BLOG POST 2
Mapping the Village
Where Stockton Supports Elders
(and Where We're Failing)
An honest assessment of our city
Introduction to Part 2
Welcome to the second post in our series on creating an age-friendly Stockton.
In Part 1, we reimagined what "age-friendly" means, expanding beyond accessible infrastructure to include cultural continuity, spiritual belonging, and the sacred role of elders as living libraries and wisdom-keepers. We introduced Afrocentric frameworks that help us see elders not as problems to manage, but as guardians of community balance.
Now, in Part 2, it's time to get specific. How does Stockton actually measure up? Where are we succeeding? Where are we falling short? And what do these gaps reveal about our values as a city?
In this post, we'll assess Stockton across five key age-friendly domains:
Social Participation: Are elders actively engaged in community life?
Respect and Social Inclusion: Are their contributions valued?
Housing Stability: Can elders age in place?
Transportation: Can they move freely in the city?
Civic Participation: Do elders shape policy and planning?
This isn't about pointing fingers. It's about honest evaluation, understanding our starting point so we can chart a path forward.
By the end of this post, you'll see Stockton's challenges with fresh eyes. And you'll be ready for Part 3, where we'll explore concrete solutions to rebuild the village.
Let's map where we are…
In every city, there is a rhythm beneath the noise, a spiritual pulse that reflects how its people live, connect, and care for one another.
In Stockton, California, that rhythm tells a story of both beauty and imbalance.
This is the second post in our series on age-friendly environments. In Part 1, we explored what "age-friendly" means from an Afrocentric perspective. It's not just accessible buildings, but cultural infrastructure that honors elders as living libraries and sacred teachers.
Now it's time to get specific. Where does Stockton shine? Where are we falling short? And what would it look like to rebuild the village?
The Spiritual Geography of Stockton
Stockton is home to more than 320,000 residents, with roughly 13% aged 65 or older and an African American population of about 11.6% (Neilsberg, 2025; U.S. Census Bureau, 2024).
We are one of the most diverse cities in the United States. Yet we have long ranked among the nation's least "happy" cities, not because of our people, but because of chronic underinvestment in their shared well-being.
"When communities lose alignment with Maat, fragmentation replaces harmony, and individuals begin to experience disconnection as suffering."
— Linda James Myers
From an Afrocentric psychological perspective, imbalance is not merely social or economic, it is spiritual (Myers, 1988).
Optimal Psychology teaches that wholeness depends on recognizing the interdependence of all systems: self, family, community, and cosmos. In Stockton, this principle invites us to ask: How are our systems functioning as a family?
Let's assess five key areas using the World Health Organization's age-friendly framework, and see how Stockton measures up.
1. Social Participation: Are Elders at the Table?
What the WHO Says: One of the first indicators of an age-friendly environment is whether elders are actively engaged in community life (World Health Organization, 2021).
Where Stockton Stands:
Stockton has a growing network of neighborhood centers, but many are underfunded or lack culturally relevant programming. For Black elders in particular, many of whom face the cumulative effects of systemic racism and intergenerational poverty, these spaces often don't reflect their histories or traditions.
What We've Lost:
There's a story many Stockton residents remember. Outside a Chinese restaurant, Asian elders would gather in the parking lot, setting up folding tables to play dominoes and cards. Over time, something beautiful happened: African American and Latinx elders joined in. The games became a cultural bridge. Language barriers dissolved over the click of dominoes. Laughter crossed generations and ethnicities. Community was born there, organic, unplanned, powerful.
Then the city cited the restaurant. Police began patrolling the parking lot. The tables disappeared. The elders scattered.
What the city saw as a code violation, the community experienced as cultural erasure. What officials dismissed as loitering, elders knew as belonging.
This is what happens when we don't recognize elder-created spaces as valuable infrastructure. When we police connection instead of supporting it.
The Deeper Issue:
Wade Nobles reminds us that Elders are not passive recipients of care. They are spiritual protectors of community balance, "guardians of culture, traditions, and history" (Nobles, 2009, p. 221). They are living libraries whose knowledge sustains entire communities.
