One of those communities is Gladstone, Missouri, which installed new sidewalks and streetlights, added transit stops and joined a regional program that offers flexible, on-demand bus service.
To meet the needs of its aging population, Alexandria, a suburb of Washington, DC, in northern Virginia, wants to make its streets more pedestrian-friendly, add specialty van transport services and promote housing for seniors near public transit.
Some communities have changed zoning to encourage developers to build new single-family homes using universal design, with features such as no-step entry and wider hallways and doorways. Those standards are mandatory in a few areas, such as Pima County, Arizona, and Bolingbrook, Illinois.
In the Denver area, where one in four residents is expected to be 60 or older by 2040, the suburban community of Wheat Ridge worked with a private developer to demolish a strip mall and turn it into a rental complex for older adults.
And 'dead' malls have been retrofitted to create walkable neighborhoods with retail, offices and housing for people of all ages. In Lakewood, another Denver suburb, a developer converted the old Villa Italia Mall into Belmar, a 22-block development filled with restaurants, shops, offices and housing.
Around the country, enclosed suburban malls are being turned into mixed-use town centers, said Ellen Dunham-Jones, a professor of architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology and co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia. Fifteen have been redeveloped and more are planned, she said. Most of the projects are public-private partnerships. Government often helps pay for some of the infrastructure, such as street lights or sewers.
But in many suburbs that have been thinking about how to meet the needs of an aging population, the plans are mostly on paper. Making them a reality won't be easy. "When you're looking at transportation and land-use changes, it takes years to get the results of those policy changes into reality at the community level," said Sandy Markwood, CEO of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging.
Markwood and other officials who oversee programs for seniors said an infusion of government money would be great, but that's not likely to happen. And they point out that the burden of providing services to graying boomers can’t just fall on government — whether it's local, state or federal.
"Our city isn't an endless pot of money," said Karen Adcock, director of senior services for Auburn Hills, a Detroit suburb that was named an 'age-friendly community' by the AARP. "There are support services like Meals on Wheels. But you need to contribute to maintaining your home. It's not a free ride. Governments can't do it all. They cannot and they should not."
To stay in the suburbs, many boomers will have to find solutions that don't rely on government help. Carol Gee and her housemates think they've done just that.
"At the end of the day, the huge psychological benefit of living together so outweighs the antsy-pantsy things you’ve got to compromise on with housemates," Gee said. "We're trying to create an environment that will work for us till our 90s and beyond."
Another alternative some boomers are choosing is called cohousing: multigenerational or senior-focused communities of privately owned attached or single-family homes clustered around shared space. Typically there’s a 'common house' with a kitchen and dining area where residents meet for meals once a week or so. Residents make joint decisions on community issues.
Harmony Village in Golden, a Denver suburb, is an example. The southwestern-style complex has 27 terra-cotta colored attached stucco town houses clustered along walkways. It has a community garden, a children’s playground, a hot tub and a large, wooden-beamed common house where residents share meals about three times a month. Houses range from the high $200,000s to about $700,000.
Ronnie Rosenbaum, 69, a divorced mother of two adult children who works part-time as a family and elder mediator, said Harmony Village residents share a commitment to ecology and sustainability. About half are boomers and many of them ski, hike or climb mountains.
"We're not ready to just sit in front of a TV all day or go play golf. We want to change the world. We’ve never given up on that," Rosenbaum said. "We're active politically, physically, educationally."
Rosenbaum said she plans to grow old in her multilevel town house, which has a bedroom and bathroom on the first floor. She figures a caretaker could live on the second floor, if need be.
"I moved here from a suburban house. I had a garage and used a garage door opener to get in," she said. "I really didn't know my neighbors that well. I didn't have the relationships and the trust. It's a very different experience here and there’s a wonderful support system."
Alice Alexander, executive director of the Cohousing Association of the US, said 150 cohousing communities have been built and 12 are being constructed. Another 125 are in development.
'Villages,' membership organizations in existing neighborhoods, are another option for aging boomers. In most villages, members pay an annual fee and provide services for one another, such as transportation or light home maintenance. Non-members who live in the neighborhood also lend a hand. Villages often have a small paid staff. They sponsor social activities: luncheons, book clubs, trips to museums. And they give members lists of vetted, discounted contractors.
About 185 villages operate in 43 states and the District of Columbia and about 40 percent are in suburban areas, according to Natalie Galucia, director of the Village to Village Network, a nonprofit that provides guidance and resources to those who want to set up villages.
"I think it is a great option for boomers who are aging," said Shari Wenokur Smith, director of the Village in the Woods, in suburban Detroit. "They need more community and they become more limited in what they can do. It's important to establish the connection so you don’t wake up one day and say 'I need help and I've got nobody.' "
But these alternative housing arrangements may not be affordable for working- and middle-class retirees, particularly those on fixed incomes.
"Cohousing, group houses, villages are all going to be marginal. They're not going to take care of the bulk of boomers who don't have adequate financial resources," said John McIlwain, the author of Housing in America and a former senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute, a research center that focuses on real estate and land use. "The pressure is going to fall on local and state government. And they don't have the money to build the housing that's needed."
Aging experts agree that it's going to take a lot more work to get Mableton or any other suburb in the US ready for the major demographic shifts ahead.
"There's a tremendous amount to do. Nobody is ready in any way, shape or form," said Kathryn Lawler, director of the Area Agency on Aging at the Atlanta Regional Commission. "No communities have transformed themselves. It hasn't happened. But some communities will get it — and they will be the ones driving the 21st century."
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