Refusing to go away: The ida benderson seniors action group
This chapter draws upon critical gerontology, urban studies, and occupational justice to analyze rhetoric and activism surrounding the closure of a popular senior center in downtown Syracuse, New York. In a context of downtown gentrification and entrepreneurial governance, city administration employed logics of ageism and austerity to justify the closure. Although elder participants could not block the closure, they steadfastly refused to permit pejorative framings of their largely low-income elder community as passive, frail and burdensome. They used street theater and marches to resist their invisibility. They formed an action group and persisted in maintaining community ties and a presence in the city while pursuing their long-term vision of an accessible, centrally located, and senior-controlled community center.
