Smart Growth Around America

One of the biggest reasons to break down barriers and allow the market to deliver more compact, walkable development in the coming years is the changing demographics (and consumer preferences) resulting in growing segments of people preferring that lifestyle — especially the rapidly-growing group of people over the age of 65. By just 2030, nearly 1 in 5 Americans will be over age 65. David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington writes that walkable urbanism is great for empowering seniors who can no longer drive:

Tweet Too often, communities are built with housing meant to serve only one segment of the population. People have different housing needs as young adults than they do as part of a family, or as empty-nesters. And as our population skews older and older, we need to ensure our communities can accommodate older Americans. EPA [...]

Tweet The public health community, increasingly alarmed over Americans’ increasing waistlines, has sided wholeheartedly with the need to make our streets safe for walking and biking. But it was still big news this week when CDC researchers pushed forward community recommendations for preventing obesity in the highly-influential and trusted Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).  [...]

Tweet There’s a handy interactive map accompanying the Trust for America’s Health new report, titled “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing America.” The results of the 2009 edition are fascinating — and frightening. Adult obesity rates dip below 20% in just one state (Colorado.)  The percentage of obese and overweight children is [...]

Tweet Pediatricians should help work against conventional suburban development (top) and for traditional neighborhoods (lower). Why? For starters, so kids can walk to school again. AAP’s Policy Statement includes this drawing by Duany, Plater-Zyberk. A version of the drawing is available at http://www.dpz.com/research.aspx, Diagram #25. Yesterday, the American Academy of Pediatrics adopted a ground-breaking policy [...]

Tweet Happy Earth Day everyone! One of the smartest things about smart growth is the way it takes care of the needs of people alongside the demands of the environment. So whatever your Earth day plans — if you’re planting a tree in the park, going to see the new Disney “Earth” movie, making a [...]

Tweet Guest post by Barbara McCann, coordinator of the National Complete Streets Coalition A new poll out from AARP documents how incomplete streets are making it tough for older Americans to avoid paying the high price of gasoline.  Almost 40 percent of those polled say they don’t have adequate sidewalks in their neighborhood, 55 percent [...]

Tweet But they still have places to go, people to see, things to do. So how do they stay mobile once their ability to drive is gone? As we’ve noted frequently, seismic demographic shifts are underway as America races towards 400 million in population. One of them is an approaching “senior tsunami,” with nearly 1 [...]

Much has been made over the last few months about America reaching the 300 mark in population, heading towards 400 million in another 40 years or so. What’s often lost between the lines is how much older that population will be. By only 2030, nearly 1 in 5 Americans will be over age 65. As the Aging in Place Initiative tells us, the largest majority of seniors are not retiring to the beach or moving into a nursing home – they choose to remain where they are and “age in place”. But as many seniors choose to stay where they are, they are realizing that many of our communities aren’t made for such a lifestyle, and find their options to be extremely limited….