Brave New Boomers

There, as elsewhere, officials are thinking about how they're going to serve this new generation of retirees. Boomers -- who are "basically being dragged kicking and screaming into senior citizen status," as Kauffman, chairman of the board's aging committee, put it -- are far more affluent and expected to be more active.

The newest senior center in Springfield, for example, is going to be named the Kingstowne Center for Active Adults, after a consultant panel of boomers told the county it loathed the term "seniors" and the very idea of a "senior center." The center will have evening and weekend hours to attract those who still work. A billiard table will be strategically placed in the front of the new building to lure men, who are more likely than women to be wary of hanging out at such a place.

Transportation Is a Key Issue

Falls Church retiree Rita Turner recently decided she was too old to drive, so she sold her Ford Escort to a neighbor. She didn't even watch as he drove it up the street and out of her life.

But now, a few months later, not a day goes by that she doesn't miss it. Her schedule is at the mercy of a hodgepodge of volunteer drivers from Fairfax County's office on aging and her friends. Family members live far away. The bus stop is too far for her arthritic knees.

"I call it 'Rita's Folly,' " Turner said. "I never should have done it . . . I used to go, go, go, and now I can't get out when I want to."

Her sense of feeling trapped at home may become a common emotion among her peers, as more of the region's seniors age in neighborhoods that are far from convenient transportation hubs.

The graying of the suburbs has to do with the way the region was settled, experts say. After World War II, the first generation of suburb dwellers left homes in the District to raise families in greener climes such as Arlington and Bethesda. Then the parents stayed. As housing prices rose, young families moved farther out to afford their dream homes. Thus, the region is aging in rings farther and farther from the city center.

A demographic map of Montgomery shows the shift in clear terms: In 2000, when people older than 65 composed about 10 percent of the population, most were clustered near the Beltway. Two decades from now, the projected 188,000 seniors -- representing more than 16 percent of the county's population -- will be scattered as far as Germantown and Clarksburg.

Meanwhile, the percentage of seniors in the District will grow more slowly. Frey said he expects that some empty nesters will want the third act of their lives to be in the city's urban core, but it's hard to know how many.

"With the next generation, you'll see the elder population farther out," said Elizabeth Boehner, director of Montgomery's area agency on aging. "It's aging in place. It's a well-worn phrase, but that's exactly what they're doing."

Montgomery officials said having their clients spread over 495 square miles is beginning to strain the system, and it will become increasingly more difficult and expensive as traffic worsens. A Meals on Wheels provider in Gaithersburg recently went out of business, and the county hired a company to deliver the $4 meals to eight people -- at a cost of $25 a person.

Montgomery, which has the region's largest suburban bus system, called Ride On, is trying to entice more seniors to use its buses by letting them ride free starting in January. It is also adding display and voice machines that will flash and announce stops. Fairfax and Montgomery recently assessed their bus stops to see which ones need ramps and other upgrades -- at costs of $2.5 million and $11 million, respectively.