Age-Friendly centers in portland
Portland is aging, with more of the population over age 65 than ever before. Portland is aging rapidly; by 2030 there will potentially be 83% more 65-85 year olds than 2010. While distribution of these age groups varies across Portland neighborhoods, we can anticipate residents to remain in roughly in the same geographic areas as they age. Portland must plan services and infrastructure to accommodate residents aging in place. Racial and ethnic diversity, as well as variation in the built environment, pose challenges and opportunities to this demographic shift.
Source: Hanson, D., Person, M., Phillips, G., Rowan, C., Rouhgton, C., Wicks, A. (2012, January 1). Toward an age-friendly Portland. ORCA Planning. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/usp_murp/45/
Source: Hanson, D., Person, M., Phillips, G., Rowan, C., Rouhgton, C., Wicks, A. (2012, January 1). Toward an age-friendly Portland. ORCA Planning. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/usp_murp/45/
Source: Hanson, D., Person, M., Phillips, G., Rowan, C., Rouhgton, C., Wicks, A. (2012, January 1). Toward an age-friendly Portland. ORCA Planning. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/usp_murp/45/
Adopted by City Council in 2013, the Age-Friendly Action Plan articulates "a set of strategies...to move our city and region toward development and activities that foster age-friendly physical, social, and service environments that are friendly for people of all ages and abilities"
In 2019, the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability created the Age-Friendly Portland Program to integrate these strategies and other considerations into convening stakeholders and collaborations to determine land use and sustainability research, policies, and service provisions.
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The program is preparing to launch a project tentatively titled Age-Friendly Centers, with the objectives to:
- Better understand age-friendly housing and services in centers that results in better connected housing, accessible mobility options, appropriate community and health services, and social and economic opportunities for older adults, people with disabilities, caregivers, and families.
- Co-create a framework and action steps with local stakeholders, government partners, and international experts
- Launching a two-year project that results in increased age friendliness of neighborhood and town centers in Portland
An unmet need of the project is the preliminary identification of best practices and considerations that might inform the co-development of a framework with and for communities in Portland. Thus, my responsibilities were to conduct research on best practices, useful metrics, and any overlap in age-friendly planning and concentrated development; focusing on mobility services and infrastructure.
My research would result in a literature and policy review for my community partner supervisor, the program manager for the Age-Friendly Portland Program. Some resources from my research include:
- Local policies and interviews with program managers to understand the Transportation System Plan, Pedestrian Master Plan, Connected Centers Street Plan, Building Healthy Connected Communities Along the Division Transit Corridor.
- Articles and opinion pieces on the emerging post-pandemic interest in a 15-minute-city from sites such as C40 Knowledge Hub, Bloomberg CityLab, Urbanism Next. International examples include Melbourne, Paris, Portland, China, and Signapore.
- Some existing overlap between these trends and planning for age-diverse populations included access and mobility for babies, toddlers, and their caregivers in the 15-minute-neighborhood, as well as aging-in-place strategies for transit-oriented-development.
- Seattle's Pedestrian Master Plan Implementation Plan, Seamless Seattle Wayfinding Program, Traffic Signal Policy updates, AccessMap & Accessible Route Planner became useful references for age-friendly best practices of a comparable city. Seattle has formal channels to advance community and agency co-design with their Pedestrian Access Advisory Committee, King County Mobility Coalition, and Northwest Universal Design Council.
- Due to the nature of my work, community engagement was not a focus. I drew upon this work and local recommendations made by PSU Masters of Urban and Regional Planning students in reports such as Toward an Age-Friendly Portland and Roses From Concrete: A Walkability Plan for the Rosewood Neighborhood.
- Academic articles on older adults and mobility included comparisons of Portland and Vancouver BC, environmental factors influencing older adult activity in Singapore, as well as outdoor barriers and facilitators to older adult activity in King County WA.
REFLECTION
The University Studies Goals have been exercised through class discussions and personal reflections of this experience. The action plan of this partnership was to conduct in-depth research of best practices to inform the development of a program to plan Centers for individuals of all abilities across the life course. In these research responsibilities, I struggle with positioning myself as an informant, hesitant to say "adopt these best practices!" being well aware of the impact on communities most affected by decisions within City government. While I am a caregiver, I am currently able bodied. While I will age, I am currently young. City agencies will need to continue working towards collaboration and co-design with diverse communities throughout the city. This partnership has given me the opportunity to feel more comfortable in the role of an advocate for accessibility, having conducted research on policies and practices, recommending agencies to implement recommendations made by those with lived experience.