I am a Ruppie!

Last Friday, I attended a luncheon at the Ritz Carlton Hotel presented by The Clare, the future lifetime care community where I expect to live in two or three years or whenever the fifty-three story building is completed. It's always a pleasure to meet a few of my future neighbors.

The featured speaker was Kyle Ezell, urban planner and author of Retire Downtown: the Lifestyle Destination for Active Retirees and Empty Nesters (Andrews McMeel, 2006). The book is dedicated "to the millions of Americans who already know and love downtown living and for the millions more who are just discovering it."

Ezell is a relentless promoter of city living for all, having grown up in a small town with visions of big city skylines in his head. He invented the term "Ruppies," or Retired Urban People, for people like me who love living in the city, or are at least considering it. According to his book's introduction, Ruppies "know the secret for staying young has a lot to do with where people choose to live. Downtown is their fountain of youth."

With the future Clare residents group, Ezell was "preaching to the choir"; many of us already live downtown or close by, while the others are already sold on city living. However, his talk reinforced my love for city living and made me wish that more of my friends would join me. There's nothing wrong with rural, small town, or suburban living (I've tried them all), but for me, Chicago (one of Ezell's twenty best retirement downtowns) is the place to live, and I'm glad to be a Ruppie! Thanks for agreeing with me, Mr. Ezell!

To check out The Clare, go to www.theclareatwatertower.com.
To see Kyle Ezell's book, go to http://www.amazon.com/Retire-Downtown-Lifestyle-Destination-Retirees/dp/0740760491/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prodimg_7/102-9031669-3546564?ie=UTF8

Copyright 2006 by Marlys Marshall Styne