When elders are sidelined from civic life, or worse, when their organic gathering spaces are dismantled, the community loses access to its collective wisdom.
The Question:
Are our programs designed with elders, or merely for them? And more importantly: can we recognize and protect the spaces elders create for themselves, even when they don't look like what we expect?
2. Respect and Social Inclusion: Who Gets to Be Visible?
What the WHO Says: Elders should be respected and included in public life, with their contributions acknowledged and valued.
Where Stockton Stands:
Stockton's public narrative often highlights youth innovation and overlooks the contributions of its elders, particularly Black and Brown seniors who have held neighborhoods together for decades.
"I am because we are."
— Ubuntu philosophy, echoed in Myers' Optimal Psychology
Respect is foundational to the Afrocentric worldview. Myers (2018) teaches that the essence of psychological health is rooted in mutual recognition, the understanding that our well-being is interdependent.
The Systemic Cost:
In Bowen Family Systems Theory, this neglect would be viewed as a breakdown of multigenerational transmission, a disruption in the flow of values, stories, and emotional resilience between generations (Keller & Noone, 2020). When we don't honor elders as living libraries, we lose the very knowledge that could guide younger generations.
What Restoration Looks Like:
Reweaving these intergenerational ties through storytelling programs, church partnerships, and youth-elder mentorship rooted in cultural practice.
3. Housing Stability: Can Elders Age in Place?
What the WHO Says: Stable, affordable, and safe housing is central to healthy aging.
Where Stockton Stands:
Stockton's median household income is approximately $76,851, but about 15.4% of residents live below the poverty line. Black households earn around $59,000 on average (DataUSA, 2024; Neilsberg, 2025).
Rising rents and limited senior housing options leave many older adults, especially women and elders of color, at risk of displacement.
The Spiritual Cost:
From an Afrocentric lens, displacement is not only a loss of shelter but a spiritual dislocation, a severing from the land, memories, and communal energy that sustain identity.
Picture Mrs. Johnson, who's lived on her block for 40 years. She knows every neighbor, every tree. The church where she worships is two blocks away. The corner store owner calls her "Auntie."
Now imagine her forced to move across town because she can't afford rent. That's not just a housing crisis. It's a rupture of belonging and a loss of a living library whose presence has held the block together.
What's Needed:
A culturally attuned age-friendly plan would treat housing as both a social and ancestral right, ensuring that elders can age in place near familiar landmarks, spiritual centers, and kin networks.
4. Transportation: Can Elders Move Freely?
What the WHO Says: Accessible mobility is essential for preventing isolation and maintaining social connections.
Where Stockton Stands:
Stockton's bus system covers the city but offers limited weekend and evening service. For elders who no longer drive, this can result in social isolation.
The Systemic Impact:
In Bowen's systems theory, isolation triggers anxiety across the entire system. The emotional cutoff between individuals mirrors the cutoff between neighborhoods and institutions (Keller & Noone, 2020).
When Grandma can't get to church on Sunday, it's not just her who suffers, it's the young mother who needs her wisdom, the children who need her stories, the choir that needs her voice.
What Would Help:
Reinvesting in accessible transit, including shuttle programs connecting elder centers, churches, and cultural events, would help bridge these emotional and physical divides.
5. Civic Participation: Are Elders Shaping Policy?
What the WHO Says: A thriving community values the continued contributions of its elders in civic life and governance.
Where Stockton Stands:
Our city councils and planning boards rarely include formal input from elders, especially from diverse cultural communities.
What We're Missing:
In many African spiritual systems, elders remain central to governance and conflict resolution. As Nobles (2009) writes, "The judgments and decisions of Elders are always consistent with their community's cultural integrity and directed toward truth and justice" (p. 222).
Imagine a city planning meeting where:
An elder advisory council reviews every major development project
Black grandmothers weigh in on public safety strategies
Longtime residents help design new parks and community spaces
This wouldn't just improve cultural competence. It would restore the sacred balance between experience and innovation.
Where the System Frays: But Also Where Hope Lives
Despite systemic challenges, Stockton has pockets of resistance and resilience that show what's possible.
