Senior Living in Manhattan

I haven’t seen New York City on any lists of the best places to retire, but this article from Politico.com says that the Big Apple is a leader in accommodating seniors’ living needs. The article says NYC has over 250 places that could be described as senior centers and other benefits for those who are Baby Boomers or older.The benefits for seniors are part of a deliberate policy begun only a few years ago.

Some 1 million people over the age of 65 call New York City home, according to the academy. And that number will only continue to grow as baby boomers head into retirement age. By 2030, the number of older New Yorkers is projected to be 1.5 million, according to the academy.

In addition to being a leader in WHO’s age-friendly cities initiative, New York has gone a step further by creating what it calls “aging improvement districts,” where many of the age-friendly initiatives are concentrated. The city started pilot programs in 2010 in three neighborhoods—East Harlem, the Upper West Side and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represents East Harlem, says the academy of medicine approached her and asked for her support. “I said, ‘It sounds great.’ Anything we can do to make life easier for seniors, to improve their quality of life” is good. In October, Mark-Viverito announced that the city would expand the aging improvement districts to 10 more city neighborhoods, with the goal of having every city district covered by 2018.