Our letter published today in the San Francisco Chronicle challenges the harmful 'doom loop' framing around Bay Area aging—but there's much more to say. When media treats #olderadults primarily as burdens, we miss their daily contributions and justify inaction on critical supports. Our fuller response explores how San Francisco could lead on #agingequity through #housingreform, community #care investment, and supporting the #nonprofits already doing this work with dignity and cultural responsiveness.
Reframing Aging: From Doom Loop to Opportunity Loop
An Op-Ed Response to the San Francisco Chronicle's Aging Series
By Janet Y. Spears President & CEO, Metta Fund; Anna Karrer Manley, MPA Sr. Director of Communications & Strategy, Metta Fund; and Jarmin Yeh Metta Fund Board Chair and Associate Professor at the UCSF Institute for Health & Aging
July 28, 2025
The San Francisco Chronicle's recent series on aging in the Bay Area tackles an important demographic shift. However, framing this transition as a "doom loop" perpetuates harmful ageist narratives that do a disservice to current and future older adults — which includes all of us.
The Problem with Othering Language
When news coverage describes aging populations as "doom loops" and frames older adults as an impending crisis, it creates dangerous othering that treats aging as something that happens to "them" rather than all of us. This language positions older adults as burdens rather than valued community members, reinforcing the harmful stereotype that aging inherently means decline and dependence.
The Chronicle's framing creates an artificial divide between "productive" younger people and "costly" older people, ignoring that many older adults continue working, volunteering, and contributing economically. This othering suggests older adults are fundamentally different from the rest of us, when we are all on the same aging continuum.
The language of crisis creates psychological distance that allows readers to think of aging as someone else's problem. Terms like "silver tsunami" dehumanize older adults and justify policies that segregate rather than integrate. This othering becomes particularly harmful when combined with existing inequalities based on race, gender, and class.
An Equity and Racial Justice Imperative
The conversation around aging cannot be separated from equity and racial justice – particularly in a region where tech-driven gentrification has systematically displaced long-term residents of color. After all, over the past two decades, the tech industry's expansion has fundamentally reshaped San Francisco's housing market, pricing out entire communities and severing social networks crucial for aging in place.
We must not forget that elders who built lives in the Mission, Chinatown, the Fillmore, and Bayview-Hunters Point have watched their communities transform around them. Many have been forced to leave the city entirely, separated from cultural institutions, healthcare providers, and social connections that sustained them for decades. This displacement represents profound loss not just for individual elders, but for entire communities that lose their institutional memory and cultural anchors.
Communities of color face compounding disadvantages as they age because systemic inequities based on race, class, and gender accumulate over a lifetime, creating interconnected barriers that reinforce each other. These include lower lifetime earnings resulting in reduced Social Security benefits, higher rates of chronic disease due to racialized trauma, and less access to quality healthcare. The wealth gap becomes even more pronounced in older age while working-class communities face impossible choices between housing, healthcare, and basic needs.
Solutions: Building an Age-Inclusive Bay Area
San Francisco already has strengths to build upon—the Chronicle's own reporting noted the city tops AARP's rankings for older Americans. But realizing this potential requires concrete action.
Housing Policy Reform: Expand accessible dwelling unit (ADU) programs to support intergenerational living. Require new developments to include accessible units for older adults. Invest in retrofitting existing neighborhoods where older adults already live. Develop community land trusts that prevent displacement from rising property values and create right-to-return programs for displaced elders.
Community-Based Organizations: San Francisco is home to numerous nonprofits doing exceptional work with older adults and their families—from culturally specific senior centers to meal programs and advocacy groups. Organizations like Bayview Senior Services, the Mission Neighborhood Center, and Self-Help for the Elderly have provided culturally responsive services to the populations they serve for decades. However, many of these vital organizations face funding crises as government contracts shrink and private donations fail to keep pace with rising costs. The same economic pressures that displace elders also threaten the nonprofits that serve them.
Sustained Investment: We must prioritize sustained public and private funding for community-based organizations with proven track records of serving older adults and their families with dignity and cultural competence. This includes operational support that allows organizations to retain skilled staff and adapt to changing needs.
Comprehensive Care: Establish universal family care systems that support families caring for members across the lifespan. Ensure fair wages for care workers—predominantly women of color—whose essential work supports aging with dignity.
A Call to Action
We call on the San Francisco Chronicle to continue its important coverage while examining how language and framing can challenge ageist assumptions. Moving beyond othering language means centering older adults' voices—not as subjects of crisis reporting, but as experts on their own lives and valuable contributors.
The media has tremendous power to shape public perception. When coverage consistently portrays older adults through the lens of crisis, it normalizes ageist attitudes. Conversely, when coverage highlights diversity, contributions, and ongoing vitality, it helps readers see aging as a natural part of life deserving respect.
We ask readers to examine their own attitudes toward aging and consider how they can contribute to age-inclusive communities. This includes supporting nonprofits that serve older adults and their families, advocating for sustained public funding, and encouraging private sector investment in community-based solutions.
The Bay Area's demographic shift is not a doom loop — it's an opportunity loop. But realizing this opportunity requires investing in people and organizations who understand that aging with health and joy is not just an individual responsibility but a community commitment. By embracing aging as natural and valuable while ensuring adequate resources for organizations serving older adults and their families, we can create communities where people of all ages thrive with dignity.