Walkable

Town on the Prairie

Albert Lea, Minnesota shows that healthy lifestyles are not just a big-city
thing

By Jay Walljasper

A Latino family strolls leisurely through the park, immersed in conversation. Coming up
fast behind is a blonde woman in designer exercise gear and earplugs, intent on
maintaining her power-walking pace. Bringing up the rear is a young man with his Husky,
both of them staring up at a patch of sun that has appeared from behind the clouds.

In real life, this is Albert Lea, Minnesota, a town of 18,000 working to prove that healthy
lifestyles like walking and good nutrition are not just big city things. Were not a resort
town or a college town, were an ag-based rural city promoting healthy living because its
the right thing to do and its how we want to live and want our children to live, explains
Ellen Kehr, a former city council member who is a leader in the effort to make Albert Lea
healthier.

Its mistakenly assumed that no one in smaller communities walks, except between their
pick-up truck and the Walmart entrance. Actually, walking is far more common in smaller
communities across the country than people think. In towns of 10,000-50,000, 8.5 percent
of all trips are made on foot, second only to urban core communities, according to the US
Department of Transportations National Household Travel Survey. In smaller towns 2500
to 10,000, walking accounts for 7.2 percent of trips--higher than in most suburban
communities.

Albert Lea in many ways resembles Garrison Keillors Lake Wobegon. Its a place where
the women are strongand all the children are above average. That fits with goals local
citizens embraced in 2009 when they adopted a community-wide approach to wellness laid
out in Blues Zones, a best-selling book by National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner, which
examines places around the world where people live longest and healthiest.

What theyve accomplished over the past five years offers both lessons and inspiration for
smaller towns and cities across the US. The idea is to make the healthy choice the easy
choice, says Buettner, whose new book The Blue Zones Solution chronicles the progress in
Albert Lea together with other community success stories around the world.

Around one-quarter of adults in Albert Lea participated in the Blue Zones project, along
with half of local workplaces and nearly all kids in grades 3-8. Encouraging everyone to

engage in more physical activity was a chief thrust of the campaign, which was funded in
part by AARP.

It appears to have worked. Even on a gray, chilly weekday afternoon, the new 5-mile trail
around Fountain Lake draws more walkers and bikers than youd expect in a town set
among soybean fields of southern Minnesota. The downtown, which borders the park, is
filled with people on foot heading between the courthouse, the bank, the library, the
furniture store, the kitchen store, clothing stores, churches, schools, restaurants, the coffee
shop and-- in a perfect Prairie Home Companion touch--the Sportmans Tavern, which
advertises cabbage roll hotdish as the daily special.

Walking has increased 70 percent in the last five years, according to pedestrian counts
conducted by the National Vitality Center, a local initiative that continued the community
health campaign after the initial ten-month Blue Zones pilot program ended. This was not
achieved over the past two decades, but in the last five years, notes Ellen Kehr,
Organization Lead for the Blue Zones Project-Albert Lea, which recently launched a new
project in town .

Smoking has also dropped four percent, and Blue Zones participants collectively lost
almost four tons of weight, notes Buettner. Two-thirds of locally operated restaurants and
one large supermarket now offer new options for healthy eating. Residents formed about
thirty groups to walk or bike together regularly, nearly half of which are still going strong
five years later.

This has become a piece of who we are as a community, an opportunity to become an even
better community, declares Mayor Vern Rasmussen Jr.

City Council member Al Brooks, who now walks 2 miles every day, credits the campaign
with big improvements in his own health. When I started four years ago, I had high
cholesterol and high blood pressure. Now my cholesterol is lower, my blood pressure is
116/70 and I lost 15 pounds.

After being launched in Albert Lea, the Blue Zones idea has now been taken to Fort Worth,
Texas; Naples, Florida; Southern California; and across the states of Iowa and Hawaii.

Los Angeles is going to be the next Albert Lea, Buettner told a cheering crowd at the local
high school at the kick-off of a new Blue Zones campaign, launched in partnership with
Healthways, a Tennessee-based company focusing on well-being improvement solutions.

Albert Leas impressive health gains are paying off in many ways. Good Morning America
broadcast live from the shores of Fountain Lake to tell the country what was happening
here-- part of a wave of media attention which is valuable to the towns future prospects,
says City Manager Chad Adams.

And the citys health insurance premiums will not increase in 2015, instead of the double
digit increases of the past few years, Adams adds--a windfall for taxpayers, which he

attributes to the communitys awareness of wellness, physical activity and the health
benefits of strong social connections.

The ambitious project to make downtown more walkable figures prominently in Albert
Leas economic strategies. People who were skeptical are starting to see the fruit now that
its done says Adams. Owners are investing in improving their buildings, and were
talking to major prospects about moving downtown in the next year.

Adams stresses that a lively, walkable community is key to attracting businesses as well as
the families and young people that Albert Lea needs to thrive in decades to come. Its
paramount that we grow our population and our tax base.

Briana Czer, a young bank manager who moved here a year ago, thinks this strategy is
working. I like how walkable Albert Lea is. When people walk more, they socialize more.
That helps connect everyone and makes me feel more part of the community, she says.

