Community Corner

Getting Ready for Growing Older

The second Downtown Matters workshop considers how to plan for an aging population.

Today is THURSDAY, June 30, 2011. The second Downtown Matters workshop last night featured retired Santa Clara planner Don Weder discussing how best to plan our communities for the upcoming baby boomers who are at or nearing retirement age (I count myself among them, though retirement seems like an option I'll never have). He said that in the next 20 years, there will be more people age 65 and older than ever before in our history. But our communities for 60 years have been based on a suburban model, which means that we live in one place, work in another, shop in another, etc. In other words, everything revolves around driving. His suggestion is to build urban centers in which people live, shop and work. Where you can walk to most destinations. And yes, as predicted here by one of our readers, he suggests that higher-density housing may be a solution, rather than single-family homes. In fairness, he did not suggest tearing down existing single-family homes and replacing them with high-density housing.

"Neighborhoods should be livable, green and urban," Weder said. "Who are we planning for as we plan our communities? The world is changing in ways we're not accustomed to. This is not about building a senior ghetto downtown that becomes obsolete when the seniors are gone, but about thinking of how to plan for everyone."

I, for one, would love to see more food and clothing stores, and a drug store, come back downtown. But we keep being told that we need more people living downtown to attract those businesses here. Yet high-density housing seems to generate vociferous opposition from people living in or near downtown.

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So, Patch readers — if you had a magic wand, would you change anything about downtown to accommodate the coming changes in our population?

WEATHER:

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Sunny with highs in the lower 80s. West winds 10 to 15 mph.

EVENTS:

TODAY IN HISTORY:

1864 — President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation."

1882 — Charles Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C., for the assassination of President James Garfield.

1906 — Congress passes the Pure Food and Drug Act.

1953 — The first Corvette rolls off the Chevrolet assembly line.

1986 — The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.


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