I just finished reading Susan Jacoby's Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age, a bracing attack on the myths we've created about aging, namely that we're all going to enjoy active, healthy, fulfilling "golden years" in which we skydive, run triathlons, and have great sex into our 90s, and some vaguely defined "wisdom" will make the fact of our physical and mental deterioration no big deal. Aging, Jacoby argues, just plain sucks, and no amount of pharmaceutical ads starring beautiful people who actually seem to be in their late 40s can change that. She makes many powerful arguments, but it's not exactly a fun read. This part caught my attention, though:
One of the few worthwhile pieces of positive advice for people contemplating retirement and relocation is that they move to an apartment in a city with taxis and decent public transportation instead of moving to either the Hurricane Belt or the Sun Belt, where life without a car is not life at all ... there is no doubt in my mind that the greatest place to grow old in the United States is my hometown, New York City. In this amazing city, frail octogenarians and nonagenarians -- many of whom would be sitting in their condos watching television in Sun City, Arizona, or in East Lansing -- are taking their dogs to the park in the morning (even if the leash is attached to a wheelchair or walker), using the lifts provided for the disabled on every city bus, and setting off for concerts, museums, restaurants, or yes, Bloomingdale's. Anyone lucky enough to be a New Yorker is already a resident of an assisted living community.
Years ago, Jerry Seinfeld had a stand-up bit in which he said that his parents just moved to Florida. "They didn't want to go, but they're in their 60s now, and that's the law." I get that as you get older, the cold of winter can become more unpleasant. But I never understood what the attraction of Florida or Arizona was as a place to retire to, unless there's nothing more important to you than golf. Some people just don't like big cities, of course, but as a cultural norm, it would seem that a retirement downtown makes infinitely more sense than a retirement to Century Village.
