New Horizons, Early 2009

VILLAGE CARE OF NEW YORKEARLY 2009

Engaged AgingNewHorizonsEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

LOUIS J. GANIM

MANAGING EDITOR

BRETT C VERMILYEA

——————

PUBLISHED BY

VILLAGE CARE OF NEW YORK

154 CHRISTOPHER STREET

NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10014

CHAIRMAN

DAVID H. SIDWELL

PRESIDENT & CEO

ARTHUR Y. WEBB

WWW.VCNY.ORG

(212) 337-5600

BY ARTHUR Y. WEBB, PRESIDENT AND CEO

Researchers at the University of Iowa recently

studied civic engagement as a retirement role for

older adults.In their definition of “civic engagement,” they included both volunteering and con-

tinued working for at least one day a week. They found that seniors have these pursuits

because they want to contribute to their communities and they want to stay socially

active. Even if they continue to work in a certain capacity, it’s often not just for the

money.

You can read more about the civic engagement research in this issue of New

Horizons, and you will also find some bundled articles dealing with the continued pres-

ence of older adults in the work force. You’ll hear from seniors, who talk about work’s

“whys and wherefores” as they age, and from experts who look at the needs of seniors

wanting to stay active — spiritually, psychologically and from a financial perspective.

Having productive aging opportunities is becoming more and more important

because we have large numbers of Baby Boomers just now starting to enter the tradi-

tional retirement ages. These are people in perhaps the most educated and fit older

generation this country has ever produced. And it’s likely they are going to want to stay

engaged.

In Village Care’s SeniorChoices programs, we see examples all the time of the ben-

efits of engaged, productive and purposeful aging. It can be someone like Bob Kelly,

who’s featured in this issue and whose wigs you’ve certainly seen either on television

or Broadway, still working at 85. Or it can be someone less heralded like some of the

volunteers who lend a hand at Village Nursing Home.

If we can keep older adults in the work force in some fashion, for example, it can’t

help but be good for the economy, and the workplace. Production would be enhanced

and we would continue to have the benefit of their experience as well as their institu-

tional knowledge.

By making sure we have ample opportunities, too, for seniors to volunteer and con-

tribute their time and services, we can supplement paid workers. Meanwhile, retirees

themselves will benefit from continued civic engagement and contributing to their

communities.

It is a classic “win/win” situation.

E A R L Y 2 0 0 9 | V O L U M E 3 , N U M B E R 2

D E P A R T M E N T S

F E A T U R E S

In the News 2“Ask Medicare” WebsiteWW Helps Caregivers; Tips on TT How to Exercise Safely; Healthiness in Old Age Requires Planning; When WordsWW Get Old: Ageist Language; Village Care honVV -ored by SAGE; VAVV DHC Celebrates Anniversary

Senior Perspective 7Elderspeak

Opinion 30Civic Engagement; Community Response to Dementia

The Last Word WW 32Whence Coney Island

8 The Makeover of Bob KellyBY JESS ESPINOSA

A BROADWAY LAA EGEND AND 46TH & TEN RESIDENT

12 Who’s Afraid of Edward Albee?BY JESS ESPINOSA

46TH & TEN ACTING GROUP PERFORMS FOR A VERY SPECIAL GUEST

16 Retirement Redefined BY LUCAS MANN

AS BABY BOOMERS ENTER THEIR GOLDEN YEARS,

SOCIETY RETHINKS THE CONCEPT OF RETIREMENT

20 They’re Still At It BY BRETT C VERMILYEA

WHY FOLKS OVER 50 ARE THE FASTEST-GROWING SEGMENT

OF THE WORK FORCE

28 Opting Out And Back InBY BRETT C VERMILYEA

USING A SECOND CAREER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

2 NEW HORIZONS | Early 2009

In the News

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled a new online initiative

aimed at educating caregivers of seniors and people with disabilities.

The new website — Ask Medicare — was developed by CMS with the help of several partner organizations. Ask Medicare features insights from caregiv-ing professionals as well as representa-tives of the health care industry. The con-sumer-friendly Internet resource provides Medicare beneficiaries and their caregiv-ers with a wealth of tools and materials designed to help them make informed health care decisions. Partners with CMSin developing the website included AARP,the Alzheimer’s Association, the NationalAcademy of Elder Law Attorneys and the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers.

The website can be found at www.medicare.gov/caregivers.

“This truly is a one-stop site that will help lighten the burden on caregivers,” said Linda Aufderhaar, a licensed clinical social worker who is the past-president of the geriatric care managers group.

“It was inspiring to see so many orga-nizations come together, all united by a mission to help protect our nation’s most vulnerable citizens. This website will help put caregivers in touch with the experts and organizations that can help them address a myriad of challenges and concerns.”

Many Baby Boomers today are a “sand-wich generation,” wedged between the cost of caring for their children and their aging parents. There are nearly 45 mil-lion Americans — or one in five adults — who provide unpaid care to a loved one. This care is valued at a staggering $306 billion each year. That nearly doubles the amount spent on home care and nursing home services combined ($158 billion).

CMS representatives hope Ask Medicare helps many of these people recognize their own role in the caregiver industry.

“Many caregivers don’t even think of themselves as a caregiver in the tradi-tional sense. All they know is that a friend or family member needs their help,” said CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems. “In addition to raising awareness

of Medicare benefits, we hope this site actually helps many of these caregivers self-identify. Their work is exhausting but essential — and often goes unrecog-nized.”

Designed by and for caregivers, Ask Medicare seeks to shed light on the national insurance program by streamlin-ing resources and bringing together sev-eral organizations that specialize in issues impacting the senior population and peo-ple with disabilities. The website — which links to a number of caregiver directories and advocacy organizations — will feature a bi-monthly electronic newsletter filled with stories about caregivers and how they responded to industry challenges.

Medicare leaders also hope the site will clear up many misconceptions over what the federal health care program does and does not cover. According to a 2003 Kaiser Family Foundation/HarvardSchool of Public Health poll, for example, 39 percent of individuals aged 18 and older erroneously believe that Medicare covers the cost of extended long-term care, such as nursing home care and home care.

“Ask Medicare” Website Helps Caregivers

3

Newswise — As Baby Boomers and older adults try to keep active and exer-cise, it’s important that they keep in mind that their bodies are not as young as they used to be and not overdo it.

In 2007, more than 149,000 peo-ple between the ages of 45 and 64 were treated in emergency rooms, clinics and doctors’ offices for injuries related to exercise and exercise equip-ment, according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.

“When you are 50, you may injure your body more easily than when you were 20,” says James Keeney, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon and member of the American Academy of OrthopaedicSurgeons (AAOS) Leadership FellowsProgram. “Joints, tissues and muscles may not be as flexible as they used to be. So as you get older, you need to take extra steps to protect yourself from inju-ries when you exercise.”

The AAOS offers the following tips to help boomers prevent exercise-relat-ed injuries:

* Check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program. A phy-sician will make sure your heart is in good condition and can make recom-mendations based on your current fit-ness level. This is especially important if you’ve had a previous injury.

* Always warm up and stretch before exercising. Cold muscles are more like-ly to get injured, so warm up with some light exercise for at least three to five minutes.

* Avoid being a “weekend warrior.” Moderate exercise every day is healthier and less likely to result in injury than heavy activity only on weekends.

* Don’t be afraid to take lessons. An instructor can help ensure you’re using the proper form, which can prevent overuse injuries such as tendonitis and stress fractures.

* Develop a balanced fitness pro-gram. Incorporate cardio, strength training and flexibility training to get a total body workout and prevent overuse injuries. Also, make sure to introduce new exercises gradually, so you don’t take on too much at once.

* Take calcium and Vitamin D sup-plements daily.

* Listen to your body. As you age, you may not be able to do some of the activities that you did years ago. Pay attention to your body’s needs and abili-ties, and modify your workout accord-ingly.

* Remember to rest. Schedule regu-lar days off from exercise and rest when

tired.Baby boomers who exercise regularly

are less likely to experience depression, weight gain, diabetes, high blood pres-sure and sleep disturbances, so it’s important to incorporate physical activ-ity into your routine at any age.

For more information about baby boomer exercise safety, you may visit http://www.orthoinfo.org.

Tips on How to Exercise Safely

Thriving in Old Age RequiresPlanning, Commitment

If you plan to “thrive” when you are 65, you need to invest in your health decades earlier.

A new study in a recent issue of The Journal of Gerontology finds that fewer than 10 percent of people aged 65-85 maintain exceptional emotional and physical health throughout their golden years. These so-called “thrivers” share specific behavioral and lifestyle characteristics that may hold the key to healthy aging, according to the study’s authors.

“Important predictors of thriving were the absence of chronic illness, income over $30,000, having never smoked, and drinking alcohol in mod-eration,” said lead author Mark Kaplanof Portland State University. “We also found that people who had a positive outlook and lower stress levels were more likely to thrive in old age.”

“Many of these factors can be modi-fied when you are young or middle-aged,” said co-author David Feeny of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. “While these find-ings may seem like common sense, now we have evidence about which factors contribute to exceptional health during retirement years.”

This is the first research to evalu-ate which factors help older people maintain exceptional health over a long period of time. Most previous inves-tigations have focused on factors that contribute to poor health, and they have made those determinations based

on one-time surveys. This study included 2,432 Canadian

residents, aged 65-85, who filled out an extensive health survey every other year from 1994-2004. One measure asked people to rate their abilities in eight categories — vision, hearing, speech, ambulation, dexterity, emo-tion, cognition and pain. Thrivers were those who rated themselves as having no or only mild disability in all eight categories on at least five of the six surveys.

