The Commercial Appeal Lakeland, a city of more than 6,000 people, is a mixture of young and old, new and old, progressive and conservative. Beginning in the early 1960s as Lakeland Playland, an amusement park and drag strip, the area developed into an incorporated city of lakefront homes, suburban subdivisions and rural escapes. The city more than doubled in size in March 1998 with the annexation of the Stonebridge subdivision at the town's southwestern border. The area includes about 3,000 people. Many of those who worked to incorporate the city in 1977 are still active in its politics.
Residents take pride in their involvement in local politics and civic organizations.
The mayor, Jim Bomprezzi, serves on the five-member Board of Commissioners. The city manager is Joseph Kirby. The commissioners are Nina Griffin, Patra Temple, Scott Carmichael and John Wilkerson. City Hall can be reached at 867-2717. Most of its revenues come from sales taxes generated by the Belz Factory Outlet World, just south of Canada Road off Interstate 40, plus a growing number of commercial developments.