Bob Krinsky roused his much younger neighbors for a three-mile run in howling winds along the icy Brooklyn waterfront. Afterward, as they thawed out, he called their running club together in a circle.
“OK everybody, hands in,” he said, as they stacked their hands in the center. “This was awesome.”
At 65, he’s the club’s designated C.V.O.: chief vibes officer. “It’s us keeping up with Bob,” said Alexa Brewster, 29. “I wish I was joking, honestly.”
Mr. Krinsky relocated last year from San Francisco to Williamsburg, a former industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn, to be closer to his two grown sons after his 30-year marriage ended. He is starting over in a two-bedroom apartment with sweeping, 47th-floor views of the Manhattan skyline, paying almost $11,000 a month in rent.
“I’m a 35-year-old man trapped in a 65-year-old body,” he said. “I thrive on the energy here, and I think my youthful vibe contributes to it and is nourished by it.”
Mr. Krinsky is among a growing number of older people making the move to New York City, undeterred by the high prices, tight living spaces and logistical challenges of getting around crowded sidewalks, especially for those with bad knees.
In 2023, an estimated 15,705 people age 65 and up moved to New York City, a 40 percent increase from 2019, according to an analysis of census data by John Mollenkopf, a professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.
These older New York transplants often followed their children to the city, and may help out with grandchildren. Others come for better medical care, or the convenience of not having a car, or for museums, shows and restaurants they cannot get anywhere else. Some are new to the city, while others have returned after decades away.
“There are a lot of older adults who don’t want to be cooped up in a retirement home,” said Jonathan Bowles, the executive director of the Center for an Urban Future, a Manhattan think tank that studies older adult issues. “For them, New York is a great antidote. It’s a place they can really live a second life.”
Many are baby boomers, the enormous, post-World War II generation that has long shaped America’s economic, social and cultural life. Now, the boomers are redefining what it means to grow older.
As a teenager, Suzy Curley had dreamed of living in New York. After her husband died in 2023, she decided to join her son in Manhattan. A family friend introduced her to Mark Jovanovic, a broker at the real estate firm Compass, who helped her buy a $1.5 million, one-bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village. To pay for it, she sold her house of more than 40 years in Fort Worth, Texas, along with a weekend place nearby in Bluff Dale.
Ms. Curley, 79, now shops at the Union Square Greenmarket and rides the subway almost everywhere. She takes drop-in ballet classes at the Broadway Dance Center in Midtown, and film and art classes at New York University. She has gone to museums, plays, operas and even a taping of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“Almost every day, out on the sidewalk, I say out loud to myself, ‘I cannot believe that I get to live here,’” she said.
Swapping a Dream House for City Life
Most older New Yorkers have simply aged in place, pushing the city’s 65-and-up population to 1.43 million in 2023 from 1.28 million in 2019, Mr. Mollenkopf’s analysis found.
And those just arriving, like Ms. Curley, are still outnumbered by those leaving. An estimated 22,355 older residents left the city in 2023, with many heading to warmer, and cheaper, retirement destinations.
But Boca Raton or Phoenix won’t do for some late-in-life New Yorkers.
Melissa Leifer, a broker at Keller Williams NYC, said that the older buyers now accounted for about 40 percent of her apartment sales compared with about 15 percent a decade ago. RiverSpring Living, a nonprofit senior community, has also received a growing number of out-of-state inquiries for its 32-acre campus in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.
The older newcomers often have money from selling larger houses in the suburbs, or from substantial nest eggs after decades of working and saving, according to real estate brokers and developers.
In Brooklyn, Amy and Dr. Paul Silverman are on their second retirement. In 2012, they built a retirement house in Asheville, N.C., with a porch overlooking the mountains, a fire pit, bee hives for fresh honey, and apple and pear trees. “That was the planned last stop,” said Dr. Silverman, 74, a retired oncologic radiologist and ceramic artist.
But Ms. Silverman, 73, who has macular degeneration, eventually had to stop driving and grew frustrated at being stuck at home. The quality of their local health care declined, and some of their friends moved away to be closer to their families or live in retirement communities.
So the Silvermans sold their house in 2024 and used the proceeds, along with some of their savings, to buy a $2.3 million, two-bedroom apartment in Boerum Hill that is just 2,200 steps from their son’s family. Now, Ms. Silverman walks their Australian labradoodle, Poppy, around the neighborhood, takes the subway by herself and volunteers as an English-language tutor. Dr. Silverman is an elevator ride away from the ceramic studio in their building.
“A lot of people our age have saved,” Dr. Silverman said. “Now, if you can do it, instead of going on a cruise or something like that, why not invest in a lifestyle that’s going to pay you back every day, every hour, by having a world-class city at your fingertips?”
Still, New York prices have been an adjustment. The Silvermans ordered delivery once, and never again, after paying about $100 for Indian food for two.
For others, including retirees scraping by on fixed incomes, moving to New York is not even an option because it is too expensive. As the city grapples with an affordability crisis, the number of older residents living in poverty has increased to nearly one in five people, according to the Center for an Urban Future.
Brunches and Nights Out With Millennials
Many older transplants left behind their families and friend groups, and found themselves strangers in a new city. But some said they had been pleasantly surprised by how friendly New Yorkers could be.
After Ms. Curley’s white terrier mix, Blanche, became sick and had to be euthanized in December, her neighbors sent her cards and letters, and invited her over for dinner. One woman gave her a box of treats from La Maison du Chocolat and a copy of the book “New York Sketches” by E.B. White, with a bookmark placed by the obituary he wrote for his family’s dog, Daisy.
The Silvermans have hosted a Sunday brunch with coffee cake, scones and fruit salad for their neighbors, many of whom are in their 30s or 40s, and gone out with them for drinks and birthday parties.
When a neighbor had a new sofa delivered one day, Dr. Silverman went and jumped on it to see if it was comfortable. The neighbor was on a call with a co-worker who asked, “What is this, like ‘Friends’?”
“We just offer a different perspective,” Ms. Silverman said. “I’m not preaching to them because they’re not my kids, but we’ve lived a lot longer so I think that’s part of it.”
Mr. Krinsky, who runs a health care strategy consulting firm, knew only his sons, Harry Krinsky, 31, and Leo Krinsky, 26, when he moved to Brooklyn. To reach his goal of “creating communities” for himself, he signed up for softball, basketball and beach volleyball leagues through the Volo Sports app. He also joined two running clubs and took improv courses with the Second City.
Mr. Krinsky calls himself “the elder statesman” in a sea of people in their 20s and 30s. He has given job advice to his neighbor, Ms. Brewster. When another neighbor, Bruna Fabregat, 35, was sick, he left a pint of chicken soup outside her door. For Mr. Krinsky’s birthday, his neighbors recorded personal birthday wishes and thanked him for inspiring them in a video.
“It’s a gift to be able to get his perspective on life, people, careers,” Ms. Brewster said. “We feel very lucky to have Bob in our group.”
Leo Krinsky, who lives in Williamsburg, said he was surprised when his father moved four blocks away. He jokingly told his father that he was not allowed to go to the same bars. “I was like, oh man, that might be a little too close for comfort,” he recalled.
But it has all worked out. Mr. Krinsky sees both sons every week or two to have dinner, hit the gym or watch a basketball game. He has even been invited to their birthday parties. His older son stayed with him when he was in between apartments.
Mr. Krinsky said he had no regrets about becoming a New Yorker.
“I think I have lived the best year of my life this last year and I’m very energized,” he said.
Jeff Adelson contributed reporting.
Winnie Hu is a Times reporter covering the people and neighborhoods of New York City.
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