If respondents reported moderate or severe disability on any of the six surveys, they were classified as non-thrivers. Just over half of the respon-dents started out as thrivers, but by the end of the ten years, only 8 percent of the respondents were considered thriv-ers. By the end of the study period, just under half (47 percent) of the respon-dents were classified as non-thrivers. The rest (36 percent) had either died or were institutionalized (9 percent).

“Even though the study was con-ducted in Canada, the findings are cer-tainly applicable to the United Statesand other industrialized nations,” said co-author Dr. Bentson McFarland of the Oregon Health & Science University. “Our population here in the UnitedStates is similar demographically to Canada’s, and both health care systems rely on the same underlying technolo-gies.”

The study was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging.

Newswise — The wrong language — denigrating older workers, even if only subtly — can have an outsized negative impact on employee productivity and corporate profits, says Dr. Bob McCann, an associate professor of manage-ment communication at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

Demographic trends point to a more age-diverse work force, where worker shortages are imminent. According to McCann, older workers will play an increasingly important role in fill-ing these shortages, and both management and workers will need to prepare themselves for this increasingly age diver-sified workplace.

One often overlooked way to prepare for these new trends is by recognizing that the language we use at work can have severe repercussions for older workers. “Our research in the USA and across Asia has clearly shown links between ageist lan-guage and reported health outcomes as broad as reduced life satisfaction, lowered self-esteem and even depression,” said McCann.

Given that people derive so much of their identity from work, the workplace is a particu-larly fertile and problematic area for ageist com-munication. Older workers often view their jobs as a tremendous source of pride and hope to continue working well past their early sixties. McCann feels that how we communicate with these older workers may go a long way toward creating a satisfying job experience.

“It is quite plausible that retirement deci-sions may be hastened and work satisfaction affected by intergenerational talk at work,” said McCann, who worked on studies that show ageist language has played a major role in age-discrimination lawsuits.

For American corporations, age discrimination can lead to significant expenses. In 2006, the U.S.Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received nearly 17,000 charges of age discrimination, resolving more than 14,000 and recovering $51.5 million in monetary benefits. Costs from lawsuit settlements and judgments can run into the millions, most notably with the $250 million paid by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System under a settlement agreement a few years ago.

For the plaintiff, the defendant’s ageist comments typically are per-ceived as clear evidence of the company’s discriminatory intent toward older workers. Defendants, by contrast, generally view these same ageist comments as “stray remarks.”

Age-related comments such as “the old woman,” “that old goat,” “too long on the job,” “old and tired,” “a sleepy kind of guy with no pizzazz,” “he had bags under his eyes,” and he is “an old fart” are just some of the hundreds of ageist com-ments McCann unearthed in his analysis of age-discrimination lawsuits.

Such language has become so common in age-discrimination cases that some groups of ageist comments even have their own names. “Young blood” remarks are perhaps the best illustration, including such examples as: “We need young blood around here,” “Let’s make room for some MBAs,” or “Let’s bring in the young guns.”

When Words Get Old: Ageist Language

the old womanth

at old

goat

too long on the job

old and tiredno pizzazz


5

Village Adult Day Health Center recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a stroll down memory lane.

Program participants, staff members and guests attended an anniversary lunch that featured a slide show of photos from past years.

Village Adult Day was one of two such facilities opened by Village Care in the late 1990s.

Part of the SeniorChoices array of programs and care for older adults, the centers are free-standing, state-of-the-art facilities, providing comfort, safety and indepen-

dence through a full range of nursing, nutritional, case management and rehabilitative services along with social activities. “We are proud to say that many of our clients here today were charter clients ten years ago,” Herb Fillmore, executive vice president for SeniorChoices at Village Care, said.

Mr. Fillmore told attendees about plans for future pro-grams that will be part of Village Care’s SeniorChoices. “Village Care has always been at the forefront of care for older adults. We continue to develop new programs that are built around you and your family’s individual needs.”

SAGE — Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders — has honored Village Care of New York with the 2008 Community Service Award.

The award was presented by Michael Adams, SAGE’s executive director, at the organization’s 30th anniversary celebration held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea. Arthur Y. Webb, VillageCare’s president and chief executive officer, accepted the award on behalf of Village Care.

SAGE’s Community Service Award is presented to an individual or an organization that, through professional and volunteer service, advances the cause of the LGBTolder community. The award also recognizes those indi-viduals who provide specific services and assistance to LGBT seniors, thereby helping them to achieve and maintain quality of life.

The anniversary dinner culminated SAGE’s Fourth Annual Conference on LGBT Aging. Village Care is a SAGE sponsor and was a conference “leader.”

This year’s conference, entitled “It’s About Time: LGBT Aging in a Changing World” dealt with a variety of issue that the older LGBT com-munity faces each day.

Village Care provided informa-tion on care options for the LGBTcommunity as well as presented a series of sessions on its most recent findings. Jan Zimmerman, director of Village Care’s day treatment programs presented Long-term Care Services for LBGT Older Adults.

“At Village Care, we train all of our program staff members to meet the needs of the LGBT community,” Zimmerman said. “The training, which is provided by the SAGE administration, include health needs, environmental issues and sensitivity training. All of our senior care programs are LGBT friendly.”

The conference was held for three days at the New York Marriott at the BrooklynBridge in October.

Village Adult Day Center Celebrates Anniversary

Village Care honored by SAGE

Village Care’s President and CEO Arthur Y. Webb accepts 2008 Community Service Award from SAGE Executive Director Michael Adams.

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KARL C. LAUB, West Village As a semi-retired man in my seventies, I work with many young people who call me “old man” or “papi chulo.” They do speak to me in a condescending way, and quite frankly Itake advantage of it and have some fun. Imean if someone feels comfortable waiting on me hand and foot because I am older,

and all I have to do is accept them speaking to me in a different

manner, why not? Honestly, Ifeel most younger people that speak this way do not mean any harm, they just feel that for some reason that we have become incompetent. A quick message to my co-workers: Please don’t stop bringing me delicious meals and doing my chores, because I can’t possibly cook for myself.

HERBERT PECKHAM, West VillageMany times when I go to the local grocery store or any other local merchant, the clerks, who tend to be much younger in age, act as if I am annoying or in the way. They will try to rush me through my decision process on what to purchase. I ignore it. There is enough aggravation in this world, and I don’t need to contribute to that. I believe this behavior is direct-ly related to atti-tudes of most New Yorkers, who just don’t have any time for anyone else but themselves.

Have you ever been a victim of “elderspeak,”where people talk condescendingly or childishly to you because of your age?

THERESA PIZZO, ChelseaI have been a victim of it, and it is a sign

of no respect for the older population. My normal course of action is to

ignore the person and make them realize that they are

not worth my time. Ihave accomplished a

lot in my life and Ifeel I deserve the

same respect that I got 20

years ago.

NANCY FONG,Greenwich Village I don’t usually get that treatment because I don’t look my age. I will say that I do see it all around me, and it makes me feel sad. It is disturbing to see people that have lived through so much and people who are responsible for making this world successful as it is to be treated as if they don’t mat-ter. I honestly don’t recall disrespecting my elders when I was younger, and I really hope that I don’t ever become a victim of “elderspeak.”

CONNIE PRESTIA, Greenwich VillageThe crowd that I usually associate with does not partake in this act of elderspeaking. I can say that

it sounds rather disrespectful, and I do know that if I was a victim of it, I would not hesitate to let the

person know that they are doing it, and let them know that they are disrespecting me as a per-son. All that I can say for those younger folks who might be guilty of this, is that they will be older one day too, and they will get what’s coming to them.

S E N I O R P E R S P E C T I V E


That is the simple explanation that 85-year-old Bob Kelly, a resident of The Village at 46th & Ten, has for his lack of formal edu-

cation. Growing up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn in the 1920s, he hated going to school, and he played hooky a lot, and for this he got a good licking from his parents.

To become the recognized legendary Broadwaywig maker that he is now — against whom other wig makers are measured — was not even a dot in the far off future in his

young imagination.Kelly’s father, a native Brooklynite, was a

trolley car motorman, and his mother was a hairdresser.

As a result of Kelly’s aversion for school, he quit after the seventh grade and worked in a neighborhood grocery store in the mid-1930s, then signed up with the National Guard. After training in Brooklyn, he was sent to Burlington,

The Makeover of Bob Kelly “I was stupid, that’s why!”

By Jess Espinosa

9

Vermont, and then to the jungles of New Guinea. “When you are as young as I was, it was kind of fun,” he recalled.

When he came home, he worked for about a year doing odd jobs, such as driving trucks and working for Standard Oil, filling small cans of oil and earning a dollar an hour. He soon got tired of that, and, on a whim, he enrolled in a beauty school. “I don’t know why I went to a beauty school,” he said. Then he started “fooling around” with wigs. His first job was with the owner of a string of beauty parlors on 57th Street.

Kelly’s big break came when he worked for a man named Ira Sands who made wigs for the Metropolitan Opera. “I learned everything, got my whole education practically from him,” he said. He had the opportunity to work for famous singers like Robert Merrill, Jan Pearce, Risë Stevens and Richard Tucker.

He had found his niche in life.In 1958, after ten years as Sands’s

apprentice, Kelly quit and opened his own business. Thus was born BobKelly Wig Creations, and then BobKelly Cosmetics ten years later. Hisfirst Broadway work was for a show called “Good Soup” with Mildred Natwick. That was in 1960. Fromthen on, it was one Broadway show after another. Some include “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “High Spirits,”“The Rothschilds,” “King RichardIII,” “Chicago,” “42nd Street” and “Beauty and the Beast,” as well as the original productions of “South Pacific” and “Carousel.”

