AARP: Portland, South Portland among the best cities for folks over 50 to make new friends

Class instructor Joe Mizda (left) helps Flow Hawkes with uploading her photos to her Facebook account during a class to help senior citizens with social media and computers Thursday at the Hammond Street Senior Center in Bangor.  (BDN photo by Ashley L. Conti)

Class instructor Joe Mizda (left) helps Flow Hawkes with uploading her photos to her Facebook account during a class to help senior citizens with social media and computers Thursday at the Hammond Street Senior Center in Bangor. The AARP gave Bangor a livability rating of 56. (BDN photo by Ashley L. Conti)

The AARP — formerly known by the spelled out American Association of Retired Persons — issued its new livability index Monday, rating the country’s cities on a variety of metrics important to the group’s age 50-plus clientele.

The two neighboring cities of Portland and South Portland shined particularly bright, according to the AARP, in its analysis of best places for people over the age of 50 to make new friends. The group gave Portland and South Portland points on this social scale because of its high participation rates in civic groups, strong voter turnouts and easy access to the Internet, factors the AARP considers good indicators of lively friend networks for its members.

Portland ranked No. 7 among America’s small cities, while South Portland followed at No. 9.

In 2012, Kiplinger Personal Finance said Portland is the best place in the country for “your second act,” saying the city’s hot restaurant scene and affordable cost of living make it ideal for empty nesters looking for a second career or start over.

If you visit the AARP website, you can customize a search for an ideal home based on your specific preferences, or you can search for particular cities and see how they rate.

“Whether you’re a city planner or a person who wants to improve your life, it’s important to know what you have, what you’ll need, and then plan accordingly,” said Debra Whitman, AARP chief public policy officer, in a statement. “Every community has areas where it can improve and the livability index provides the tools and resources to help people meet their needs and wants.”

Portland received an overall rating of 62, getting a high mark — 84 — for civic and social engagement, but a mediocre score (52) in the “opportunity” category, which docked the city points for its income inequality and relative lack of multi-generational communities.

South Portland has a very similar profile, according to AARP’s rating system, with an overall score of 60, highlighted by an 82 in the engagement category and 51s for “opportunity” and “neighborhood,” the latter of which considers things like having parks and grocery stores within walking distance of homes.

Elsewhere around Maine, the AARP gave Bangor a livability index rating of 56 — a number that includes a high mark of 68 for transportation options, but a low of 41 under a category that considers access to health care and rates of preventable hospitalizations.

In 2013, Forbes magazine called the Queen City one of the best places in America to retire.

Maine’s second largest city, Lewiston, fared slightly better than Bangor with an index score of 57. Lewiston got an impressive 69 rating for its air and water quality, but lost ground with a score of 49 in the same “health” category that troubled Bangor.

Neighboring Auburn scored an overall 56, while Biddeford was rated a 59.

Look your city or town up on the AARP site by clicking here.

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.