Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker Quinn and Dr. Boufford Outline Plans to Make New York an International Leader in Creating an Age-friendly City

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and Dr. Jo Ivey Boufford, president of The New York Academy of Medicine, today announced a plan to make New York City an international leader in making the urban environment age-friendly. The 59 initiatives in the City report released today, Age-Friendly NYC: Enhancing Our City’s Livability for Older New Yorkers, outline plans for an inclusive and accessible environment that promotes active aging focused on four domains of urban life: community and civic participation, housing, public spaces and transportation, and health and social services.

Mayor Bloomberg

In his remarks at the Mark Morris Dance Group this morning, the Mayor called the assessment of New York’s age-friendliness conducted by NYAM last year one of the most ambitious research projects undertaken by any city to find out from older adults what they want and need. According to the Mayor, the initiatives announced today were in large part responsive to the findings from that assessment, published in Toward an Age-friendly NYC.

The Mayor also announced that the City will form an Age-friendly NYC Commission charged with engaging the public, private, academic and philanthropic sectors to advance New York City’s position as one of the most livable cities in the world. The Commission will be co-chaired by United Way of New York City President and CEO Gordon Campbell and IBM Vice President of Global Community Affairs Robin Wilner and staffed by NYAM.

Dr. Boufford addresses attendees

Dr. Boufford discussed the importance of a multi-sectoral partnership in transforming New York City to promote healthy aging. She said: “We have set ourselves a high bar—a city that fosters independence, participation, dignity, and health among all its older residents—regardless of their race or class or the neighborhood in which they live.”

“The initiatives we’re launching will go a long way towards helping older New Yorkers live more connected, vibrant, and meaningful lives,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “The dynamic growth of our older population demanded that we look for ways to make New York City even more ‘age friendly.’ Today we are poised to take the next critical step in making New York even more friendly to people of all ages, by providing improved services and addressing the needs of the people who laid our City’s foundation.”

Speaker Quinn

In her remarks, Speaker Quinn noted that the Age-friendly New York City project was part of the World Health Organization’s international network of age-friendly cities and that New York was poised to become a global leader. She commented: “New York City is already a great place to grow older, thanks to everything from convenient public transportation and quality health facilities, to the sense of community you get in our diverse neighborhoods. But with our city expected to add roughly half a million older adults in the next twenty years, we need to take steps to make sure we remain age-friendly.”

“Government cannot do this alone, said Dr. Boufford. While the City has been hard at work thinking through government’s response to the demographic challenge before us, NYAM has been working with the private sector. We have met with businesses, academic institutions, health care organizations, social service providers, architects, religious and civic institutions, and many others and asked them to commit to making New York more age-friendly. They have generated many exciting ideas and recommendations that will complement the government-led initiatives we have heard about today.”

Going forward, NYAM will continue to work closely with the Mayor’s Office, the Speaker and City Council, the private sector, and the Age-friendly New York City Commission to develop additional recommendations and oversee their implementation.

Posted on August 25, 2009

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Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10029
212-822-7285
amartin@nyam.org

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