These days, his small shop on West 46th Street is a beehive of activity as his staff of 15 prepares wigs for shows like “Legally Blonde,”“Shrek,” “Little Mermaid,” “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins,” with shelves full of wood blocks identified by the character’s or the actor’s name.

“Saturday Night Live,” one of the most popular and long-running television shows, has been BobKelly Wig Creation’s client since its first episode on October 11, 1975, creating and designing the wigs worn by each cast member in each skit, spanning a total of more than 600 episodes. The likes of Gilda Radner, Dan Ackroyd, Chevy Chase and John Belushi from the original cast to Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Bill Hader, DarrellHammond and Amy Poehler from the current season have been bewigged by Bob Kelly and

his crew. In a recent episode, Poehler and guest performer Tina Fey did a widely watched opening skit in which they impersonated Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, respectively. Their wigs were by Bob Kelly. “SNL,” relying on late-breaking news for laughs, demands much from its production and creative crews, of which Bob Kelly’s is part. It is not unusual for changes to be made minutes before the show airs live at 11:30 p.m., necessitat-ing late-night work for the wig makers and hair-stylists…and its owner, until recently.

In early 2008, Kelly was in the shop when he got ill, fell and passed out. At that time, he was living with his daughter Tracy in her 4th floor walkup apartment, and on Friday and Saturdaynights, when the shop is busy preparing for the “SNL” show, he would sleep on a couch in the backroom. His condition after the fall, on top

of his triple bypass operation in 1989 and pacemaker operation in January 2008,

required a radical change in his living and working conditions. Upon his doctor’s advice, Kelly has at long last drastically cut down his work schedule. To add to that, walking up his daughter’s 4th floor apart-ment was no longer advisable.

His doctors advised his mov-ing to a place where he would have some assistance. An online search led Kelly’s other daughter, Barbara, to The Village at 46th

& Ten. After visiting, Kelly and his two daughters unanimously

expressed approval of the place, and in April, Kelly became a resident. “I like

the people, I have my meals with them in the dining room, and I find many intelligent

people there,” he said.Kelly continues to run the wig shop that has

become a mainstay of Broadway and “SNL,” with the able assistance of Bill Urban, the shop man-ager who has been working with him for 52 years, and Margaret Mettles, director of finance, who has been around for eight years.

The women who make the wigs, who were inexperienced when they came on board, can now do the whole intricate process of producing a hairpiece — from making a pattern, drawing a hairline, ventilating, sewing, preparing a lace front — with minimal supervision.

However, the process itself has gone through very little change. Although some wigs found on the market today are made in China by machine,

“The oldest and most reputablewig maker

in NewYork.”

using synthetic or yak hair, this isn’t the case for the well-respected Bob Kelly Wig Creations. A traditional wigWW -

maker, Kelly continues to make wigs by hand and use 100-percent human hair, imported from developing

countries where women sell their hair to make a living. Certain styles of wigs are re-used and re-

fashioned. A wig can cost as much as $2,300.Having coiffed and brushed and set

wigs on the heads of hundreds of famous people, meeting some of them on a per-rrsonal level seems unavoidable. Threeof Kelly’s most memorable celebritieswere Gypsy Rose Lee, Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, whom he consid-ered his friends. When Hal Holbrookplayed Mark Twain onTT Broadway, hishairpiece and facial hair were BobKelly creations. Alan King, for whomKelly made a wig when the comedianappeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show,”was memorable for another reason— he gave a $10 tip, something unthinkable from an actor. Theseabove-the-title names, Kelly said, “did not make me feel any different, I always felt I belonged.”

Bob Kelly has had a full life. Hehas been widowed once (and isonce-divorced). Of two sons andtwo daughters, his daughter TracyTThas followed his footsteps into thewig business and daughter Barbarahas been a makeup artist for mov-ies and TV. VV Kelly has gained animpeccable reputation in the art of wig-making, so much so that hiscompany is considered the “leading theatrical hair and makeup company”

and he has been referred to as “the old-est and most reputable wig maker in

New York.” YYKelly’s doctor has made him swear

off his trademark big cigars, which all his Broadway clients recognize. Those who

work with him say he’ll still occasionallysneak a puff or two.

He has hobnobbed with some famous people and has started the careers of ayoung generation of wigmakers. One of them, Maurice Neuhaus, said in an inter-rrview, “If you want to become one of the best, you have to learn from the best.” TheBob Kelly Wig Creations catalog lists theWWnames of his clients, a virtual Who’s Whoof theater, movie, music and television stars,spanning many generations.

For a boy who once thought of himself as being not so smart, he certainly has gonea long way.

10 NEW HHO

We’re here for you.


MMedea had a sore throat, and she was worried. When she faces her Greek chorus in two

weeks, she does not want them to out-shout her or to out-sing her. That would be a big fat Greek tragedy. She abstained from talking, drank a lot of liquid, took some medications with Greek-soundingnames, and had plenty of rest. By sheer will power, Medea, or Peggy Keating in real life, recovered, because, well, the show must go on. And it did.

When the imaginary curtain rose in the dining room of The Village at 46th & Ten, Keating and the other members of The Village Players were ready to show their audience the fruits of three months of intense rehearsal and preparation, accompanied by passion, dedication and hard work. They’ve come a long way from the group’s early start three years ago.

BY JESS ESPINOSA

of Edward Albee?Who’s Afraid

13

A few years ago, Keating had just moved to 46th & Ten, Village Care of New York’s senior living residence, and was facing an uncertain change in her life. Having had the notion of an acting career in her younger days, she thought joining a drama group would revive her spirit, but there was no such group. Sheconfided this to her new friend, RuthSilverman, who challenged her: Whynot start one? With the help of another resident, Ruth Selman, who had some theater background, and with the help of Claudia Teller, the residence’s recreation and activities director, they invited other residents, and they came. Some who had done some acting wanted to share their experience; others who had secretly imagined themselves performing saw an opportunity to see if they really had it in them, and still others thought it would be

a fun thing to do on lazy afternoons. At first, the two Ruths and Keating took

turns directing, but, as they described it, the results were “chaotic.” WhenSelman’s friend, theater director Evalyn Baron, dropped by to give some acting tips, the group liked her so much that she was hired to be their acting coach. Members of the group started getting together to read plays, thus awakening, and satisfying, their inner DeNiros and Streeps. The Village Players was born.

“They are very remarkable when you remember that they are dealing with hearing loss, vision issues and move-ment problems,” said Teller.

After coaching the group for a year, Baron announced that she was leaving to become a theater director in a prestigious Virginia theater, and she brought Michael Swift and Janice Goldberg to the atten-

tion of Teller as potential substitutes. With Swift and Goldberg’s theater experi-ence and complementary strengths, the fit was perfect.

Swift and Goldberg put the seniors through a rigid but fun regimen of exer-cises, starting with breathing exercises to warm up and get the class focused and relaxed. The other exercises seemed out-right silly, such as “the swoosh” in which actors make a swooshing sound as they pretend to pass at random an imaginary ball to the person next to them or the one across the room. Other activities were quite revelatory, including an oral history exercise where each person is asked to talk about such thought- and emotion-inducing topics as first love, first job, wedding, children and other aspects and adventures of their lifetimes.

All these exercises were meant “to get

FROM LEFT: Edward Albee catches

a show at 46th & Ten. Ruth Silverman

and Sophia Husar rehearse for “Lost.”

Ruth Selman during an oral history

exercise. Directors Michael Swift

and Janice Goldberg.


their bodies moving, blood flowing, and concentration working” and “to have everyone get used to standing in front of an audience and for us to get to know the stu-dents,” according to Swift. “Memory is a muscle that needs exercising.” Each session ended with readings of plays written by known and unknown dramatists to test the members’ acting chops.

Finally, they were ready, and the group proceeded to the next crucial step — selecting the plays to be performed. The criteria were: there would be parts for everybody, everybody could be actively involved and they would have a good time performing. Finally, the choices were narrowed down to the ones the actors liked the most, where they laughed the most or con-nected to the most.

Five one-act plays were selected — by Mary LouiseWilson, Carol Hall, Earl Reimer, Wendy Wassersteinand one of Swift’s own. The resident cast would con-sist of Harry Davis, Warren Halliday, Sophia Husar, Peggy Keating, Lucille Rosenblum, Ruth Selman, RuthSilverman and Marilyn Wohltman.

Whether intentionally or not, four of the five one-act plays chosen have a real-life quality to them as they depict real-life situations common to men and women of a certain age, much like the men and women of a certain age who were going to enact them.

“Lost” is about two friends going for a drive who, because of memory loss, confusion and lack of coordi-nation, forgot the key, the water bottle, the shoes. “TheFairest Sex” depicts a couple that has lost interest in each other and yet still shares a passion for only one thing — sex. “Vacation” relates a plane trip taken by a still-active, still-in-love retired couple who witnessed with glee the games that the cheating man and woman across the aisle from them were playing with their respective spouses. “Golden Arches” is about a woman with a put-down remark ready for all occasions for her gentle, patient husband until a chance encounter with an old friend brought about a change. The fifth choice, “Medea,” is a modern-day spoof of the Greektragedy with references to such un-Greek icons as the TV shows “Home Improvement” and “DesigningWomen,” which gave the cast a chance to overact, be silly and have fun.

There was a feeling of excited anticipation as the audience, consisting of residents and staff of 46th & Ten and friends of the cast and directors, awaited the start of the performance.

