A place that makes you wish you were old

"We know what helps people. What helps them age in place is not covered by insurers at this point," said Laura Gitlin, director of the Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

She was referring to healthcare and a study showing that periodic visits to independently living seniors by therapists can catch small difficulties before they turn into large ones.

But healthcare isn't all people need to age in place. To have a sense of wellness, we need purpose. Something to look forward to the next day. Ways to actively engage in the world.

Imagine if, instead of watching TV, you were broadcasting it. That was the idea behind the Burbank Senior Artists Colony. It's a 141-unit senior apartment community featuring 24-hour art studios, a film lab, performance space for its theater group, a resident-run internal cable TV station, and much more.

"You walk through this building and you never hear anybody talk about their aches and pains or how many medications they're on. They're just constantly talking about what they're going to do next," said Tim Carpenter of EngAge, a nonprofit organization that brings "whole person" creative programs to affordable senior housing.

The mission: "It's our vision to make aging a beginning. By providing life-enhancing programs to low-and moderate-income seniors living in affordable apartment communities, they will be given the opportunity to continue to grow intellectually, creatively, and emotionally. Programming will focus on the combination of mind, body and spirit to promote active engagement and independent living, and to provide seniors with a purpose."

Resident Suzanne Knode, who wrote her first screenplay after moving in, said "I never thought that I would be able to find something else that's new inside of me. You know that same feeling when you got out of school and the whole world was open for you? Now, all over again, the whole world is open to me and I have no idea what it's going to bring."

Everyone there is an artist, but many never called themselves that before entering a place where creativity is the air they breathe.

Six hundred people were on the waiting list before construction began, and 2,000 artistic souls are on the waiting list for the 43 affordable units that rent for $500 a month (market rate units start at $1400).

Burbank may be the home of Disney and Warner Brothers Studios. But you don't have to be in the entertainment industry to imagine creating senior communities as places anyone would want to live.

The question is, what would it take to do it here in Milwaukee? We'd love to hear your creative ideas.