"Older adults desire accessible urban housing, too; developers should pay attention."

Of the facilities under construction, the senior living rehab at M. Fine, on Main near Vincennes, comes nearer to matching this paradigm than the one on Grant Line Road (a few hundred yards of conceivably finished sidewalk away from Wal-Mart, poor devils).

But there's not much in terms of immediately walkable destinations either place. The walk along untamed Grant Line wouldn't be very pleasant, even if Community Park is nearby. On Main, the dining options are 12 blocks away, downtown, and there are no nearby grocery stores except the dollar emporiums on Vincennes.

In reprinting these survey findings, Strong Towns had this to say:

“In your town, are there neighborhoods where three generations of a family could reasonably find a place to live, all within walking distance of each other?”

And:

If we primarily build senior housing on the fringes of our cities, then that's where seniors will "choose" to live. If we, instead, build senior housing next door to other sorts of central city housing, we'll stop leaving our elders stranded in suburbia and create those intergenerational neighborhoods that help build strong towns.

Some day in new Albany, we'll be debating matters like this in terms like these. Until then, it's monetization, grandma.

Seniors want walkability, too, survey says, by Patrick Sisson (Curbed)

Older adults desire accessible urban housing, too; developers should pay attention

We assume millennials prefer walkability and urban living for all the right reasons: social cohesion and community, better access to entertainment, services, and jobs. So why do we assume that older Americans and senior citizens, who also value connectivity, community, and healthy living, wouldn’t prefer the same living arrangement?

According to a new study by A Place for Mom, a nationwide referral service, the Senior Living Preferences Survey, older Americans value walkable urban centers. The survey asked 1,000 respondents nationwide about their living preferences, and a majority said it was very important or somewhat important to live in a walkable neighborhood, as well as one with low crime that was close to family.

“It’s time to abandon the idea that only millennials and Generation X care about walkability and the services available in dense urban neighborhoods,” says Charlie Severn, head of marketing at A Place for Mom. “These results show a growing set of senior housing consumers also find these neighborhoods desirable. It’s a trend that should be top of mind among developers.”