Communities Seek to be Age-Friendly

By Rebecca Carr

When Sonia and Ronald Cardoza first saw the two-story town house in Matthews, a suburb of Charlotte, they knew they had found the perfect place to retire, and the reason was more than just living near family.

The Cardozas’ home, in the Bella Sera neighborhood, has a pathway that wraps around a picturesque pond and leads to a community clubhouse and pool. It is within walking distance of the Levine Senior Center, where they can exercise and take classes. The town has a top-notch medical center and trails that are wide enough for both pedestrians and cyclists.

Making Matthews age-friendly has been a top priority for more than a decade. Last fall, it was the first municipality in North Carolina to earn the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communities designation and to join the World Health Organization’s Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities.

Orange County was the state’s first county to secure the honor, followed recently by Mecklenburg and Wake counties.

Age-friendly communities seek to provide safe, walkable streets; better housing and transportation options; access to key services; and opportunities for residents to participate in community activities.

Now a growing number of local governments are in the process of joining the network, including the cities of Asheville, Charlotte and Wilmington, and New Hanover County, according to AARP North Carolina director Doug Dickerson. By January, roughly 2 million North Carolina residents will be living in communities designated as livable by AARP, he said. See the national list at aarp.org/livable.

The fact that Matthews has taken action to make the town more livable for people of all ages means that the Cardozas, now in their 80s, can stay in their home rather than move to a nearby assisted living center if their health declines. Most of the services they might need—from shopping at a nearby Costco to attending plays at a local theater to seeking emergency medical care—are located in their town of about 30,000.

“It’s all right here, so we don’t have to move. If the day ever comes when I can’t drive, I will just Uber,” said Sonia Cardoza, 80, a retired nurse who volunteers at the senior center one day a week.

Matthews started taking steps to become a more livable community after leaders noticed that a growing number of older people wanted to move there to be closer to their children, said Mayor Jim Taylor.

The town board encouraged wide multiuse paths and greenways, and it made its downtown section more pedestrian-friendly. It installed speed tables (longer and flatter than speed bumps) to slow traffic and built pedestrian islands.

“We wanted a more walkable community for people of all ages, whether they are on Rollerblades or walkers,” Taylor said.

Another plus is the Levine Senior Center, which serves more than 600 people each week. “We do a lot to teach seniors how to be assertive about everything from life balance to finances to living with chronic health issues like diabetes,” said Dahn Jenkins, executive director of the center.

Improving rural life
Older population growth in the Carolinas is among the fastest in the nation, said James Johnson, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The 65-plus population in the two states rose 28 percent from 2000 to 2010.

Making rural communities age-friendly is a top priority of AARP, Dickerson said.

Johnson is working closely with AARP to help rural communities become more age-friendly.

In one class, Johnson sends teams of students to apply the principles of new urbanism—which promotes environmentally friendly designs with accessible, walkable, neighborhoods that offer a range of housing and careers—smart growth and sustainable community development to help small cities and towns in eastern North Carolina transform into age-friendly communities.

See how livable your community is at the AARP Livability Index. 

Rebecca Carr is a freelance writer living in Columbus, N.C.