Mark MaCEra rETirES FrOM lOngviEw

By Jaime Cone

Mark Macera, Longview executive director, has a conversation with resident Rachel Kaufmann while walking the grounds. (Photo Provided)

Mark Macera, executive director of Longview in Ithaca, has a lot on his mind these days.

Of course, one of the things on the forefront of Macera’s mind right now is COVID-19 and how to prevent the disease from spreading to Longview’s residents.

“It takes just one case,” he said. “A lot of clients here are laid back and feel everything is fine and that it’s not affecting them, and I have to keep reminding them, ‘don’t be complacent.’”

But the pandemic aside, Macera is preparing to turn his attention from the career he built for the last 30 years to the next stage in his life. Later this year he plans to retire.

“This last August marked my third complete decade with Ithacare, Longview’s umbrella company,” he said.

As executive director for 30 years, Macera is a walking encyclopedia of the retirement and assisted living community’s history.

“Ithacare has been in existence since the early ‘70s, when it first formed and occupied the old city hospital on Quarry Street,” he said. “The old city hospital stopped operating as a hospital, and Ithaca College was growing rapidly and there were not enough housing options,

so they turned that building in a dormitory.”

Years later, through a collaboration between the City of Ithaca, Ithaca College, and Cornell University, it was transformed into housing where people could “age in place” with some assistance. This was before growing old comfortably at home was a well known concept for most people.

Eventually Ithacare outgrew that building, and Longview looked to move to a larger facility.

It was important to Longview to keep its strong ties to Ithaca College, Macera said, and they maintain and utilize that connection today with a social model of care (as opposed to purely medical) that fosters opportunities for learning for its residents.

“We wanted to be a hybrid and maintain that critical partnership,” Macara said. With that in mind, it only made sense to acquire land across the street from Ithaca College’s campus.

The symbiotic relationship between the college and Longview allows for volunteer, research and teaching opportunities for students and faculty, and the residents, in turn, reap the benefits.

The result is that Longview is able to provide a nurturing environment for residents with a range of needs. Those who are retired, in good health, and looking to downsize to a low maintenance housing option can choose one of Longview’s townhouses or apartments. They can enjoy socializing with the other residents, attending Longview’s many events, and engaging in the numerous activities offered while avoiding the stress of mowing the lawn, keeping up the house, and other hassles of traditional home ownership, Macera said.

Longview is uniquely positioned to offer living situations that change along with the residents’ needs as they grow older. While their 100 open plan apartments and 11 duplexes offer spacious independent living, more services are available to those who need them in the assisted living and enhanced assisted living buildings.

One level of care that Longview does not provide is skilled 24-hour-a-day care similar to what one would continued on page 23

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