Seconds before the first play began, a slim, older, distinguished-looking man with very dark glasses came

and quietly took his seat. He observed the performance raptly, applauded at the end of each play politely, but watched the proceedings unsmilingly, even while the rest of the audience was laughing at the funny lines.

An astute resident recognized him to be Edward Albee, the famous playwright of award-win-ning Broadway dramas, who was Michael Swift’s guest. Albee’s enigmatic critique of The Village Players: “They played like Beckett.”

Swift said, “It was cool that he was here.”

So, this group’s motto could very well be, “Who’s Afraid of Edward Albee?” Definitely not these talented, young-at-heart troupers, who, when told of the presence of this important personage, just shrugged it off.

Basking on the success of the performance, The Village Players have more and bigger plans, including having the members write their own scenes and mono-logues, and reading Tony-award-winning full-length and classic plays. “My ultimate objective is to continue engaging the students and to put up poi-gnant, relevant theater,” said Swift.

Added Goldberg, “Wewill keep looking for works, bring in original plays and have more of an originally tailored class that directly comes from our creation. Wewill continue to read in class to keep their skills up.”

Teller commented, “My hope for the future of our drama group is that they continue to have great fun and learn more about working together as actors. Hopefully, more and more of the residents would join. I do not have a long-term goal in mind because I believe that creative endeavors have a life of their own and should be allowed to grow naturally, not forced.”

15

The 46-TenDrama ClubBy Shep H. Greenberg

My Building has a Drama Club.It meets every seventh day.And once a year they open upAnd put on a little Play.

The Directors are real, not amateurs. They are active in the Arts.And they told their colleagues to come and seeOur Players play their parts.

So, at this afternoon’s performanceSome strangers came to watch.One looked a bit distinguishedRaised the audience appearance a notch.

By a Cast member, he was greeted.Who introduced herself and said.“Pray, tell, Sir, may I ask your name?”And was told “My friends, they call me Ed.”

He seemed to enjoy the Drama Club efforts.He stayed right to the end.Applauded at the proper points.Then homeward did he wend.

The Drama Group was very goodBut they might have been dismayedTo have known beforehand that Edward AlbeeHad come to see them, did, and stayed.

As it is, they met their goals.For the lines of which they read.They did their best, pleased their Directors, The Audience, and a man named “Ed”.

© 2008. Reproduced with permission from the author. Greenberg is a resident at The Village at 46th & Ten.

FROM TOP:

Harry Davis, Peggy

Keating and Lucille Rosenblum

rehearse for “Golden Arches 2.” Director

Michael Swift gives instruction to the class.

Lucille Rosenblum reads through notes.

Harry Davis rehearses in front

of the class.


Retirement Redefined

As the largest generation in American history enters

its golden years, Baby Boomers finds themselves

rethinking the whole concept of retirement.

By Lucas Mann They’re living longer.

They’re more active.

They’re engaged.

They’re not their parents.

17

FThese Baby Boomers, all 79 million

of them born between 1946 and 1964, are skidding closer and closer to that age when they are expected to ride into the sunset. The oldest of the Boomers turned 62 this year and became eligible to collect partial Social Security benefits.

Groups like AARP and the NationalCouncil on Aging, as well as local orga-nizations and government, are trying to figure out what the future will look like as the largest generation in history retires. That’s a question especially important in an economy with dwindling finan-cial security and more foreclosed houses accumulating each day.

But a better question to ask might be what does it mean to be retired?

“Right now, we’re looking for a chang-

ing definition of the word retirement,” said Lucy de Haan, a spokesperson for the New York office of AARP. De Haansays that “2011 will be the year that the first Baby Boomers turn 65 and begin col-lecting full Social Security. Our studies tell us that they won’t be retiring in at all the way we’ve come to think of it.”

There are a whole batch of issues that are raised by this new type of senior — in some cases one that cannot afford to retire, in other cases one that has accu-mulated wealth but still wishes to stay connected to the workplace, and in some cases both.

“As Madison Avenue sells the concept of the Baby Boom generation with all this money, if we look at the actual demo-graphics it’s quite different,” said Susan

Stamler, the director of policy and advo-cacy at United Neighborhood Houses of New York (UNH). Stamler deals with the reality of aging for many people who are not financially secure as they age and need both housing and social services, a segment of the population that will spike along with millions of Boomers march-ing toward the so-called “golden years.”

“Many of [the Boomers] will be poor, or living with a limited income,” Stamlersaid. “And there will be those that will want to stay involved in the workplace, whether it’s paid or not. It is very hard to paint older adults. We have so much delineation of people in their youth, before 20, and then after they turn 60. But there’s 40 years in there and we don’t really delineate it. So we need to remember that this isn’t a monolithic community.”

The oft-overlooked population of the aging Baby Boomer demographic are those that will need to depend on public housing and on city senior centers that have already suffered funding cuts nation-ally in the past six years. Cuts to such

Forty years after Woodstock, the youth of the Baby Boom

generation that once belted out “I hope I die before I get

old” are currently facing retirement square in the eye.


centers have particularly affected seniors in New York City. City Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo, from District17 in the Bronx, chairs the City Council Committee on Aging, and she has been frank about the inadequacies in the city’s facilities for seniors that will be exposed when many of the largest age group in history begin to need them.

“Our senior centers have not been revamped since the early 1970s,” Arroyo said. “Baby Boomers, in particular, will be expecting a different level of service. I’mconcerned that we won’t be able to meet those demands. I mean, these people are looking for more than bingo and a hot meal.”

Arroyo pointed to the completely dif-ferent world that Boomers have worked in — one with rising levels of responsibil-ity for aging employees, as well as com-puter and Internet literacy. “[Boomers]are involved in the workplace at a higher level of technology,” Arroyo said.

The New York City Depart-ment for the Aging recently released a concept paper con-cerning the modernization of services. Chris Miller, a spokes-person for DFTA, described the questions that his organization has begun to ask in their concept paper and are continuing to investigate.

“We’re looking at our three core servic-es,” Miller said. “There is our individual case management, our food distribution service and our senior centers. How do we prepare all of them for the seniors of tomorrow? To help do that we are part-nering with ReServe.”

ReServe is an organization that con-nects experienced older adults with sti-pend-paying jobs that challenge them to use their lifetime skills for the public good. ReServe brings a passion not only for the need to assist senior citizens, but for the importance of listening to and respecting an aging point of view in the workplace. The organization brings a phi-losophy of “social engagement,” placing older adults into vital, paying positions at non-profit and public agencies. By tap-ping into ReServe’s philosophy and the network of groups that they have been working with since their inception in 2005, DFTA is taking steps toward rede-fining the potential of New York City’s

older adults. (Read more about ReServeon Page 28.)

“We are allowing our new seniors to give back to the city,” Miller continued. “It is not traditional volunteering or work. We allow for a flexible schedule — our seniors aren’t working 40 hours a week.”

The nuances of where “social engage-ment” fits in the spectrum of full time employment and volunteer service are being worked out by other organizations within New York and throughout the nation.

“A lot of Boomers are looking for new ways to take their knowledge and give back,” said AARP’s de Haan. “Consulting is one option, maybe starting a business. A lot of people might want to move into

a type of work that they’ve never had the option to try. Now the kids are out of the house, they will redefine what we’ve typi-cally termed ‘retirement.’”

Programs similar to AARP’s are sprouting up in other organizations throughout New York City. UNH, which controls 35 agencies and 400 sites dedi-cated to improve housing and social ser-vices throughout the city, is focusing a lot of its attention on the changing tides of aging.

“It’s thinking about utilizing older adults in a new way,” said Monica Serrano,senior project manager and colleague of Stamler’s at UNH. Funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, UNH is part of the NewYork City portion of a pilot program geared toward finding new ways for this newest aging generation to connect to their environment in innovative ways.

“Last year was an assessment phase

— how are people connecting, are there barriers, that sort of thing,” Serrano said. “Another aspect is continuing educa-tion, specifically training opportunities for older adults to move into new fields. Finally, there is the advocacy phase. Howdo we change policy in the right way for these new older adults?”

To be sure, many of the Boomers that will move into new fields or will continue to earn money by consulting as they age will not have the option to retire with the same ease and security as their parents may have had. But part of rethinking retirement is changing the traditional thought process that would define such responsibilities as less than ideal. Infact, many researchers are pointing to continued workplace interaction as not a mere product of a rising life expectancy that needs to be supported, but a cause of it, as well.

Dr. John Beard is the senior episte-mologist at the New York Academy

of Medicine and focuses most of his research on creating a successful life model for productive aging. Hethinks that any city that can produce the most responsibility, stimulus, and overall interaction for its seniors

is keeping them healthy and alive.“We should think about how to help

people live a productive life as they age,” Beard emphasized. “Increasingly, people want to work, want to be productive, want to be tuned in.”

Beard is part of a new initiative run by the Academy, together with the Mayor’s Office and the New York City Council, called Age-Friendly NYC. Beard and his colleagues are dedicated to updating NewYork City to make it an overall environ-ment that fosters engaged, longer-living seniors.

“We are doing studies, now, where we’ve followed people over a couple of years and found that mental and physical health, like a person’s weight, are affected in the environment around them,” Beardexplained. “If you live in an affluent neighborhood, no matter how much you yourself earn, you’re better off. As you are if you’re near a bus stop and can move around — anything where an older person is encouraged to be out and about and engaged.”

Working, or even passionate volun-teerism, fits into the model that Beard is

“These people are looking for more than bingo and a hot meal.”

