Here They Come

When I was a teenager, a friend of my parents asked me what I was going to do when I grew up. I don’t remember my answer, but I vividly recall his reply. He said, “You should design decent retirement homes for seniors because they just might be ready by the time you need one.” That was four decades ago, and I never did take his advice. According to the community and regional planner Gerald Hodge, not enough of us have been thinking about the needs of seniors, and we had better get a move on. Hodge became a planner in the 1950s and spent his career designing communities for baby boomers and their young families. Now those baby boomers are aging a senior himself. To try to right the neglect, Hodge has written a highly practical book that explains the impact of the massive growth in the population of seniors and provides communities with a frame-work for response.

After reading Hodge’s book, I would propose elevating this issue to the status of a looming national...