Laguna Woods, California

Laguna Woods is almost entirely one thing: Leisure World. The massive retirement community was developed by Ross Cortese and opened in nineteen sixty-four, one of the first large-scale planned communities in the United States built exclusively for residents fifty-two and older. At its peak Leisure World Laguna Hills housed more than twenty-one thousand residents behind its gates, with its own medical center, bus system, golf courses, and social clubs.

The surrounding area incorporated as the separate city of Laguna Hills in nineteen ninety-one. Then in nineteen ninety-nine, the Leisure World community itself voted to incorporate as the independent City of Laguna Woods, creating what is statistically the oldest city in California by median age. The city covers about three square miles, employs a handful of full-time staff, and contracts out most municipal services, a model of lean government designed for a community that largely governs itself.