PERVERSE AGEISM

It is ironic that people having difficulty in introducing senior housing into a neighbourhood would decry “ageism” [“There Goes the Neighbourhood, March]. “I have never seen ageism like this,” Gwen Kavanagh asserts.

Well, come out to Alberta and find ageism. We have multiple sprawling developments in which no one under, say, 50 or 55 years is welcome as a resident. Apparently, like one of the objectors described in your article, people living in these complexes don’t want “people in diapers” living on their streets.

It is wryly amusing that the seniors who would live in the housing at issue are twice described in the article as quiet seniors. There’s some stereotyping. Are all seniors necessarily quiet?

What a lovely and fragile demographic we seniors are, huh? If you can only look beyond our discrimination against our juniors. —Elaine Ramsay, via email