They called it Tymber Skan on the Lake, evoking a familiar picture-postcard Florida setting when it opened in the early 1970s on Lake Catherine. When Chuck Hankins’ mom moved there in 1979, her neighbors were snowbirds, retirees and working-class folks. But today, Tymber Skan conjures a different image: one of desperation, hardship and neglect.
What happened?
“Every social ill of the last 50 years has come home to roost in Tymber Skan,” said Robert Spivey, Orange County’s code-enforcement chief. Hurricanes. Crime. The Great Recession. Chronic unemployment. They all combined to wreak havoc on the Orange County condominium community that today is littered with broken and boarded-up windows, bashed-in doors and other units that have become playpens for vandals. Read more: