Thread: TX: Opinion: Seniors offer the whys of exodus

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/16651599.htm

Posted on Thu, Feb. 08, 2007
Seniors offer the whys of exodus
O.K. CARTER
In My Opinion

Star-Telegram

A quizzical inquiry in this space Monday fretted about where Grandma and Grandpa relocated to when they left Arlington. A flood of responses didn't produce much in the way of wheres, but it did come up with some whys.

Census data show Arlington's median age is dropping rapidly as younger people move in and residents 65 and older move out. Nationally, 12.4 percent of the population is 65 or older.

In Arlington, it's less than half that, 5.7 percent, according to the census, and the number is steadily dropping.

The implications for Arlington are considerable as a big surge of baby boomers close in on their golden years. A senior citizen bailout puts houses on the market, changes neighborhood makeup, affects disposable income and generally replaces a somewhat affluent demographic with -- if trends hold up -- a less wealthy population. One of the few advantages of aging is that wealth often accumulates.

The median age of Arlington is 31.6 and sliding south.

So what gives? The column kicked off a barrage of response.

From Samuel Bostaph, an Arlington resident who's also an economics professor at the University of Dallas:

"Basically, the town is being turned into an amusement park and shopping mall. Both types of business activity have labor forces largely composed of lower-income service employees. Those employees then live in the city where they work, and this affects the kind of housing built by developers. And living in or near an amusement park or shopping mall is no treat for upper income earners. Since they have the financial resources to do so, they move out."

Don Woolridge, retired from the defense industry, has lived in Arlington since 1961.

He sees apartment proliferation as a big part of the problem.

"I can relate to the ... exodus and would probably leave also if we didn't have two daughters and their families living here," Woolridge said, complaining of a consistent decline in the single-family residential neighborhood after apartments were built nearby.

"I'll bet you don't find any areas where a bunch of apartments were built first, then developers decided to try to build and sell homes close to the apartments," Woolridge said.

Longtime resident Robert Smith listed another culprit: taxes. Smith was heavily involved in recent petition drives in Arlington and Tarrant County forcing tax freeze elections for seniors.

Voters approved the freeze in both elections.

"We had hundreds of seniors sign the petition, and at least 75 percent said they wanted to move from Arlington because they couldn't pay the high Arlington property taxes," Smith said. "There is your answer."

Arlington's city tax rate is 10th-highest among 34 Tarrant County cities. The school district is right in the middle of the pack, with eight districts with higher rates and seven lower.

Resident Pete Smith suggested that part of the senior exit is related to Arlington's transience itself, and that he and his wife will soon move elsewhere.

"Our children live elsewhere now," Smith said. "Since Arlington is almost built out and the city now wants only large homes being constructed here, there is little (or no) room for retirement style developments, which are gated, and thus more secure. On a recent visit to Pecan Plantation in Granbury a salesman, when asking us where we were from, said that at one time or another everyone in Granbury had lived in Arlington. Maybe it's just a stopover for many."

Longtime resident David Gauvey cited what amounts to a birds-of-a-feather premise: that as the racial makeup of the city changes, a considerable portion of the old guard begins to feel uncomfortable.

"We have seen an influx in Arlington of Hispanics. ... These folks without education are doomed to a cycle of low pay and demeaning jobs," Gauvey said. "The average pay in Arlington will drop. More poverty, more crime, more senior flight."

Forty-year Arlington observer Allan Saxe, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington and author of Politics of Arlington, Texas, said he believes that when it comes to senior housing, Arlington may be the victim of a catch-22.

"Seniors may be leaving Arlington in part because there is little downsize housing that is really nice and upscale," Saxe said. "Fort Worth seems to have a lot of this kind of housing -- fancy town homes and condominiums -- but Arlington does not."

Saxe's premise is that investors who build senior-style housing most certainly look at demographic tendencies and see how the senior market in Arlington is shrinking.

"Perhaps those developers do not build these in Arlington because they sense there is no market," Saxe said. He added that the result is seniors who might buy this type of housing will look elsewhere.

The snag in all of the above? This particular topic seems particularly appealing to an unhappy senior citizen group.

Unhappy people tend to call and write.

Thousands of other seniors choose to stay here, and no doubt they've got good reasons to do so. Whatever the city is doing to keep them around and happy -- a topic for another day -- needs to be amplified.


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O.K. Carter's column appears Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. Carter also co-hosts P3: People, Politics and Possibilities at 9:30 nightly on Time Warner cable Channel 95. 817- 548-5428, okc@star-telegram.com
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Personal note: I've seen the change myself in just the 12 years I've lived in Arlington. Traffic congestion has gotten much worse. I really started to take notice about 4 years ago when I got t-boned while driving. The police that responded, informed me that the fine individual that hit my car was an illegal, no license, no insurance, no habla English. I'm only 45 but like many people, moving elsewhere is not economically feasible so I worry about my kids and my future here as my wife and I get older. Some may think I have an axe to grind with Hispanics in general. This is not the case. I don't care where someone immigrates from as long as they follow the law. Last time I checked my city was not having any major issues with illegal Canadian aliens dumbing down my children's schools, driving while drunk, beating up BP agents wrongly imprisoned, marching and demanding their rights, etc.

--- Jaded

We have the same problem as Arlington Texas. Our car insurance is going higher because we have so many drivers without licenses or car insurance. In the 3/4 of million dollar homes, we have six and seven families living who have received low income mortgages and have ten cars sitting in front of houses. They run the streets all hours of the night and day. People are leaving due to the gangs and change in population.