19

describing of a city in which people do not have to feel disconnected nor isolated as they grow older. This potential for activity does not only do the mind good, but can also transform the traditional view of a physical timeline of aging.

“Evidence is growing that if you remain significantly active there doesn’t need to be much decline at all in physical health and body functions,” Beard said. “If we design our city right and encourage our seniors to stay active, health should hold up until the very last years of life.”

Baby Boomers have shown, for the most part, to be the generation most suit-ed to this model of continued activity and connection. As Councilmember Arroyo emphasized, this is a new generation of people that has been engaged in different ways than its predecessors.

“We have seen that Boomers have different characteristics from previ-ous generations,” said Tom Endres, vice president for civic engage-ment at the National Council on Aging (NCOA), in WashingtonD.C. “They always want to be involved; they are very conscious. One example is that people are much more conscious about their time being used well. [Boomers]will not continue to volunteer at activities if they feel like their time or expertise isn’t being used well, if their tasks don’t have meaning. They want to be really brought into the organization that they work with later in life. Thiswill inevitably have a big impact on the workplace.”

NCOA is working to ease companies into the new workplace that Endres sees as inevitable as the Baby Boomers turn 65 and older. The most important idea, according to Endres, is that companies realize that they are making necessary changes to maximize what could be a huge, mature and heavily experienced pool of employees.

“We manage a work force program designed to support low-maintenance aging people moving into unsubsidized jobs,” Endres said. “We’ve just received a grant to remove some income restrictions. We’re looking at training for positions like nursing and pharmacy assistants. There is a major shift in attitude and pol-icy going on regarding aging. Obviously, resources have still been focused on pro-

viding services to the elderly in need, but now there is a new dimension. At the same time as we care for people, we also have an aging asset potential that we have never had before.”

Endres says that, through NCOA’s work force program, companies through-out the nation are realizing the benefit of turning the rapidly growing aging com-munity from an assumed collection of retirees to a vital part of the workplace. There are, Endres pointed out, nearly 10,000 people a day turning 65. With so many of them healthy and passionate to stay involved, why shouldn’t corporations pay for their expertise? The manage-ment of NCOA encompasses 22 model

programs around the country that con-nect willing companies with elder adults. NCOA is studying the progress in their model programs — what are the roles that seniors are taking within the compa-nies? What part of the traditional office culture and expectations must change for them?

“We are also looking at whether or not the organization leaders are respond-ing to tapping into this huge resource,” Endres continued. “Or are they still stuck in an old paradigm? Are they inclined to think, ‘These are volunteers, you can’t depend on them.’ That’s why we say, ‘civic engagement.’ It’s a redefinition of what to expect. At the end of our research, we will provide the companies a return on their investment, and we will compile hard, convincing data from our program. Anecdotal stories aren’t enough.”

In a struggling economy with shrink-

ing security, economists see minimal pos-sibility for any conventional retirement.

“Many people have not saved enough,” said Professor Sharon DeVaney, from her office at Purdue University, where her she focuses her research on trends in retirement planning. “And most are not well-enough informed about SocialSecurity. For instance, if you withdraw from your Social Security at 62, the earli-est possible age, your benefits go down. If somebody continues to work until 70 and then collect, they get the maximum benefits. With this generation staying healthier for longer, why would you want to quit at 55 or 60?”

But then there are the revolutionary ways in which the masses of aging BabyBoomers can counteract the very social and economic strains that many fear their numbers will bring. One issue where

this necessity of balance is exempli-fied is the potential for a spike in

Alzheimer’s cases.Jed Levine, executive vice presi-

dent of the New York chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association said, “There are roughly 5.2 mil-lion people with Alzheimer’s in

America right now and we estimate that there could be 11-16 million by

2050. We are trying to mobilize BabyBoomers — help them help us. This is

a group that has historically been activ-ists. They are also the first generation to see some of their parents stricken by Alzheimer’s. We think we can mobilize that energy.”

Like Councilmember Arroyo and economist DeVaney, Levine is quick to acknowledge the strain that the aging of Baby Boomers will place on his area of focus, saying, “This is something that could overwhelm health care, Medicare, Medicaid — the cost of care is very prohibitive.” But he sees the activism of the generation as something that can perhaps defend its own from the disastrous Alzheimer’s effects that we see now.

Most experts agree that there will be many people who, whether they cannot retire or do not want to, will continue to be a large force in corporations, non-profits and social movements. Baby Boomers are expected to change the way all that come after them will see the word “retire.”

“We have seen that Boomershave different

characteristics from previous generations. They always want to be involved, they are

very conscious.”


By Brett C Vermilyea

Reporter Albert Amateau in The Villager office.

21

Albert Amateau has been a community report-er for decades. He’s covered just about every-thing a newspaperman could: sports, celeb-

rities, meetings, sex, murder, community develop-ment and, even the news story of lifetime: the horrific morning in September, 2001. As a reporter for Lower Manhattans’ The Villager, Amateau had front-line access on 9-11 as the newspaper’s offices were otherwise in a no-travel zone, about ten blocks from the wreckage.

“That terrible day!” he remembers. “I got to work just after the second plane hit and watched both towers go down from the roof of our building. It was deadline day for The Villager — of course we didn’t make it until two days later — it’s all a blur to me now. I still get anxious on mild autumn days when the sky is perfectly clear.”

Amateau, 76, is still out pounding the pave-ment.

“I still do it because I like to do it,” he says in the airy Lower Manhattan offices of Community Media, publisher of The Villager. “And my colleagues value my input. I don’t work as hard as I used to — I don’t think they mind — but I work hard enough. And it’s still fun. It’s like any newspaper job — it’s frustrat-ing, it’s irritating, it’s horrible — but it’s still fun.”

Amateau is part of the fastest-growing population in the American work force: folks over 55. Between2005 and 2007, the over-55 population of workers grew by 9.7 percent, according to a 2007 study by the AARP Public Policy Institute. By comparison, the under-55 worker population grew by only 1.7 percent.

With people continuing to work deeper into life, Village Care of New York’s Human Resources VicePresident Dorette Norris looks at it this way: “Really, there are two main reasons why people continue to work: either because they want to or because they have to. And then there are sub-reasons of why people want to work and why people need to work.”

She says the people who just need the money fall into the “need to work” category, while those choos-ing to work are trying to stay busy, trying to stay con-nected, trying to keep meaning in their lives.

Robert Conant, 72, who is a frequent drop-in visitor at Village Care’s Senior Inforamtion Center in Chelsea, has continued to work for a variety of rea-sons, he says, but income tops the list. “I absolutely need the money,” he said. “No question. The little bit of money I get from my Social Security and the little bit of money I get out of working, you know, keeps me going.

They’re Still At It

Why folks over 50 are the fastest-growing segment

of the work force


Model Dina Paisner has graced magazine covers and been part of many ad campaigns.

23

Four years ago, Conant inherited a home in Maine when his mother passed away. He uses the place inthe summer, and he told some friends there who own an auction house that if they need any extra help to call him. Now he sorts through estates three days aweek during the summer and prepares items for salefor the auction house. He says the small income fromthe part-time work is just enough to keep him in thelifestyle he’s become accustomed to.

“Financially it offers me the opportunity to do someof the extra things I like to do. I consider myself livinga very nice lifestyle on a very limited financial scale. As you get older, your wants and needs become lessanyway. You don’t need an awful lot of anything nice,” YYConant said.

Conant said he didn’t spend much time planning for retirement. “And I’m not sorry,” he said, “I’m just not that kind of guy. I’ve been single my whole life.I’ve always lived alone. I spent all my money having agood time, doing what I wanted to do when I wantedto do it, not really worrying about things. And I’m stillnot worried.”

Conant is far from alone in his need to work.According to a recent Ernst & Young study, nearlyYYthree out of five middle-class retirees are likely to runout of money if they try to maintain the lifestyles theymaintained while they were working full time.

“Financially, we’re simply not prepared for a longerlifetime,” Carleen MacKay, author of Return of theBoomers: A Leader’s Guide and one of a very few experts in recruiting, developing and retaining the mature work force, said. “We’ll outlive our money. And that’sWWfully half the Boomers,” she said, if they try to con-tinue the spending habits they’ve had all their lives.

Earning the extra money to support his lifestyle is another important reason reporter Amateau still works. Yes, he loves the job, but the income factorsYYinto it.

“I want to work,” he said “But I could use themoney. I don’t really need it. I could get along if I livedin a retirement mode, but with the money I can spendwhat I want. It makes me very comfortable financially. My wife makes a good living, slightly better than I do,but my salary gives us an awfully easy cushion.”

Besides, he said, giving yet another reason for still working, what would he do “in retirement mode”?

Amateau loves to read and watch movies andenjoys his leisure time, but he can’t imagine makinghis leisure pursuits central to his life, saying he hasinterests, but nothing that would make me get up inthe morning.”

“I’m afraid,” he says. “I’m afraid to retire. I don’tknow what I’d do. My wife says, ‘Oh, you could just go to the gym’ — I go to the gym a lot — ‘you could goto the gym a half a day and then go to the senior center and have lunch — and bring some home for supper —and this and that.’ It sounds like fun. For a month.”

Village Care’s VV Norris thinks this fear is common among those older people who decide to still work.

“They want to remain busy,” she said. “Actually, it’s socialization for them: to get up every morning, to come to work. They have an opportunity to socialize at work, to socialize after work.”

MacKay agrees. “Work has many benefits.WW Oneis, obviously, it helps you financially. It gives you the capacity to have a life and spend on something other than nondiscretionary items. But it also brings other rewards: social rewards; a sense of belonging to some-thing; a sense of having to get up, get showered, get dressed and get out.”

