It\u2019s not that Princeton, NJ, had a master plan to become an age-friendly city. Not many towns did in 2012. But when Susan Hoskins read a magazine article about what made for such a community, she started checking things off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, well, we [in Princeton] do that, and we do that, and we do that, and we\u2019ve got some great things that meet that need. Holy cow! Why don\u2019t we get acknowledged for what we do?\u201d says Hoskins, who\u2019s the executive director of the Princeton Senior Resource Center.<\/p>\n
So, in 2014, thanks largely to Hoskins\u2019 leadership, Princeton became the first community in New Jersey to receive certification from the World Health Organization (WHO) as a city that\u2019s committed to becoming age-friendly. But that was just the beginning of the journey. Committing, after all, is one thing. Fulfilling is another.<\/p>\n
Princeton is one of a number of towns all over the world that are working to become more accessible and attractive to older people. (The Silver Century Foundation is helping fund Princeton\u2019s quest.) City leaders are recognizing that it\u2019s not just young families and young professionals who sustain a town. Older people, too, are essential to making a community prosper. So the competition to reel them in is heating up.<\/p>\n
No Country for Old Men (or Women)<\/strong><\/p>\n When many of today\u2019s new retirees were kids, cities were, in a way, built for them. It was the era of the baby boomers\u2014of communities bursting at the seams with young families. Between 1945 and 1965, America\u2019s population grew by 40 percent. That boom included over 76 million children. And those families needed somewhere to live.<\/p>\n It was during this time that urban sprawl began. Families moved outside the cities, where they could have their own houses with big yards to play in. At the same time, car ownership rates doubled. Parents had to get to their jobs in the cities somehow. Plus, there were all those road trips.<\/p>\n But fast-forward a few decades, and now all those millions of boomers are right around retirement age, with different needs than when they were kids. These days, many of them want to be near the action, not a long drive away from it. Curb cuts may trump playgrounds, and great health care can beat a large yard. So what\u2019s an aging boomer to do?<\/p>\n Many cities are hoping they can entice retirees and other older people to relocate to their neck of the woods\u2014or, if they already live there, to remain. These cities are working, step-by-step, on the years-long process of becoming age-friendly.<\/p>\n What Makes for an Age-Friendly City?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are various models for age-friendly cities, but they all place a key focus on making communities more livable for older people. One of the most well-known\u2014and most comprehensive\u2014models is the one Princeton is following: the World Health Organization\u2019s Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities project. Launched in 2006, WHO\u2019s extensive guidelines were developed with input from older people in 33 cities worldwide.<\/p>\n Among other things, an age-friendly community is walkable and safe, with opportunities for older people to find a job or volunteer, and to connect with others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The guidelines, which are meant to be adapted by each city to its particular needs, cover the expected practical matters: transportation, safety and affordable housing. But they also address less obvious concerns, such as isolation and boredom. For example, in an ideal age-friendly city, older people are specifically invited out to a variety of events, says WHO. And both citizens and city government demonstrate respect for elders, who are consulted on key community decisions and included on boards and councils.<\/p>\n In the United States, AARP has partnered with WHO to promote the guidelines and manage cities\u2019 participation. To be part of the initiative, a city must take three main steps:<\/p>\n Princeton is in the development phase right now, hosting focus groups with older residents and working with municipal departments and community members to identify problem areas.<\/p>\n Though WHO\u2019s age-friendly initiative is relatively young, there are a few cities that provide a picture of where Princeton may be headed. New York City, for example, is one of the first American communities to join the WHO effort.<\/p>\n The WHO Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n Princeton is one of only two cities in New Jersey to have joined the World Health Organization\u2019s Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities project. (Montclair, a town of about 38,000 residents, joined almost a year after Princeton, in early 2015.) The WHO guidelines cover eight main areas:<\/p>\n Age-friendly NYC launched in 2008. The city\u2019s plan included 59 initiatives. Lindsay Goldman, deputy director of healthy aging at the New York Academy of Medicine, which helps lead Age-friendly NYC, says the Department of Transportation\u2019s Safe Streets for Seniors is one of her favorites. Because of this pedestrian-safety project, \u201cannual senior pedestrian fatalities have decreased 9 percent citywide, from 58 senior fatalities in 2008 to 53 in 2014,\u201d says Goldman. Pedestrian crashes [vehicles hitting pedestrians] have also decreased by 9 percent, and total injuries have fallen by 11 percent, she adds.<\/p>\n Other achievements Goldman highlights are:<\/p>\n The Incentive to Be Age-Friendly<\/strong><\/p>\n The fact that any city cares about attracting older people is especially noteworthy, given the rhetoric about the coming \u201csilver tsunami.\u201d For years, the media and politicians have warned that, soon, health care services will be overrun; government resources will go bankrupt; the entire nation will suffer due to millions of newly minted senior boomers.<\/p>\n But elders are more than the services they use. It turns out, cities are realizing, older people are valuable\u2014in more ways than one.<\/p>\n When Hoskins presented her idea of making Princeton age-friendly to the city council, she asked the members, \u201cWho\u2019s on your commissions? Who are the volunteers reading to the children in the schools? Who are the tutors? Who are the mentors? Who are the people keeping the safe communities going? They\u2019re people over 50.\u201d<\/p>\n Older people also contribute financially to their communities. \u201cBoomers have money and no kids left at home,\u201d says Hoskins. \u201cThey\u2019re spending money; they\u2019re traveling; they\u2019re still self-indulgent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is some evidence that communities that have older adults aging in place are more stable and have less crime, and housing prices are more stable,\u201d says Andrew Scharlach, co-author of Creating Aging-Friendly Communities <\/em>(2015).