Where are the best places in the U.S. to live if you want to age successfully? If you guess cities in Florida or Arizona, you are wrong.
New rankings broadcasted earlier this month on the PBS News Hour presented five choices among large metropolitan areas. You may be surprised to discover that our area, described as Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.–New Hampshire, finishes in fourth place, ahead of New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, which finishes only fifth.
(Incidentally, the first three are Provo-Orem, Utah; Madison, Wis.; and Omaha-Council Bluffs, Neb./Iowa.)
Who, you may wonder, has the effrontery to make such arbitrary choices? The urban areas were picked by the Milken Institute, a “non-profit think tank.” Though I had never heard of this organization, it appears to have large resources of wealth and staff ready to improve the world.
As indicated at the beginning of this column, Milken does have a criterion for its choice of cities. The places were chosen for their performances “in promoting and enabling successful aging.”
That standard, of course, leads to another question. “What is successful aging?” For some answers, I refer readers to my previous columns. On my website, you can find an archive of these columns, searchable by theme.
In any case, the Milken Institute obviously loves Boston.
“Few places,” it says, “are as innovative or offer as many opportunities for education and retraining as the Greater Boston area, home to more than 100 colleges and universities. For culture vultures, the area is full of theaters, historic places, lively lectures and music venues.”
The part about education resonates with me. I frequently try to convince older people that having access to learning is one of the best ways of preserving their well-being. The medical scientists are right when they tell us about the power of learning to preserve and improve the health of our brain and whole body.
Other things that rate high in this appreciation of the Greater Boston area include Health Care, No. 4; Wellness (or well-being?) No. 5; Community Engagement No. 15; and the highest mark goes to Transportation, No. 2. Yes, No. 2.
Many of us often criticize our transportation system but, by comparison with those of other cities, ours deserves to come out high. However, our automobile drivers are surely among the worst in the country, a factor that threatens the well-being of elders and everybody else.
Despite these drivers, Milken finds that our area is No. 1 for people 80 or over! Of all the places in America where octogenarians could live Boston is tops.
Yes, we who live in the Greater Boston area are fortunate in having many chances to keep on learning. That does not necessarily mean taking courses. It can also involve going to museums and attending concerts, theater and movies as well. It includes going to lectures and even just talking to people who use their heads.
You don’t need to be rich to do these things, especially if you keep up with cultural events in your area.
The type of survey described here must, of course, be taken lightly; some evaluations are arbitrary; none should be regarded as infallible.
In fact, I was surprised to find such a serious television program as the News Hour presenting the results so straight-facedly.
However, it does have the virtue of making us think about what is important in later life. I reflect often upon the values of the place where I live and think about ways to make my surroundings even better. I feel thankful to my fellow residents, who help to make my area a good place to be.
Richard Griffin of Cambridge is a biweekly columnist in GateHouse Media New England publications. His e-mail address is rbgriff180@aol.comand and he welcomes your comments and questions. Richard’s Web site and blog is richardbgriffin.com. There you will find an archive of more than 900 of his columns.