Conant said the interaction with people at the auc-tion is important because a solitary existence just isn’t an option for him. “If I don’t have people around me, I miss it terribly. I’m not one to sit home and not get out and communicate with the world.”

WORKPLACE OBSTACLESWhile the population of those over 55 is growing,

older workers find themselves dealing with a lot of myths: They can’t learn new things; they are stuck in their ways; they can’t work a whole day; they’ll work ashort time and retire.

Gene Burnard, publisher of workforce50.com, takes issue with all of these myths

“Even if the myth that older workers are going tobe working two or three years and then leave was true, that’s not different than the average throughout the work force,” Burnard said, adding quickly that it’s a false belief. The average worker stays at a job only three-and-a-half years, while the average older workerstays for five-and-a-half years, Burnard said, which should add value and be an asset because it saves thecompany money in recruiting, hiring and retraining costs.

He sees a deeper problem: “We’re a society that’s WWfascinated with youth. All of our advertising tells us younger is better. It creates a passive age discrimina-tion.”

Recruiters need to see the advantages of having a balanced work force age-wise, he said.

Brunard’s website provides services to older work-ers looking for employment — services like older-worker-centric job listings, search tips, blog, links, education resources.

Oftentimes the problem lies with the work recruit-ers, Burnard said, even while companies and execu-tives are becoming more open to hiring older adults. “A recruiter is typically a 25- to 30-year-old female. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a 25- or 30-year-old female, if I were in interviewing for a job, would have a difficult time talking to me, unless she has been well trained. There has been a lot of fallout of good, older job seekers not getting past the interview, or per-rr


haps not getting an interview at all, because the recruiter feels uncomfortable talking to older workers,” Burnard contended.

MacKay said that companies can change their attitudes with better training of their leaders. By looking at who can do what best, companies might see that the older work force — the very experienced who have specific skills — are really good at projects. “You don’t have to hire them all at once; hire them as needed, which is a great way to keep costs down.”

She agreed with Burnard that attitudes are evolving. “But I don’t think it’s chang-ing fast enough. Where it’s changing are in the high-need organizations that are already suffering from retirement, for example: health care, aerospace, rocket science. All the things that take years and years of train-ing are feeling the effects of a retiring work force,” she said

According to the 2007 study “Preparing for an Aging Workforce: A Focus on NewYork Businesses” by AARP New York, 60 percent of the state’s businesses report they expect to face skilled worker shortages in next five years, while only 25 percent have taken steps to address the possible short-ages of Boomer retirement.

Losing experienced workers can leave a company weaker and vulnerable to compe-tition because the retirees take important institutional knowledge and specific skills with them. When a person retires, 87 per-cent of businesses say it’s a loss because that knowledge and those skills have to be built back into another employee, which takes time and money. A full 95 percent of New York companies say retaining institu-tional knowledge is vital.

“We want to try to retain as much of that intelligence as we possibly can because you pay for that going in,” Village Care’s Norrissaid, adding that she sees other values in retaining older workers.

“They have a completely different work ethic, completely different. The person who’s 60, 65 is much more committed. That individual will come to work in the rain, in the snow, not feeling well. They are a lot more committed.”

Retaining valuable older workers requires some adjustments, she said, such as under-standing there may need to be some flex-ibility in work schedules. “For instance, if we have a registered nurse who’s 60 years old who’s working on the night shift and is ready for retirement because she doesn’t want to work nights anymore, we need to be

able to entertain a request for a day shift.”Besides being open to easing into retire-

ment, Village Care has taken a number of steps to retain the older workers they have. “You want to keep lots of options open,” Norris says. “You have to be open to requests to change a shift, to change a job.” Someone might say to her, “‘You know, Imay be getting a little too old to do nursing, but I can do other things. I can do qual-ity assurance. I can do risk management. What’s available for me?’ We have to keep our eyes open, keep our options open,” Norris said.

Cornell University, which also is trying to hang on to its older workers, has been recognized by AARP, which named it the best employer in the country for workers over 50.

“We were facing a loss of workers to retirement,” said Mary Opperman, vice president for human resources. This was especially troublesome for the university because of the specialized nature of the work and where that work takes place.

“We are in a fairly rural area,” she says of the campus in Ithaca, New York. “We rely very heavily on long service. This is an area of the country with a fairly stable popula-tion and our work is very complicated. It’s very demanding work. So when we find the right people, we like to keep them, and we’d like them to make their careers at Cornell.”To entice people to stay, Cornell offers a number of benefits older workers find attractive: generous health care coverage and wellness benefits, including long-term care insurance; free or discounted classes each week targeting health and fitness issues fac-ing older adults; free continuing education classes; accommodation of employees with special needs; alternative work arrange-ments such as flextime, compressed work schedules, job sharing, telecommuting, and a formal phased-retirement program.

“We know that as our work force ages, flexibility is a big need,” Opperman said. “When someone has committed their career here, after a long period of time they might want to focus their priorities more broadly — maybe they want to do community work, maybe their family has moved around the country. They’re looking for more flexibility to meet other priorities in their lives besides just work.”

She emphasizes, however, that while the AARP poll of its workers was a great confirmation of Cornell’s efforts, retaining older workers is not the sole goal of those

Cornell professor Henry Tye is part of the over-50 demographic that makes up 43 percent of the

university’s work force. AARP named Cornell the best employer in country for workers over 50.

25

efforts.“We focus our programs holistically,”

she says. “That does include the needs of all of our workers. And right now a large percentage of those workers are older.” Infact, employees over 50 make up 43 percent of Cornell’s work force.

Publisher Burnard says some companies are starting to hire older workers because these companies realize that older workers possess something intangible, something younger ones don’t. He calls it “relatabil-ity.”

“Some companies are looking specifi-cally for older workers because a lot of the population is getting older,” he says. “Lookat retail and the customer interface at a place like Toys ‘R’ Us. A customer at Toys‘R’ Us is not a young person with children. It’s the grandparents who are the primary customer of Toys ‘R’ Us, and having some college student on break working at Toys ‘R’Us and trying to sell to a grandparent just doesn’t get the job done as well as having someone the grandparents’ age.”

CHALLENGES IN WORKING LONGERFor the older worker, there often comes

a time when he or she needs to have some control over the time spent at a job.

Robert Conant, for example, planned the auction house work to be just a little side gig, but soon he found himself work-ing five days a week, 14-hour days, and even going up in the winter. “Workingtoo much. I didn’t want to work quite that much,” he said.

He was expected to jump in when an estate came in. “It was stressful on me and it really wasn’t viable for me to try to do that,” he said. So he had to cut back. “Itwas disappointing for me to have to say ‘Ican’t do that.’ I’m 72. I get tired. It’s sup-posed to be my time to smell the roses.”

Reporter Amateau similarly has also slowed down.

Still a full-time worker, he’s adjusted his pace at the office as best he can. “Occasionally I still come in on the week-end, but not much,” he said.

Another frequenter of the Senior Information Center, Dina Paisner, says she’s also taking it a bit easier now.

Working for decades as a professional actor and model, Paisner has kept a busy schedule appearing in various magazines and periodicals including the cover of NewYork Magazine, the front page of the Sunday


Art Section of The New York Times, in Joyce Tenneson’s pho-tography book of women over 65, “WISE WOMEN,” and in a special Ellis Island project.

And even though she still routinely auditions for acting roles and can be seen at Judson Memorial Church in early March in “The Red Thread,” a dance piece created by LoriBelilove of the Isadora Duncan Foundation, Paisner said she’s not eternally hunting for acting roles like she used to because the constant grind is just too much work and her priorities have changed a bit.

“My pace is much slower. I used to have more energy. There’s no question about it. But when I’m called, then I sud-

denly have the energy. When I have a job and I have to be some-where at six in the morning, I’m up at four. But otherwise, Isleep late,” she said.

Conant agrees that the work helps to keep a person active, and he, too, has noticed his priorities have changed. In fact, to him, the very nature of work has changed.

“I was developing a career in those days,” he said of his younger, ambitious self. “I was in competition with a lot of people. I was managing a big photography studio. I’m just a worker now. I’m not in competition with anybody. I don’t have aspirations and goals or this and that. I’m just a worker, mak-ing a dollar and enjoying life. It’s a lot less stressful.”

Many say, however, that older workers are going to have to retain their competitive nature if they want to keep working. The marketplace is changing and older workers are going to have to keep up.

“If you’re not prepared for today’s market in some way that matters to an employer, you won’t be hired in any capacity,” MacKay said. “The first step is to look inside and see what you have, do a little bit of gap analysis of what you don’t have, and look at what the market needs, and the marketplace needs are

very clear.”Job seekers need to know what recent changes have

occurred in the careers they are seeking. Have there been any recent technological innovations? Is there a new skill needed? Is there a new philosophy?

“You have to look at the business setting and see what the needs are and be sure you go get them,” MacKay said. “Thegood news is, the community schools, the colleges, the four-year institutions are there to help you get there fast.”

Burnard agreed. “Most older job seekers are long on experi-ence,” he said. And he advises them not to talk so much about work history. Instead, he said, “talk about what value you can

bring to the company, not just experience. Experience is just one thing.”

MacKay says curiosity is more important than experi-ence, and it is one of the most valuable assets a person, young or old, can bring to a company.

“When I work with recruiters to help them under-stand the benefits of hiring the older work force, I tell them one of the most important questions they can ask older workers is ‘What have you learned in the last year or two?’ And sit back and listen to what they say. If they’ve been learning and paying attention, they’ll be good employees,” she said.

