Officials voice support for health makeover
Published 8:49 pm Saturday, March 7, 2009
Minnesota Department of Transportation officials on Friday voiced their support in helping Albert Lea to become a healthier city through the makeover sponsored by AARP and Blue Zones.
During a luncheon visit by several MnDOT officials at the Albert Lea American Legion, MnDOT Commissioner Thomas Sorel and District 6 Engineer Nelrae Succio said they would be willing to partner with local leaders to help with the success of the makeover and to offer any technical expertise that might be needed.
Sorel said many of the leaders at MnDOT are familiar with the studies and experts who have been helping the city with the makeover.
“We want to see you be successful in this, and we don’t want to be a barrier in this,” Sorel said.
In January, AARP and Blue Zones officials announced that Albert Lea was selected as the recipient of the 10-month pilot health makeover designed to improve the health and longevity of the city’s residents.
The makeover will focus on how the physical environment of the community is laid out, how people organize their social circles, how people organize their homes and kitchens and how people organize their inner self.
The focus on physical environment and how the community is laid out includes discussion and eventual changes to roadways, sidewalks and bike paths.
That’s where MnDOT’s expertise can come in.
Succio said MnDOT has a specific bicycle and pedestrian sector that the city and makeover team could work with.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity for you to look at some exciting things, she said.
The makeover project aims to add 10,000 years of added life to the city, which equals out to two years of projected life for each participant.
Sorel questioned how the success of the project would be measured.
Albert Lea Community Development Director Bob Graham said it would be measured by things that are seen in the community, such as a change or addition of sidewalks, numbers of bike racks and ultimately longer lives of the people who live in the community.
Blue Zones has also developed a longevity calculator called a “vitality compass” on its Web site that people are encouraged to take once in late March and once at the end of the makeover.
The vitality compass estimates how long people will live given their current lifestyles and habits and estimates how many of those years will be healthy years. It was created in collaboration with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health using more than 350 recognized studies that measure the impact of certain behaviors on health.
The goal is that by the end of the makeover, people will have better results on the vitality compass than they did at the start, Graham said.
He explained there will be several makeover events in the next few weeks.
On March 19, national walkability and townmaking expert Dan Burden will unveil the full results of his walkability study conducted in January.
Tentatively scheduled for April 2, there will be the quest kickoff for Blue Zones Founder Dan Buettner as he goes to Greece to find the fifth Blue Zone in the world.