos said he was still mourning the cat Sandy who lived at the complex for years and died recently.
One security guard at a complex in Delray Beach who asked that his name or building not be printed said he spends the summer “watching the grass grow.”
Robert Rourke, who works the security desk at Beach Walk East Condominium in Highland Beach, said, “I read, do my crossword puzzles, watch TV and occasionally look at the monitor. I like being alone.”
Only a few lights are visible at night in August at the Coronado at Highland Beach condominiums.
... and from residents
A common sentiment found among year-round residents: Yes, it’s more lonely in the summertime — but it’s a good change of pace from the go-go of the tourist season.
Ann Carmody is tooling down A1A on her golf cart, back from a hobby club where she said they were making quilts for disabled people. She said five residents decided to stay the summer on her street in Briny Breezes.
When asked if she was anticipating seeing her neighbors return, Carmody said, “It’s good and it’s bad. It’s really good to see the friends again and all the parties — but it gets more crowded.”
At Seagate Towers in Delray Beach, where one of the 13-story high-rises had 15 people living there in August, Ron Mitchell is trying out his new knee, taking out his bike for the first time since replacement surgery.
“I was in the wine business for a while, so when it’s more crowded, obviously, there’s more money, right? But it’s not bad, you know, you are able to park, you are able to get to the beach,” Mitchell said.
At the St. Andrews Club, Blakely Ashley Larrabee has flown in from Delaware with her husband and two children. She says her parents own a condo across the street. “It’s not much hotter in Delaware than it is here. You get the nice ocean breeze and it’s not as crowded on Atlantic Avenue.”
Back at Crown Colony, count Smith as one of those who likes the vibe in the lonely season.
“Well, it’s kind of nice, actually, in the summertime where it’s kind of empty,” he said. “You go to the pool. It’s like your private pool, right? During the wintertime, you can’t find a seat.”
Then he thinks for a moment and adds, “But you know, it’s also nice having the members here too, because we all know each other, right? We’re friends, we hang out.”
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