What Makes a City a Good Place to Live and Grow Old?

Abstract

As increasing numbers of adults are living longer and remaining in their communities as they age, city planners and leaders are exploring how cities need to adapt to ensure their community is age-friendly and a good place for residents to age-in-place. Using secondary data collected from mid-Atlantic city residents aged 45+ years, quantitative analyses were conducted to determine what makes a community a good place to live and grow old. Path model analyses revealed significant relationships among self-reported quality of life and the beliefs that the City and the neighborhood were good places to live and grow old. Features of the built environment and perceived help from neighbors were significantly correlated to separate factors in the models, but not significant contributors to the models. Findings support conceptualizing age-friendly community models and community initiatives using a neighborhood-level lens and engaging older residents to capture the context of their lives and lived experiences.