About Governing Generations
America is getting older. Fast. Baby boomers -- the 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964 -- are rapidly hitting retirement age. The oldest boomers turned 65 last year, and for the next two decades, Americans will hit that age at a rate of 8,000 a day. By the time you finish reading this paragraph, another five boomers will have reached 65.
That massive transition marks an unprecedented demographic upheaval -- and a historic challenge for government. Much of the discussion about the so-called silver tsunami involves the impending pressures on federal entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare. But the wave of aging Americans poses sweeping challenges to states and localities as well.
To examine and analyze these issues, Governing is launching a multiple-part series on aging in A...
How Generation X is Shaping Government
A couple of months ago, the city of San Mateo, Calif., finished a small experiment. Planning to renovate the playground at one of its most popular community parks, it put a set of proposed designs online for a month and invited public comments. Some 130 people from around the city batted ideas back and forth, remarked on what they liked and didn’t like in the designs, and made suggestions. The playground needed shade, they agreed, and water fountains reachable by little kids.
The city’s Parks and Recreation Department was thrilled. Before trying the online approach, it had convened a public meeting to solicit feedback. Eight people had bothered to show up.
What stood out most in the online forum was who the participants turned out to be. Almost 60 percent of them were between the ages of 35 and 45. The average age was just shy of 42 -- noticeably younger than the demographic typically drawn by public hearings in San Mateo. “This was the target audience we’d been trying to get but were not getting” through conventional...
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How Boomers, Millennials and Immigrants Are Changing America
These demographics will have a profound effect on the needs of the country, and state and local officials need to take notice.
Read MoreHow Will Boomers Reshape U.S. Cities?
The wave of boomer retirees will transform the way cities look, from the way they grow and sprawl to minutiae such as curb heights and the fonts on street signs.
Read MoreTransit Service for Disabled May Feel Weight of Seniors
Agencies are seeking ways to curb the growing use of expensive paratransit service, but advocates question their methods.
Read MoreTransportation Agencies Turn to Mobility Management
The strategy involves partnering with other agencies and nonprofits to improve convenience for individual riders, especially seniors, and achieve cost savings at the same time.
Read MoreGovernment Unprepared for Boomers’ Mass Exodus
The mass exodus of baby boomers from the workforce has been a crisis in the making for years. Yet in many cases the public sector is still not prepared.
Read MoreWhat Makes the Boomers the Boomers?
The baby boom generation is about to retire, and it has vastly different wants, needs, likes and dislikes than the generations before them.
Read MoreBaby Boomers’ Impact on Elections
They hold tremendous influence -- more than half the voting-age population is now over 45 -- but baby boomers and their role at the polls are a bit hard to pin down.
Read MoreQ&A on Senior Housing with Former HUD Secretary
Henry Cisneros discusses his new book on senior housing and what local and federal governments need to do to address the housing needs of seniors.
Read MoreSenior Job Training: Growing Need, Shrinking Budgets
As Americans work longer, state and local officials worry a senior job training program doesn’t have the funding to meet its demand.
Read MorePoverty Among Seniors Getting Harder to Ignore
The gap between what seniors need to live on versus what they have might land squarely on state and local governments.
Read MoreSenior Health
Affordable Housing
Government Management