Significant hurdles face older job seekers.For anyone of any age, “job seeking gets pretty

depressing,” Burnard said. “And for an older worker that recognizes that there’s age discrimination, it can be doubly depressing. But the only way to succeed is to be positive. The biggest turnoff for an employer is to talk to someone who isn’t positive.”

MacKay takes a tougher stance. “That’s life,” she said. “The hurdle becomes the individual’s to deal with, not the company’s initially. You have to know what’s useful to an employer; you have to know how to present your-self; and you have to know, you must absolutely know, what you have to offer.”

The onus isn’t exclusively on the older job seeker. “Companies have to think about what it is that is going to make their company successful, which they already do, but they don’t necessarily add into the equation the value an older worker can bring,” Burnard said.

He counsels businesses that “there is a valuable pool of talent out there. Don’t just sit back and see what happens but aggressively take a look at [the older workforce]. They might be surprised. I’m not saying an employer should hire just older workers, but it should be intergenerational. An employer has an obligation to hire the best person, whether they’re 20 or 90. If they don’t actively consider the older work force, they may be missing out on finding that best person.”

Paisner, who as a model and actor has to forever be audition-ing for work, probably has the right attitude.

“They just want someone who knows what they’re doing,” she said of the people who hire her. “It’s not a question of them respecting you if you’re older. The only time that does any good is to get a seat on the subway. I’ve never been treated badly. Never. And it has nothing to do with age. They just want somebody who does a good job, and I love working so I do a good job.”

Village Care’s Dorette Norris says employers have to be open and flexible if they want to retain older workers.

New Y rkV age Care f



Scott Kariya retired early. He had spent 25 years recruiting program-

mers, systems analysts and network engineers into the IT field, and in 2006, at age 50, he opted out.

But retirement wasn’t exactly what he expected. “During 2007 I putzed around, worked on my

investments, whatever,” he said. “I did volunteer work as well — I still do volunteer work at the RedCross. But I guess midway through 2007 or so Istarted getting kind of bored. Then at the end of 2007, I saw an article about ReServe.”

One of many organizations launched in the last few years to tap into the growing number of retir-ees looking to give back to the community, ReServematches older adults looking to offer their skills with nonprofits needing experienced help at low wages.

Six months ago he came onboard and now uses the recruiting skills he developed in the private sec-tor to aid and strengthen the nonprofit work force. He hopes to grow ReServes’s partnership list from 400 to 800 and has a large, talented pool of workers to operate with.

This idea of older folks using their talents gained in a lifetime of work to give back is growing past being mearly a trend and becoming a full-blown movement, especially among the millions of BabyBoomers who are starting to reach retirement age.

“The desire to give back through work is wide and deep right now,” said Phyllis Segal, vice president of Civic Ventures, an advocay group calling for older

workers to make a difference through employment.A joint study conducted by Civic Ventures and the MetLife Foundation

found that fully half of all workers between the ages of 50 and 70 were inter-ested in taking up, either now or in retirement, work that improves the quality of life in their communities.

Civic Ventures founder Marc Freedman coined the term “encore careers” to describe this movement, and Segal said it’s driven, in part, by longer lifespans — if people are living longer, it should be expected that they will be working longer, too.

“The idea that when you reach the age of 62 or 65, you retire from produc-

GIVING BACK

Opting OutAnd Back In

By Brett C Vermilyea

ReServe’s Scott Kariya

29

tive work was a social invention,” she said. “And while it may have been an invention that fit the needs of our nation and the needs of individuals in the ’50s, the ’60s, the ’70s, we are living in a different world. If you retire from work at the age of 62, the idea of playing golf for 10, 20, 30 years is not that appealing to a lot of people.”

And this longer-living generation is the same one that grew up with President John F. Kennedy’s call of “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” They’ve been taught that civic service is important.

About 8.4 million older workers have entered encore careers and while approximately two-thirds say that they wanted to stay active, productive and challenged, a third say that they want to improve the quality of life in their com-munities or in society. “They are people that want to have an impact that helps strengthen our community and our world,” Segal said.

An impressive 84 percent of people in encore careers say that they get a “tremendous amount” or “quite a bit” of satisfaction from the work they do, according to the Civic Ventures/MetLife study.

But it’s not just idealism that keeps these folks working longer; there’s a practical side, too.

“The economics of living for decades without any source of income is not sustainable for individuals or for society,” Segal said.

ReServe tries to alleviate some of these economic pressures by requiring its nonprofits to pay a $10-an-hour stipend to workers it hires through ReServe.And while ReServe emphasizes that it’s the giving back aspect of these positions that is the most rewarding, Kariya said the organization is currently re-examing its workers’s financial needs and trying to address those needs because the original philosophy behind the stipend was meant to give more meaning to the work. It wasn’t meant to be an important source of income.

“We wanted to include this in because we feel that, although volunteerism is a wonderful thing — and a lot of our people do volunteer work, and I do as well — that when there’s some monetary value attached to the relationship, oftentimes it gives that relationship more commitment and more significance on both sides,” Kariya said.

“I’ve done many volunteer works,” he said. “Volunteering is a great thing. We all believe in volunteering. But sometimes organizations might not treat volunteers as importantly as they could. But in the ReServist positions, the organizations give us a job discription, they interview people for it, they want people with certain background and skills, and they hire them specifically for that position. So it’s really a part-time job.”

But the difference is that in these jobs, people feel like the skills they devel-oped in their careers are making a difference in their communities.

RESOURCES

ReServe(212) 792-6205

reserveinc.org

Civic Ventures(415) 430-0141civicventures.org

Experience Corps(212) 614-5499

experiencecorps.org

Encore(415) 430-0141

encore.org

Using a Second Career to Make a Difference

S T A N D P O I N T

Civic Engagement

Civic engagement is now being seen as a formal retirement role for older adults, with a beneficial

impact on society. Many national orga-nizations devote significant resources to studying the phenomenon.

New research on the subject defines civic engagement as volunteerism and even paid work that is done for at least one day a week and which has a direct impact on the local community.

The attention that civic engagement is getting stems from a belief that “retired older adults are an untapped resource, and increasing the civic engagement of retired Americans will correspond with increasing social capital,” according to Brian Kaskie, who collaborated with a team of University of Iowa researchers on the study. Kaskie authored an article pub-lished recently in The Gerontologist.

Not only that, Kaskie says, but it’s important to look at civic engagement from its potential effect on individual health.

“Several researchers have linked engagement with health, successful aging and have suggested that aging persons who continue to work, find a second career, volunteer, or become involved in local affairs maintain better physical and mental health as they grow older,” he wrote in the journal article.

In a survey Kaskie conducted in 2004, he found that retired older adults con-sidered themselves engaged if they were volunteering as well as working. Nearlyall saw volunteer service as a form of civic engagement. Seventy percent of those who considered themselves retired, but were continuing to work in some capacity, said they did so “because they wanted to keep active, be engaged with other people and make a contribution to their local community.”

Kaskie said that his research has led him and his colleagues to believe that civic engagement should be defined as a role that involves voluntary or paid partici-pation in an activity that occurs within an organization that has a direct impact on

their local community.A precise meaning of civic engagement

is important to policymakers and program administrators and allows researchers to study its impacts effectively and consis-tently, according to Kaskie.

The study found that engaged retirees differ significantly from those who volun-teer less or who work in non-civic roles, or do neither. “Non-engaged” retirees were less likely to have finished high school, less likely to exercise and didn’t think their communities offered sufficient work and volunteer opportunities.

Kaskie said that there is a need for persuasive campaigns and opportunities to compel older adults to become engaged regardless of level of education, health status, socioeconomic status and other characteristics.

It’s likely that the civic engagement phenomenon will expand for several rea-sons, including the prospect of reduced financial support from government for education, health and social services pro-grams, which are already being depleted by an aging work force, particularly in education.

There is also a growing number of per-sons who are retiring from their primary careers but who may not be prepared to retire completely. Other retirees recog-nize that they will be spending more years in retirement and may wish to partake in a civic engagement role as a way to main-tain their health and to contribute to the social capital of their community.

In addition, retirees may have increased levels of civic engagement because there are a greater number of people with higher levels of education, good-to-excel-lent health and other characteristics that enable them to engage in activities.

Kaskie said it’s important to differen-tiate more committed retirees who are engaged in a civic purpose from their counterparts who only occasionally take a volunteer role. Neither should we think that civic engagement roles cannot include retirees who have returned to work in particular jobs or organizations.

“As the population continues to age and the demand for voluntary and paid labor increases, discussions about the civic engagement of retired Americans will be come more common and more important,” he said.

HOW OLD IS OLD?A while back, pollster Zogby

International, conducted a survey to determine what age Americans believe is “old,” and asked participants how old they wished they were.

A third of those surveyed said that an age between 71 and 80 is “old,” and about 19 percent said between 61 and 70, while 18 percent said between 81 and 90. About 30 percent of those under 30 placed the cutoff point for being old at 61, but most others chose the age of 71.

Blacks and Hispanics are less likely than whites to choose a younger age as “old,” while Republicans are slightly more likely to choose a younger age as “old” than are Democrats and independents.

Southerners are most likely to say that 61-70 is old, while those living out west are most likely to see old as being 71-80. Easterners, on the other hand, were more likely than those in other regions to say that 41-50 is old.

As to how old they wish to be, one in three in the survey said they wished they were somewhere between 21 and 30, 17 percent wished to be between 31 and 40, 11 percent wished to be between 41 and 50, and 13 percent wanted to be under 21. The rest weren’t sure.