<\/p>\n A couple of years ago, Scharlach, director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services at the University of California, Berkeley, was in a meeting with the mayor of a major western US city. The mayor wanted to make his city more age-friendly\u2014to such an extent that it would become the nation\u2019s retirement destination of choice. \u201cAnd why is that?\u201d Scharlach asks rhetorically. \u201cBecause he\u2019s seeing people who have the resources to relocate for retirement as a real economic boost to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n What Do Older Transplants Want Most from a City?<\/strong><\/p>\n When Lynne and Ed Sullivan started thinking about retirement, they didn\u2019t plan for the traditional time of rest and reflection. They planned for reinvention. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to just fade away,\u201d says Lynne, age 71. \u201cWe wanted to do something more exciting with our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n So when they started looking for a city to retire in, their minds were open. They visited Costa Rica and Spain. But those places weren\u2019t quite right\u2014too far from home for one thing. (They\u2019d lived in Columbus, IN, for the last 35 years.)<\/p>\n So where does a couple who could retire about anywhere in the world end up? Durham, NC. Part of an area known as the Research Triangle, Durham attracts young techies. But it also has a lot to offer for retirees.<\/p>\n \u201cWith its three universities in the Triangle area, top-notch medical care, exploding downtown amenities and reasonably mild weather, we think we made a good choice,\u201d says Ed, age 75. One of their sons also lives in North Carolina, but the Sullivans cite that as more of a fringe benefit than a deciding factor.<\/p>\n \u201cOur new challenge is how we purposefully recreate ourselves to take advantage of these opportunities for the next 10 to 20 years,\u201d Ed says.<\/p>\n This attitude isn\u2019t unusual among retirees these days. \u201cThey volunteer for boards; they work in soup kitchens; they take care of their grandchildren; they run for political office,\u201d says Phil Stafford, PhD, director of the Center on Aging and Community at Indiana University. \u201cThey\u2019re just much more engaged\u2014and not segregated from the rest of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, \u201cOne of the things that happens as we get older is that our world shrinks a bit,\u201d Scharlach says. It can become more difficult, for example, to get to activities and friends that are a car trip away. So when retirees choose a place to live, \u201cit\u2019s not simply because the housing is more appropriate or there\u2019s extra buses. It\u2019s more that the new environment provides an opportunity to safely and securely meet one\u2019s needs for connection or fulfillment.\u201d<\/p>\n For the age-friendly movement to make a real difference, it must earn taxpayer support by engaging people of all ages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That was true for Carla Williams, 62, and her husband when they moved to Sedona, AZ, after living in Anchorage for 40 years. No longer able to tolerate Alaska\u2019s extreme cold and dark winter days, they decided to retire in a city they\u2019d fallen in love with a decade ago.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably one of the more beautiful places in the United States to live,\u201d says Carla. \u201cBeing here is like being on vacation every day.\u201d For years before retiring, the couple owned a house in Sedona and would visit periodically, but now that they\u2019ve made the permanent move, Carla is thrilled.<\/p>\n For her, the main draw was Sedona\u2019s walkability. The area has over 200 trails, and the more popular ones have volunteers who help people who are lost, need water or have a medical emergency, Carla says. Plus, a short drive away, there are art galleries, shopping, a year-round film festival that attracts retirees, and volunteer opportunities galore. \u201cWe haven\u2019t really decided what we want to get into because there\u2019s just so many options,\u201d Carla says of the nonprofits scene. \u201cIt\u2019s almost endless.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are moving away from gated, Sun City type ideas about retirement and beginning to use a different set of criteria to evaluate the communities that they want to live in,\u201d Stafford says. \u201cThese intangibles\u2014being able to walk to the grocery store, walk to the library or to have coffee\u2014are becoming more and more important to people. And less important is being around people only your own age, you know, playing golf.\u201d<\/p>\n The Next Frontier<\/strong><\/p>\n The age-friendly trend is still young. After cities get the basics down\u2014such as curb cuts for wheelchairs, crosswalk lights that last long enough for slower-paced walkers and benches in parks for resting during long walks\u2014there are some other difficult challenges that will need to be addressed.<\/p>\n Stafford, who\u2019s involved in Lifetime Communities\u2014an effort to make his town, Bloomington, IN, more age-friendly\u2014believes the next frontier in the movement is accessible housing. He says too few homes are built with universal design principles, which would make them appropriate for people of all abilities. \u201cIt can be really expensive to have to adapt a bathroom for a wheelchair or something like that,\u201d Stafford says.<\/p>\n Scharlach\u2019s focus, on the other hand, is on community involvement. He believes that for the age-friendly movement to really make a difference, it must go beyond city initiatives. It must engage citizens of all ages to a wider extent. Only then will taxpayers more strongly and universally support funding age-friendly projects. \u201cReal change involves changing priorities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Funding the projects is, in fact, the main challenge Hoskins predicts Princeton will face with its age-friendly initiatives. She attributes this to limited resources\u2014not unusual for city programs\u2014but also to an added hurdle: ageism. \u201cI think communities think more quickly about what can we do for our children than what can we do for our elders,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Scharlach\u2019s favorite age-friendly effort right now is AARP\u2019s Livability Index. This service allows people to plug their zip code into a search engine and get scores in various categories for how \u201clivable\u201d their area is. Scharlach likes the tool \u201cnot because of content but because it has potential to engage people all over the country in thinking about age-friendliness.\u201d<\/p>\n Becoming truly age-friendly can be a long, sometimes difficult process for a city. But that shouldn\u2019t stop it from trying. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to solve all the problems,\u201d Scharlach says. \u201cYou just have to get started and begin to make some changes. And that\u2019s not hard at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Among other things, an age-friendly community is walkable and safe, with opportunities for older people to find a job or volunteer, and to connect with others.<\/p>\n\n
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