Lessons Learned on Building Age-Friendly Communities
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At Strong Towns, we believe that if a town or city doesn’t work for people of all ages, then it doesn’t actually work. Or, as Gil Penalosa, the founder of 8 80 Cities, puts it: if everything we do in our cities is great for an 8 year old and an 80 year old, then it will be great for all people.
Over the last two years, Strong Towns has been fortunate to work closely with AARP on its Livable Communities initiative. Livable Communities is on the leading edge of creating stronger and more resilient places for people of all ages. As they point out, the number of Americans age 65 or older will grow from 45 million today to 73 million in 2030. “At that point, fully one in five Americans will be older than 65. By 2034, the United States will—for the first time ever—be a country comprised of more older adults than of children.”
The Livable Communities initiative is working across the U.S. to provide safer and more walkable streets, age-friendly housing and transportation options, and more. As part of this effort, they’ve assembled a team of collaborators that includes not just Strong Towns, but other organizations and individuals likely familiar to many Strong Towns readers: Dan Parolek of Opticos Design, who recently did a webcast for Strong Towns on missing-middle housing; Smart Growth America, a Washington, DC-based organization doing yeoman’s work to shift transportation funding from costly road expansion to repairing our crumbling infrastructure; 8 80 Cities, mentioned above; Team Better Block; and more.
Recently, AARP published an article that highlights some of the work done and lessons learned through the Livable Communities collaborations. Strong Towns is featured (we led a webinar and follow-up workshop in September in Florida). But we really didn’t want you to miss the other great work being done. For example:
Successful efforts to expand missing-middle in Minnesota
Successful efforts to update and improve the rules for ADUs in Vermont
Pop-up placemaking projects in Maine
Honolulu’s commitment to embedding “age-friendly thinking” into its planning, development, and decision-making
San Jose residents being equipped to do park audits and make green spaces more accessible and age-friendly
You’ll also see that AARP is starting a new video series called Livable Lessons. Strong Towns founder Chuck Marohn will be featured in an upcoming video. In the meantime, don’t miss the expanding library of videos there, including this excellent series on transportation and livability with Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America.
Rodney Harrell, AARP Vice President of Family, Home and Community, chats with us about housing, transportation, and how making life easier for older Americans benefits citizens of all ages.