Current age made a difference here too. Those 18-29 were the most satisfied with their current age, or close to it. Twoin five 30-49 year olds wanted to be 21-30. Interestingly, among 50-to-64 year olds in the survey, they were closely divided between wishing to be 21-30 and wishing to be 51-60; among those 65 and older, the division was between those wanting to be 21-30 and those wanting to be 61-80.

No matter what age group they were in, a goodly number of folks seemed satisfied with being their current age.


V I E W P O I N T

Community Response to DementiaBY HERBERT H. FILLMORE

There is an emerging crises in America, a crisis that exists because the health care system is

biased against certain disease conditions. If you get cancer or diabetes or any other

disease that the acute care or primary care system is designed to treat, well, no prob-lem, come right in.

But if you get a dementia, for which there is no pill, no surgery, and requires a different kind of care, sorry, you are tough out of luck.

The incidence and prevalence of Alzheimer’s and other dementias is increasing. The impact of this on indi-viduals, their families and communities is immense. Looking at the policy and pro-vider landscape, I see a few responses that recognize this reality, but very little in the way of a comprehensive response.

There is not enough going on. I can-not emphasize too strongly that we must respond and respond now — time is of the essence.

What are the tools in our tool bags? Home care, nursing homes, social capi-

tal? Let’s take the last one. Most care deliv-ered to seniors in this country, including care for persons with dementia, is pro-vided by informal caregivers, usually family members and oftentimes their friends and neighbors.

In the communities Village Care serves, social capital is not an abundant commod-ity. Many seniors live alone, many in walk-ups. There is a limit to what we can ask their neighbors to do.

New nursing home beds, not the most desired, or even the best solution, are not being built. In fact, quite the opposite: Nursing home beds are being taken off line. Furthermore, the traditional skilled nursing facility beds that do exist are not optimally designed for a population with dementia. It could be argued, for that mat-ter, that they shouldn’t even be used for persons with dementia because they aren’t appropriate care settings. Not to mention that Medicare and Medicaid have designed their reimbursement systems almost to

guarantee that the person with dementia will not be cared for in those settings.

We need new thinking about clustered living solutions that maximize efficien-cies of staffing and quality of life, both through physical design specifically for this population and reimbursement and regula-tions that promote quality specialized care. The mechanism for this may be enhanced Medicaid Assisted Living Programs, a relook at the old health-related facility con-cept, or some new version of apartment living combined with day care.

We need to be exploring new answers now because we are likely to be faced with an exploding dementia population and I,for one, don’t want to look the other way as we use marginal nursing home beds as the solution and hope that the problem will just go away. We have to figure this out now because the lead time for these bricks and mortar solutions is at least five years.

What about home care? Home care is definitely a part of the solution but it does not provide socialization, and it is extreme-ly costly when around-the-clock safety and supervision must be guaranteed.

What about technology? Aren’t there some technologies that combined with home care could enable many more per-sons to have a better quality of life and stay in their own homes within a budget our society could afford? That too is part of the solution, but we aren’t there yet. In fact we have a long way to go, while leadership at the state and federal levels is woefully lack-ing to promote an answer to this problem with technology.

At Village Care, we have used what resources we have and explored concepts to piece together some solutions. We’re using our medical day health centers combined with home care and technology, and with close working relationships with primary care physicians, to take care of patients who have advanced Alzheimer’s and dementia symptoms while allowing them to continue to live in the community. Meanwhile, we are making the best we can of our nursing home beds through specially trained and selected staff in our person-centered thera-peutic recreation program.

It is truly remarkable what can be achieved in Alzheimer’s community care but it is a constant effort to keep all par-ties working well together, especially in the coordination of home care and day care where money and regulations often work at cross purposes to serving and keeping per-sons in their homes. Our experiences in this area constantly reveal the problem with a system of silos where patients can easily be missed, while transitions between set-tings can bring their own crises. You need a team. If you are an individual provider of care you will quickly be overwhelmed by the medical and social complexities of dementia.

Village Care’s response is to open a Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly, known as PACE, that will bet-ter allow us to coordinate care and target services, including technology where it is needed. We are also working on opening a purpose-built specialized Assisted LivingProgram for persons with dementia. Ofcourse, these solutions will work for people with Medicaid but what about everyone else?

We are doing much of our work under demonstration authority from the state and hope that that our efforts can help inform many of the conversations that are going on.

Much needs to be done if we are going to adequately meet this looming care cri-sis.

What will we say ten years from now? Will we pretend that no one could have seen this coming, or will we have seen what had to be done and risen up in the best traditions of our country to meet the needs of our parents, our spouses and our grandparents?

It’s a fundamental choice: Are we will-ing to accept more misery in our midst, or will we care for each other?

We at Village Care cannot look away, and we are doing everything we can to meet this crisis head-on.

(Mr. Fillmore is the executive vice-president of SeniorChoices at Village Care of New York.)

31

Whence Coney Island

T H E L A S T W O R DBY LOUIS J. GANIM


The news was reported in all the major metropolitan newspapers just as summer was growing to a close

in September: Astroland, perhaps the last vestige of what was once the most famous oceanside amusement park setting in the land — Coney Island — was closing for good.

Astroland actually was relatively new by Coney Island standards, having risen up along the famous boardwalk only in 1962. Still, it was a part of old New York that’s been erased as the city has risen from the ashes of the good-old-bad-old-days of the 1970s.

It had been some 15 years since I’d been to Coney Island, and that had been a busi-ness visit with the late Donnie Halperin,who was head of the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal at the time, to meet with Brighton Beach Mitchell Lama project residents over complaints at the state-supervised middle-income hous-ing development.

The announcement of Astroland’s clo-sure brought back a slew of memories of my first visit to Coney Island as a 16-year-old, and spurred me to make a new trip to the island on the D train on a sunny and warm early fall afternoon. Four subways – the D, F, N and Q – terminate at the new-ish (2004) Stillwell Avenue Station at SurfAvenue in Brooklyn, and the D gives you probably the most scenic trip through the borough.

It’s no accident that most everyone who visits Coney Island stops at Nathan’s for a hot dog on their first trip to the area. Nathan’s is right smack in your face when you exit the El onto the street. This autumn afternoon was no different. Although the crowd was smallish, there was a long line to the hot dog counter and a steady stream

of folks wandering in.Strolling up to and down the boardwalk,

however, can be a sad and depressing expe-rience if your mind’s eye sees what once was and you are filled with nostalgia for a bygone era.

To a 16-year-old those many years ago, Coney Island was a fabulous sight, even though the deterioration and downward slide had already been underway by the time of my first visit. The summer evening crowd was literally a throng and the specta-cle of the rides — from the then-awesome Thunderbolt roller coaster, which was a more wild ride that its famous neighbor, the Cyclone, to the iconic Parachute Jump — was breathtaking.

Bright neon lights, the hustle and bustle of the boardwalk, the noise level of the crowd, the harkening cries of the bark-ers from the booths along the boardwalk and the streets, the clatter of the coasters, the screams from terrified ridegoers, the aromas emanating from food stands — all were evident on that first visit.

In 1955, a short few years earlier, 1.5 million people had visited Coney Island on July 4, setting the record for that holiday. But a mere decade later, a rise in crime and unsafe subways contributed to a stunning decline where only a few thousand people came during summer weekends; and by the 1970s, the area had become a ghost town, according to Coney Island historian Charles Denson.

While the subways are safer today and there is little lingering fear of crime, the desolation of what had once been an escap-ist magnet for millions for more than a hundred years is well evident today.

Sadly, the landscape is replete with plots of empty land, perhaps the most poignant being a large lot of overgrown greenery that stretches a block off the boardwalk and ends with a tumbling-down, one-story structure with its rickety “Playland” sign standing sentinel over the miserable sur-

roundings. The silence around Astroland is deafening. An empty Steeplechase Park abuts the renovated, reconstructed, but non-operational, Parachute Jump, which is a preserved New York City landmark, along with the still-working Cyclone roller coaster down the boardwalk.

To think that we might ever recapture what’s been lost at Coney Island might seem a bit farfetched to anyone who remembers what the island was like “before the fall.”

It should be noted that all is not lost — the beach is today a thing of beauty, the benefit of a mid-1990s restoration. TheNew York Aquarium, with its 14 acres between Surf Avenue and the boardwalk, draws thousands every year. Keyspan Park was built behind the old Steeplechase Park for the minor-league Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team.

In mid-October, the City paid $11 mil-lion for nine acres adjacent to the WonderWheel in the latest move in a battle with a private developer as city government tries to fulfill its vision of a Coney Island that preserves the amusement park character of the island. The 150-foot tall Wonder Wheel,first opened in 1920 and another NYClandmark on the island, will continue to operate under lease until at least 2020.

A new Coney Island will rise. Whethergood, or bad, it won’t ever be the same.

If you’d like a glimpse of the past, the 1953 Oscar-nominated (Best Writing) “LittleFugitive” is a black-and-white movie filmed on Coney Island that offers great scenes of what life was like half a century ago. Ifyou would like to learn more about Coney Island and its history, try these websites:

Coney Island History Project: http://www.coneyislandhistory.org/

Coney Island amusement park histo-ry: http://history.amusement-parks.com/coneyislandpages.htm

Forgotten New York website: http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/Coney/coney.html

Ride tick

et: 19

61

Legends of the Village

Order your copy of

A compilation of striking photographs andshort stories of the legends of Greenwich Village.

to order visit

www.vcny.orgor call

212.337.5750

price: $95


Village Care of New York154 Christopher StreetNew York, NY 10014

VILLAGE CARE OF NEW YORK’S

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