Senior Workshop - junior results

The workshop to design the Senior Center held this past Thursday was underwhelming, to say the most. I talked with a dozen people during and after the workshop, and everyone was disappointed. After spending two hours, the designers came away with these great ideas –

• · There should be a multi-purpose room
• · There should be a kitchen
• · There should be an arts and crafts room
• · There should be a classroom
• · There should be an exercise room

As if there was a senior center anywhere that didn’t have these features! Let’s look at some more of the terrific take-aways from the meeting –

• · There should be quiet spaces
• · There should be a place to watch TV
• · There should be handicapped parking
• · There should be ample access to the outdoors

Once again, you would be challenged to find a senior center anywhere that didn’t have these features.

So why were 80 people spending 2 hours on a Thursday afternoon only to come up with a plan that anybody could pull out of any senior center planning notebook.

The plan that emerged has almost nothing unique to Lake Forest. In fact, no one ever bothered to talk about Lake Forest per se.

· Just how many “seniors” do we have?

· Do we have more or less “active” seniors?

· What percent of the population do they represent?

· How fast is that group increasing?

· What is their physical status? Do we need to have more or less handicapped access, more or less exercise programs? Based on our population, do exercise trails and stations make sense? Does it make sense to have an indoor pool and aquacise programs?

· What is their educational level? How computer literate are they? How many resources shall we put into computer stations vs. tablets vs. hand held devices?

· Where do the seniors live? How mobile are they? How many car spaces will we use? Bus stations?

None of these issues were discussed because no one seemed to have any data. Hence, absent any data about who we are as a community, we got a generic “one size fits all” plan that doesn’t necessarily match our unique needs as a community.

There was one exception to this, when several people mentioned that the kitchen should be big enough to meet the needs to supply the 100 Lake Forest residents who are in need of “Meals on Wheels” services. It was the only comment to get a round of applause from the audience. Recall that almost a year ago, Council members Voigts, Robinson, and Hamilton refused to consider using vacant City space to support Meals on Wheels, and instead said the seniors would have to wait until the senior center was built.

We are planning on having a second workshop so all is not lost. Let’s build a senior center that represents our unique needs and desires as a community, not a “one size fits all” center. Of course, after waiting for 25 years, we are all tempted to take what we can get, but I believe we can do better.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on March 26 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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