Making Suburbia More Livable ran in the Wall Street Journal in September (I don't know if it is an online article only or if it appeared in the print version as well) that looked at how communities are attempting to make it easier for retirees to live in them.  Fayetteville was featured.

The premise of the article is that suburbs are great places to grow-up in, but they're tough to grow old in. But according to an AARP study cited in the article, 85% of surveyed individuals aged 50 plus don't want to move and would like to remain in the communities as long as possible.

What's a city to do? Fayetteville Mayor Ken Steele offered his perspective.

"Every small community has the same problem," says Mr. Steele, age 69. "We want residents to be able to age in place, to meet their needs…here, without having to move away."

To that end, he indicates on the map how a new street grid could reduce traffic in the center of town and help Fayetteville become a "walking community"; how new town homes and condominiums, in an area where single-family homes have long been the norm, could give residents of all ages more housing options; and how new greenways and parks could promote social interaction.

"Lenders, landowners, developers—they're all talking now," Mr. Steele says of the project. "We really can't afford to wait."

The article goes on to talk about the efforts of the ARC to work with local officials, developers, architects, etc. to create places where people can stay once they get older. In Fayetteville, the plan to retrofit the community hopes to incorporate new "greenway paths," new transportation options for shopping and health-care as well as better linkeages between neighborhoods. And there is more:

Then there's the showstopper: taking a 38-acre undeveloped site that in the past might have supported 38 single-family homes, and wedging in more than 200 housing units, including town homes and condominiums, around a neighborhood square. For older Fayetteville residents with large homes, it could be an attractive option for remaining in the community.

That kind of development and density are "unheard of" in the Fayetteville area, says Jan Trammell, a local builder and developer. But "we can't keep doing what we've been doing," she adds.

"Space is something we thought we had to have" in the suburbs, says Ms. Trammell, age 74. "But we can't afford that today—time-wise or money-wise. Putting a single house on a one-acre lot means more street in front of that house, longer electric and gas lines to run to the house, more yard and shrubs to cut, and a bigger property-tax bill for the owners. We're all tired of that. I know I am."

The metro Atlanta region will continue to grow and cities continue to be leaders in producing innovative and sustainable development projects—those points were among the news revealed during the Atlanta Regional Commission’s annual State of the Region breakfast on Nov. 20 at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Read more...

Last year the Georgia Municipal Association, where I work as Manager of Online Communications, started an online project called City Upon a Hill: Reflections on the Value of Cities, where we asked people (some city officials as well as others) to explore and highlight the value that Georgia's cities and towns bring to our state.

It was a fun project to work on and all of the submissions we received were very good.  But the one reflection that stands out the most to me is the one that Rep. Stacey Abrams, a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, did for us.  If you don't know, she represents parts of Atlanta and Decatur.

Below are a few insights about cities from her reflection.

"The beauty of the city lies in a remarkable inability to choose isolation. Instead, the city is built by knitting together neighborhoods made stronger by a sharing of experiences."

"Whether the population is five hundred, five thousand or five hundred thousand, a city is strongest, most vibrant, when it seeks to highlight the power of joined forces."

"Without cities, we are loose confederations of individuals with aspirations and hopes.  As cities, we are dynamic, energetic forces for soaring achievement, driven by the engine of that most precious resource – our people."

Well written and dead-on, I think.

I  invite you to read Rep. Abrams entire essay, or listen to her read it, and to see what others had to say about Georgia cities and towns.