As a city planner and walkability advocate, I find myself giving lectures most often at city planning conferences.
But where do I find myself giving lectures the second most often?
At conferences on aging.
Many older Americans really care about walkability.
Here’s why walkable communities are thebestcommunities for older adults.
The “age-restricted community” is an anomaly of the second half of the 20th century.
So is the residential-only community.
But most people who live in golf-course communities dont golf, and only a small percentage golf regularly.
More walk, but its difficult to get people to consistently walk for exercise.
Lesson One: Move Naturally.
Ride a bicycle instead of driving.
Walk to the store instead of driving …
Build that into your lifestyle.
In that case, walking can only be recreational, and therefore expendable.
The Blue Zones can be found all around the globe, but they all share certain similar characteristics.
One of these, and perhaps the most important, is that people dont need cars to get around.
The residential retirement community is too often just a way station for the assisted-care facility.
a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community.
Amateur observers have another term for it: a walkable neighborhood full of old people.
Winter Park, Florida, is one such community, as is the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
While many walkable places have become unaffordable due to their desirability, many others have not.
Most cities sit on this curve; the trick is finding the right one.
