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Retrofitting Suburbia for the Elderly
It starts out like this... A topic that we are all going to be dealing
with sooner or later... for most of us it'll be sooner!!! Either our
parents will be dealing with this... or WE will be, personally.
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I generally liked the whole article, but this part struck me as ingenious.
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What a great use of an existing space.
The Boomers are coming! The Boomers are coming!
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http://www.terrapass.com/blog/posts/...or-the-elderly I do understand the appeal of the suburbs -- the privacy, the open space -- but one thing has long seemed pretty clear: suburbs are a difficult place to grow old. I've certainly seen this with my own aging relatives. Especially after one spouse dies, big houses become empty and difficult to maintain. Yards are an expensive and unused amenity. Simple trips require a car, so seniors often continue driving long after they should stop. Unfortunately, going carless can lead to almost total isolation. |
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One of the most intriguing examples of this sort of retrofitting is
taking place in Colorado, where an abandoned indoor shopping mall has
been converted into a dense mixed-use neighborhood."The change is pretty dramatic," says Mike Rock, retired city manager of Lakewood who helped direct Belmar's development. "Buildings are pulled right up to the sidewalk; residential living is above the retail outlets. You don't expect to see this in a suburban setting." |
What a great use of an existing space.
The Boomers are coming! The Boomers are coming!
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The section in quotes could have been written by Jane Jacobs back in the earaly 1960s when she wrote Death and Life of Great American Cities.
What do you call a place where
Oh yes, you call it a city. :-)
Kyle Ezells book Get Urban is another good read.
September 30, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks.
September 30, 2009 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I dunno. Every time my son calls me he sneaks in the word euthanasia.
October 1, 2009 12:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Both the elderly and the young are prisoners in suburbia, but in the case of the young, this situation is by design due to the uniquely apple pie obsession of isolating the young from the realities of life. Perhaps the one most enriching convenience offered by dense population spaces is bringing these two groups together. The park bench and bus stop in crowded cities around the world is a place where the elderly and children sit side by side and share that which they can only share with each other, working-age adults and their petty obsessions be damned. In that sense, I sense that communities which isolate the elderly are an aberration, a new patch attempting to seal another leak to the spiritual vaccuum created by suburban development.
October 1, 2009 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oops, an accidental submit before I was done.
The fact that this Colorado community brings together people of different generations is a huge step in the right direction in creating a humanized living environment for the elderly.
October 1, 2009 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is a coming reality for many of us. Cooperative living, where people have both private and common spaces, is a good idea, and being tried here and there.
Some zoning laws will need to change (multiple unrelated people at one address, for example, used to rid neighborhoods of "hippies" years ago) to make this more legal.
Let's also remember that the detached, "single-family" house is probably the single least energy-efficient residential structure yet devised.
Disclosure: I'm squarely in the middle of the Boomer demographic bulge. And one hell of a cook.
October 1, 2009 10:58 AM | Reply | Permalink