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Some American Cities Meeting the Challenges of Boomer Residents
By Christopher Gardner,
mkcreative Blog
July 14, 2011
The vitality of many American cities
comes from our perceptions
of them as hives of industrial, commercial – youthful – activity
reinventing
those very cities with each generation. Though such regeneration still
goes on,
the fact of the so-called ‘silver tsunami’ of aging Baby Boomers means
many
cities are having to reconsider how to service and accommodate
ever
growing proportions of older residents.
An Associated Press story carried by NPR discusses the efforts of a
few cities
to get ahead of the demographic shift, and to ensure that their
communities do
not become ghettoes of like-aged residents.
Medicinal and prosthetic improvements over that last few decades means
that not
only are Baby Boomers likely to live longer than their parents, but
they will
be more mobile and expectant of mobility for much longer. For urban
dwellers in
New York, though, the homes they live in and the places they want to
frequent
might not be ready for such developments. But many neighborhoods are
making
great strides through the “Age-Friendly
NYC”
program.
The program uses, for example, city school busses to ferry older
residents to
food markets and adult-education activities while the children are in
school.
‘Time Banks’ encourage bartering of services and expertise among
retirees. And
whenever taxis are replaced, a model with larger doors and lower
entries is brought into
service.
But in this rare instance, New York is not the harbinger of style or
innovation:
Atlanta is creating
what it calls
“lifelong communities. “Philadelphia is
testing
whether living in a truly walkable community really makes older adults
healthier. In Portland,
Ore.,
there’s a push to fit senior concerns such as accessible housing into
the
city’s new planning and zoning policies.
Such work is getting a late start
considering how long
demographers have warned that the population is about to get a lot
grayer.
Indeed, one in five Americans will be seniors by 2050. Which is why
many cities
are trying to get young professionals on board to help expand the
opportunities
of their elders and to ease their own later years. Indeed, urban
planner Laura
Keyes of Atlanta is quoted as stressing the fact that Millennials and
Boomers
often want similar urban experiences: mixed neighborhoods, local green
spaces, easy
access to markets, general walkability and safety.
And neither wants to be shuffled off to a nursing home while they are
still
engaged and mobile.
The story stresses the short-term costs of adding bathrooms and benches
to
public spaces, but most urban planners see longer-term economic
opportunity in
the effort because younger residents will not feel so driven to move to
suburbs
as they grow older.
The evolution of the American city continues with the evolution of
America’s
population.
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