What We Need: Ashland needs balance the age of its residents - a robust senior population coupled with young families and college students makes for a community that is economically and socially strong and resilient. To get that balance, we need to set clear goals to ensure that Ashland is an inviting community for different groups of people - and take action to meet those goals.

According to the Census Bureau, Ashland currently has roughly 30% more people over 50 years old than the U.S. average. That’s not surprising given the mix of small town and urban amenities Ashland offers, but that demographic reality is creating challenges that we need to address as a community. It is also forcing us to confront the question of what type of community we want the future Ashland to be.

For elders, issues such as availability of suitable housing, assistance with day-to-day tasks, residential care when needed, and increasingly costly medical care, are making it difficult for people to age in community here.  

Fortunately, we have many resources that are already being leveraged for the benefit of our elders, and an abundance of good ideas. What is still needed is for the City to convene the leadership across the community to identify the challenges and resources that can be brought to bear to address them. We can do this through our strategic planning process.

At the same time, families are finding their own challenges living in Ashland. Parents with young children struggle to find affordable and accessible pre-school child care. Housing prices prevent many young families from locating to Ashland, despite our high quality schools. The type of rental housing that pencils out financially for developers tends to be smaller units for single people or a couple rather than units with multiple bedrooms needed for families with children. All of this leads to declining enrollment in our schools, which is a serious problem given current funding realities.

To address this housing situation, we need to figure out how to encourage and support the development of affordable family housing - both owner occupied and rental housing.

Finally, Ashland is a college town, and SOU is a major economic driver of our community, yet we do not seem to know much about the experience of college students in our town. As a community, we can take an interest in the quality of life of local college students and partner with SOU to enhance that experience so that students are routinely sharing positive reactions to living in Ashland.

All of these issues beg the question of what do we want Ashland to be in the future. Will we be primarily a retirement community or will we be a community that understands and works to enhance the quality of life of all ages from children to elders. My hope is that we will choose the latter.

We are already on track to do so, but need to invest more heavily in the effort. The City of Ashland signed on to AARP’s Age Friendly Communities program and the Senior Services Division at Ashland Parks and Recreation is moving forward with the work needed to implement the program here.

My goal is to ensure that we are learning more about the lived experiences of all age groups in Ashland and taking proactive steps to ensure a healthy demographic balance across those groups by making sure Ashland is inviting and welcoming to all ages.