Living Well
Veronica Weber
Seniors play soccer at the Stanford/ Palo Alto Community Playing Fields on April 26, 2012. The men belong to a 60 and up recreational soccer club that meets four days a week.
Boomers turn 80 (continued from page 21)
There are some very young 80-year-olds and some very old 60-year-olds.
— John Sink, vice-president for programs, Avenidas
come with the years. Sink, who watches the numbers as he helps plan programs for “older adults,” says, “We’re studying the needs of folks very carefully. “It’s hard to go by age. You have to go by needs and interests.” An informal 2006 “white paper” on the impact of aging Boomers on Palo Alto — authored by a task force of community leaders, including city officials — raised the specter of a community where “upwards of 40 percent of our total population will be 55 years of age or older” by 2030. That surprising projection was based on a survey of more
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than 300 Palo Alto Baby Boomers, who said they aim to age in their homes and remain active in the community, according to the paper, titled “Impact of the Aging Baby Boom Population on Palo Alto’s Social and Community Services.” It was co-authored by Richard James, then director of community services for the City of Palo Alto and Lisa Hendrickson, president and CEO of Avenidas. The survey found that 80 percent of Boomers, who possess a higher education level than any past generation, have no plans to leave Palo Alto when they retire. That, and other surveys confirm that “older adults going forward are not going to fit the same model of older adults of the last generation,” Sink said. “They have a different self-image, different view of inde(continued on page 26)