What's Working:
Organizations like Dome of Home are already doing intergenerational programming, proving the model works in Stockton. At University of the Pacific, Black Unity hangouts bring together community members across generations, creating spaces where students and elders connect. The Divine 9 sororities and fraternities, with members ranging from their 20s to over 100, demonstrate sustained intergenerational commitment through decades of community service.
These examples show that Stockton doesn't lack capacity for intergenerational connection. We lack systemic support for what already emerges organically.
What's Broken:
Despite these bright spots, we still face:
Chronic underinvestment in Black and Brown neighborhoods
Economic inequality that follows racial lines
Legacy of redlining that fractured communities
Loss of cultural spaces where elders once gathered, including the dismantling of organic elder gathering spots like the parking lot domino games that bridged Asian, Black, and Latinx communities
Code enforcement that prioritizes aesthetics over community connection
The result, in Myers' (1988) terms, is sub-optimal functioning: a system guided by materialism and scarcity rather than harmony and abundance.
When city officials cite restaurants for allowing elders to gather, when police patrol parking lots to disperse card games, when we treat elder congregation as a problem rather than recognizing these living libraries as precious resources, we reveal our values. We show that we prioritize order over connection, property over people, control over culture.
Yet organizations like Dome of Home, UOP's Black Unity, and the Divine 9 show another way is possible.
Bowen's model suggests that the stress of systemic conditions amplifies emotional reactivity, eroding communication and trust between generations (Keller & Noone, 2020).
But every breakdown invites the potential for healing.
When viewed through the lens of Optimal Psychology, Stockton's struggles can be seen as spiritual calls to return to balance, to restore the communal "village" that once grounded its people.
The Path Forward
An age-friendly Stockton is not achieved through infrastructure alone but through cultural renewal. It requires the integration of Myers' optimal principles, Nobles' sacred understanding of Eldership, and Bowen's systemic insight into policy and practice. By embracing cultural competence as a moral and spiritual imperative, Stockton can transform its "unhappiest city" narrative into one of collective flourishing.
The truth is, Stockton's elders have always known how to build community. They've shown us, in parking lots turned into multicultural gathering spaces, in churches that sustained neighborhoods through hard times, in the quiet ways they've held families and blocks together for decades.
The question isn't whether elders can create spaces of belonging. They already have. The question is whether the city will recognize, protect, and support what they build, or continue to dismantle it in the name of codes and order.
In truth, the city already holds the seeds of transformation, in the elders who remember, in the youth who listen, and in the spaces where they meet. To build an age-friendly environment is to rebuild the village, one rooted in oneness, justice, and love.
In our final post, we'll explore two concrete proposals for how to make this vision real.
What You Can Do:
Look around your neighborhood: Where do you see elders? Where don't you?
Attend a city council meeting and ask: "How are elders from diverse communities included in decision-making?"
Share this post and tag someone working in local government
Coming Next: Post 3 "Two Ways Forward: Solutions for an Age-Friendly Stockton"
References
DataUSA. (2024). Stockton, CA. https://datausa.io/profile/geo/stockton-ca
Keller, M. N., & Noone, R. J. (2020). Handbook of Bowen family systems theory and research methods: A systems model for family research. Routledge.
Myers, L. J. (1988). Understanding an Afrocentric world view: Introduction to an optimal psychology. Kendall/Hunt.
Myers, L. J., Speight, S. L., Highlen, P. S., Cox, C. I., Reynolds, A. L., Adams, E. M., & Hanley, C. P. (2018). Optimal theory's contributions to understanding and surmounting global challenges to humanity. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 58(6), 732–759. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167818762447
Neilsberg. (2025). Stockton, California population 2025. https://www.neilsberg.com/insights/stockton-california-population-by-year/
Nobles, W. W. (2009). Elders. In M. K. Asante & A. Mazama (Eds.), Encyclopedia of African religion (pp. 220–224). SAGE Publications.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2024). QuickFacts: Stockton city, California. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/stocktoncitycalifornia
World Health Organization. (2021). Global age-friendly cities: A guide. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241547307
