Kansas City’s sprawling ways make growing old a bitch

Sunday editions of The Kansas City Star can feel like a bit of a rip-off, what with the front-page ad and C.W. Gusewelle writing about the splendors of yellow forsythia in the metro section. Then something like Diane Stafford‘s series about growing old in Kansas City comes along, and taking the paper on weekends seems worthwhile again. 

Stories about aging baby boomers are nothing new. Stafford’s series, which began yesterday, derives its power from its frank discussion of suburban sprawl, which is hell on the elderly and anyone else who doesn’t own a car. Today’s installment described a woman in Johnson County who can see a CVS from her window but doesn’t dare make the trip on foot out of fear of being crushed by an SUV.