Getting things rolling at the November 14, 2012 Cook County Active Living Summit was a walk-to-school event with former Congressman Jim Oberstar. School children and community members met at the Cook County courthouse parking lot to form a “walking school bus.” Oberstar, credited with being the founder of the Safe Routes to School program said he had participated in many such events, but never one with a real (cardboard) school bus like Cook County’s. Oberstar was the keynote speaker at the summit.
What would it take to create a more active community? That was the question of the day at the Cook County Active Living Summit on November 14 at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts.
The purpose of a community-wide active living initiative would be to improve health, promote a sense of community, and increase quality of life, according to Kristin DeArruda Wharton of the Grand Marais Active Living Steering Committee. The focus of the summit was to examine public policies that could lead to those benefits.
James Oberstar, northeastern Minnesota’s U.S. representative from 1975 through 2010, was the summit’s keynote speaker. People deserve the opportunity to be spared the health problems that result from inactivity, he said, and proper urban design that makes it easy for people to walk and bike around can give people that opportunity.
Oberstar initiated the Safe Routes to Schools program in 2000 that helps communities create safe routes for children to walk or bike to school. His goal was to change the habits of an entire generation, helping youth develop healthy habits that would follow them throughout their lives.
The goal of a similar program in England called Sustrans is to create “free range kids,” Oberstar said. Communities instituting the Safe Routes to Schools program have overcome distance, weather, traffic, and crime barriers to create free range kids in the U.S.
Designing urban areas for bike and pedestrian traffic also increases contact among people. “The automobile has stolen our common public space,” Oberstar said.
Cities across Europe have special lanes for bicyclists and pedestrians, Oberstar said. In Copenhagen, 38 percent of all trips are made by bicycle. The Crown Prince of Denmark bikes to his office. The heart of Amsterdam includes parking for 200,000 bicycles.
When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, he could not have biked safely to work, Oberstar said. At the beginning of this new millennium, our goal must be to make cities more accessible and environmentally friendly. Cities need to be designed – or redesigned – for pedestrian and bike traffic and public transportation, he said.
Worksite wellness
Cook County North Shore Hospital and Sawtooth Mountain Clinic have made employee wellness a priority. Not only does employee wellness decrease the cost of employee illness and absence, it improves morale.
At the hospital, vending machines now have healthier food and beverage choices. The staff was offered classes in how to use the exercise equipment in the physical therapy department. Raised garden beds were installed outside, and employees can now purchase fresh produce to eat at work or take home.
Having the management behind such initiatives is vital, said hospital employee Charlie Butter, who developed the gardens. He said he was bothered at first when he found out employees were sneaking out and pinching off sugar snap peas or digging up carrots to snack on. But then he realized that that was the goal of the project.
Another employee, Kris Hedstrom, has mapped out various walking routes near the hospital and initiated “Just One Thing” in which employees submit notes describing small things they do to improve their health and fitness. Names will be drawn from these submissions for gift certificates such as a free stay at a Duluth hotel.
“I just think there’s a culture of wellness starting at the hospital,” said physical therapist Margo Furcht, “and that’s really good.”
Butter said he thinks sometimes people don’t take care of themselves because they don’t think they are worth taking care of. You are worth it, he told the audience.
Hospital Administrator Kimber Wraalstad said sick employees cost workplaces money and healthy employees are more productive. She would like to see smoking banned from hospital grounds and admires St. Luke’s President John Strange for removing pop from the hospital’s vending machines despite remonstration from the staff.
Maggie Barnard of the Cook County Visitors Bureau said four of the five who work there are now standing at their computers after computer stands that slide up and down were installed. They all feel more alert on the job, she said.
Cook County Public Health Nurse Joni Kristenson said the Active Living Steering Committee’s motto is “more people more active more often.”
Minnesota Department of Health initiatives
Matthew Dyrdahl of the Minnesota Department of Health said that the state is looking at how policies and infrastructure can increase physical activity, which improves health and reduces health care costs.
The state is also promoting “complete streets” that are safe and accessible to all people regardless of age or ability. Some rural roads already function well in this regard, Dyrdahl said, and some municipalities have gone on “road diets,” eliminating some of the vehicle lanes in existing roads and designating them for bike and foot traffic.
Complete streets often incorporate bike lanes, wide shoulders, separate paths, crosswalks, bike racks, sidewalks, and signs pointing out paths and alerting vehicles to bike and foot traffic.
Complete street programs can produce decreases in chronic disease, traffic congestion, and pollution. Changes start with a vision, but public policies are needed to put “teeth” into vision, Dyrdahl said. Changes need to be made as opportunities arise, even if they are incremental.
City planning
Engineer and city planner Charles Marohn of Strong Towns, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping towns achieve financial security, rounded out the day.
In August, Marohn talked about Grand Marais in his blog on the Strong Towns website, www.strongtowns.org. He said the highway through town does not have any features that slow travelers down or beckon them to stop and spend time.
Marohn recommended keeping businesses together in one geographical area and rehabbing old buildings instead of tearing them down. The Strong Towns website declares, “The American approach to growth is causing economic stagnation and decline along with land use practices that force a dependency on public subsidies. The inefficiencies of the current approach have left American towns financially insolvent, unable to pay even the maintenance costs of their basic infrastructure.
“…The current approach to growth emphasizes investments in new infrastructure to serve or induce new development. This approach uses public dollars inefficiently, destructively subsidizes one type of development over another and leaves massive maintenance liabilities to future generations.
“…We can no longer simply disregard old investments in favor of new, but instead we need to focus on making better use of that which we are already committed to publicly maintain.”
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