Monday, February 6, 2012

Vancouver Sun — True Old-Age Security Rests in Bricks and Mortar


Canada will have to do much more than raise the age of retirement if it hopes to guarantee its citizens anything that looks like security in their old age.
With his recent speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzer-land, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has set fire to a national conversation about the risks and challenges that lie ahead as the baby boom bulges into its senior years.
That's entirely appropriate; many would say this discussion is overdue.
But the challenges of managing an aging demographic will not be solved by a tweak to the government pro-grams aimed at providing financial security for those over the age of 65.
http://www.vancouversun.com/True+security+rests+bricks+mortar/6107013/story.html#ixzz1ldWfLS5ZTrue old-age security rests in bricks and mortar
Some of the gravest obstacles that we face as we age are physical. 
Canadian planners, developers and politicians have conspired over the last half-century to build cities and suburbs that best serve a car-driving middle class that is happy to travel long distances from homes, to school, jobs and services. Happy and capable. 
But even aside from crowding on the roads, and the increasingly prohibitive costs of maintaining an auto-oriented urban environment, older citizens often lose the capacity (and some-times the right) to drive a car.
That's entirely appropriate; many would say this discussion is overdue.
But the challenges of managing an aging demographic will not be solved by a tweak to the government pro-grams aimed at providing financial security for those over the age of 65.
Some of the gravest obstacles that we face as we age are physical.
Canadian planners, developers and politicians have conspired over the last half-century to build cities and suburbs that best serve a car-driving middle class that is happy to travel long distances from homes, to school, jobs and services.
Happy and capable.
But even aside from crowding on the roads, and the increasingly prohibitive costs of maintaining an auto-oriented urban environment, older citizens often lose the capacity (and some-times the right) to drive a car.
Fully 61 per cent of those citizens live in the suburbs, where they are destined to wake up one morning to find that, no matter what they need or where they want to go, they can no longer get there from here. There are no corner stores. There are no neighbourhood clinics. There are no regular buses. Often there are not even sidewalks.
So, if we're going to talk about pre-paring Canada for a population in which fully a quarter are over the age of 65 - as Statistics Canada says will be the case by 2031 - we will have to begin by rethinking the built environment.
For example, we will have to start retrofitting traditional suburban neighbourhoods to allow seniors the ability to age in place by providing more options for younger seniors to transition from single-family dwellings to apartments located to meet the needs of all ages. And when we plan and build new neighbourhoods, we should no longer do so in a head-long effort to please or appease a single demographic.
We should remind ourselves, at every step, that old age awaits everyone who is lucky enough to survive their prime, and we should build accordingly.
This is what we have tried to do with the community known as UniverCity. This is an intentional - and will ultimately be a complete - community emerging beside Simon Fraser University's main campus on Burnaby Mountain. Until we started building UniverCity, SFU was a commuter campus, accessed most easily by auto-mobile. There were no residences and no services.
In the last seven years, the SFU Com-munity Trust has developed homes for more than 3,000 people, an elementary school and a High Street complete with all the restaurants, shops and services that residents need to live from day to day.What UniverCity proves is that a community that will still be manage-able for those of advancing age is convenient for everyone else, as well. The mix of housing styles, the pedestrian access (everything is available within a five-to-seven-minute walk), the excel-lent transit service: These features work for everyone.
They particularly serve the mobility challenged, a group that includes moms with strollers as well as people who must rely on wheelchairs and walkers.
In his Davos speech, Harper used the word "sustainable" in reference to the long-term prospects for Canada's pension plans.
It's a good word - a good concept - and one that must be applied to our environment and society as well as our economy.
As UniverCity demonstrates, doing so will serve all Canadians, at every age - and for ages to come.
Gordon Harris is president and CEO of the SFU Community Trust. Glenn Miller is vice-president of education and research at the Canadian Urban Institute.

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