Bowser unveils Age-Friendly DC 2023 Strategic Plan

Mayor Muriel Bowser released the Age-Friendly DC 2023 Strategic Plan at the Avalon Theatre this week, using the opportunity to highlight recent efforts to help the city’s seniors, such as lowering their property-tax bills by 50 percent, making solar energy available for more people and creating affordable housing.

Age-Friendly DC — a coordinated, comprehensive and collective-action effort — focuses on ensuring that residents age 50 and older are “active, connected, healthy, engaged and happy in their environment.” According to U.S. Census data, people in that age group made up 28 percent of DC’s population in 2017.

“This is a forward-looking vision with your help that we put together that asks all Washingtonians to help us make the District the best city in the world where people can grow older — because we’re all growing older, aren’t we?” Bowser said. “Our goal is to be the best city at every age.”

Roughly 100 people watched with free popcorn in hand on Monday as Bowser stressed the importance of making the District an easier place to grow older as hundreds of people move every month to DC, which is expected to reach a population of 800,000 in the next 20 years. “The challenges on housing and transportation are real.”

The plan outlines visions for 14 different domains including transportation, housing, social participation, financial security, public safety, caregiving and lifelong learning. Specific projects — identified as “Where We Are Heading” — include ensuring transit stops adhere to accessibility guidelines; encouraging creation of “accessory dwelling units” or “granny flats” in more neighborhoods; boosting prosecution of elder abuse crimes by 20 percent; and identifying ways to remove legislative impediments facing caregivers.

Since DC’s participation in Age-Friendly initiative in 2012, the city has launched the Safe at Home Program to help residents 60 and older and adults with disabilities make modifications to their homes. DC also helped fund construction of the newly opened Plaza West at 4th and K streets NW, which offers 223 apartments with 50 units reserved for grandparents who are raising grandchildren.

“I have been touched by a number of seniors who talked to me about what it’s like to go to movies and make sure their needs can be met,” Bowser said, standing on the stage of one of 70 businesses in the District designated as age-friendly for accessibility and inclusivity for all ages.

The 5612 Connecticut Ave. NW theater, which offers a special discount for seniors on Thursdays, was recognized for the steps its management has taken toward accessibility and inclusivity.

Bowser said when she takes her parents to the movies, she often thinks about accessibility measures that would accommodate her father’s mobility challenges.  

Ward 4 DC Council member Brandon Todd said at the event that the city’s interagency initiative takes a holistic approach in planning for seniors. “As we as a city look toward the next five years, I’m very excited about the plan presented today by the mayor and her team,” he said.

Todd — the DC government’s designated “Age-Friendly Business Ambassador” — told audience members to encourage businesses to seek age-friendly practices.

Customers can nominate businesses for age-friendly designation for things like good lighting, large-print menus or documents, a low noise level, automated doors, and entrances and exits wide enough to accommodate walkers, said Wes Morrison, an Age-Friendly DC volunteer.

How a business “treats all of its seniors as customers with respect and courtesy is a reflection of the livability of the District,” Morrison said. Social interaction found at businesses helps combat isolation, which “is a big problem for the 50-plus segment of the population,” he added.

Morrison shared his story with the audience: After 32 years at a local television station, where he had planned to work until his 71st birthday this year, he was laid off in 2009. “I was not only cut out of nine more years of Social Security retirement funds, but also the daily interaction with coworkers and the peripheral people.”

Last November AARP and the World Health Organization recognized DC as a top Age-Friendly City, which WHO defines as “one that is inclusive, accessible and encourages active and healthy living for all residents.”

DC joined the WHO and AARP Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities in October 2012 under former Mayor Vincent Gray.

“I just saw seniors who looked so happy today and so inspired that this was taking place,” Romaine Thomas, a member of the 2018-2023 Age-Friendly DC Task Force, told The DC Line.  

Thomas, a longtime Ward 5 resident and former member of the DC Commission on Aging, said she hopes the announcement gives older residents hope and confidence about what the city is doing for them and inspires more businesses to come on board with age-friendly certifications.

“It’s so important seniors understand and know that there are things to be done and created on their behalf and to give them support,” she said.