You can always go downtown

From your own Dallas Morning News:

Yuppies are now Ruppies
Sunday, October 29, 2006

A quiet cottage by the lake isn't everyone's idea of retirement. And folks who want to spend their golden years near art museums, concert halls and fine restaurants have a new handbook: Retire Downtown by Kyle Ezell.

Mr. Ezell says "Ruppies" -- that's short for "retired urban people" -- understand that the secret to staying young isn't plastic surgery, therapy or pills but living in the right place.

"Downtown is the new fountain of youth," he declares.

To help Ruppies search for the coolest, hippest places, he came up with 20 of America's best "retirement downtowns."

Texas, apparently, is a bit challenged on that score. The only Lone Star city to make Mr. Ezell's list is Austin, which he describes as having a "distinctively different downtown."

"Austin is the perfect place for Ruppies to express themselves with few restraints and without inhibition," he writes. "Not everyone is weird, of course, but they have at least thought about ways that they could be."

Though they didn't make the cut, two other Texas downtowns got favorable mentions in Mr. Ezell's book -- Fort Worth ("one of the most vibrant and interesting cities in Texas") and San Antonio ("its delicious River Walk is worth considering").

Bob Moos

THE TOP 20
In alphabetical order:
Asheville, N.C.
Atlanta
Austin
Charlotte, N.C.
Chattanooga, Tenn.
Chicago
Columbus, Ohio
Denver
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Madison, Wis.
Memphis, Tenn.
Miami
Milwaukee, Wis.
Oklahoma City
Omaha, Neb.
Philadelphia
Providence, R.I.
San Francisco
Seattle