Albert Leas embrace of healthy living convinced Adams himself to move his young family
here from an affluent Minneapolis suburb four years ago, choosing the city manager post
here over several other job opportunities. My kids love it here. There is so much to do--
riding bikes, walking on the trails, recreational opportunities in the parks and on the lakes,
hanging out in the historic downtown. I was also impressed by the community-wide
collaborative effort on the Blue Zones initiative to make positive change for the well-being
on the community.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So how exactly did Albert Lea get more people back on their feet walking, especially in a
rural region where driving is deeply embedded in the fabric of everyday life?

It was a combination of: 1) creating a public education campaign about the health
advantages of physical activity; 2) organizing people into informal social groups to walk
regularly; and 3) making the citys streets and parks more safe and appealing for
pedestrians. Here are some of the accomplishments:

-A community-wide focus on physical activity--enlisting civic organizations,
businesses, schools, public agencies, the media and citizens--offered continual
reinforcement for people to get out and walk. It has reconnected our community in
a way that I never thought possible, notes Randy Kehr, executive director of the
Chamber of Commerce (and husband of Ellen Kehr). Sociability is as important to
health as exercise and eating.

-Walking groups, which serve as an incentive to get off the sofa, even when you feel
lazy or its freezing outside. This makes physical activity a social occasion to look
forward to. In Albert Lea, walking groups are generally 4-10 people committed to
walking together 3-7 times a week. Dennis Dieser, executive director of the local
YMCA, notes theres a group that gets together evenings to walk the grounds at a

local school. Ten times around the building is a mile, he says, and you see more
and more people joining.

-Downtown was made more walkable by widening sidewalks, eliminating
unnecessary traffic lanes, restoring diagonal parking, replacing some stoplights with
stop signs, and bumping out sidewalks into the intersection, which shortens the
crossing distance on busy streets. Almost immediately the 112 Broadway
restaurant sprouted a sidewalk caf. It makes downtown feel more like a
downtown, says Public Works Director Steve Jahnke. All the improvements around
town makes us feel more like a community-- a sense of pride, more opportunities to
talk to people, to do things.

-Sidewalks were added to six-and-a-half miles of city streets in strategic locations
near schools, senior centers and businesses.

-A bikeway along Front Street now connects a state park to downtown and a
commercial street on the citys west side. Bicycling has risen 74 percent on the
street, according to the National Vitality Projects count. Eventually, the bike lane
will connect two state trails, enabling people to bike or walk 65 miles unhindered by
vehicle traffic.

-A number of neighborhoods created walking school buses so kids and parents
could get exercise on the way to school. Its works just like a school bus, except
without the bus. A parent picks up kids at their homes and takes them safely to
school on foot.

-A 5-mile walking continuous path was built around Fountain Lake, and the parks
boathouse was transformed into a full-fledged recreation center where kayaks,
canoes, paddleboards, x-country skis and snowshoes can be rented.

-A new Complete Streets ordinance requires that all road users be considered in
transportation planning decisions, not just cars and trucks. This means any new
subdivisions must be built with sidewalks, and reconstruction projects must take in
account the pedestrians needs.

-Some companies have charted 15-minute and 30-minute walks in and around their
workplaces, so employees can make the most of breaks and lunchtime.

--The city is considering converting another downtown section of South Broadway
from four to three lanes to make it safer.

--A major walkable mixed-use development on the site of a former meatpacking
plant close to downtown is also being planned to steer more development to the
heart of the city.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Small towns can reinvent themselves as places faster than big towns, explained Dan
Burden--one of Americas foremost authorities on walkable communities--to a roomful of
city, county and state officials at Albert Leas City Hall working on further improvements
for the town.

Former Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the State of Florida, Burden is the Johnny
Appleseed of urban vitality, who has brought ideas for walkability and livability to over
3500 North American communities in the past 18 years. He helped Albert Lea citizens map
out their original healthy cities strategies in 2009 as part of the Blue Zones team, and has
now returned for the new phase of work as the organizations Director of Innovation.

When I first came into Albert Lea, Ill be honest, it looked like the downtown was closed,
he admitted to the local officials. There were businesses but there was no life in the
streets. Thats changed now. Albert Lea, I am proud of you.

Quality of life and streetlife are important elements for attracting and holding onto the
business leaders and employees the town needs to succeed, Burden said, especially young
people, who are much less attached to owning cars than previous generations. Burden
asked, What would Millennials rather give up--their cars or their cell phones The
audience shouted out cars before he could finish his sentence.

But young people arent the only ones who feel there is more to life than driving.
All of us are in our cars more than we like, thats universal, Burden said. We all want to
have other options, biking, walking, living closer to the places we want to be.

Plus, he added, the silver tsunami--vast numbers of aging baby boomers--is coming!

He said that men outlive their ability to drive by seven years on average, and women by 10.
But more transportation choices is not the only stake older people have in creating more
walkable communities, Burden added. We also want to have our grandchildren nearby,
which means we need to make sure our towns are appealing to younger people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Albert Lea is part of the wave of smaller communities around the country showing that
walking is not just a big city pastime:

-Batesville, Arkansas (pop. 10,500): Even smaller than Albert Lea, Batesville has
revived its downtown by slowing traffic speeds, narrowing streets, restoring
diagonal parking, bumping out sidewalks into intersections and building
recreational trails along the White River.

-Hamburg, New York (pop, 57,000): This upstate city is a national leader in
building roundabouts, which reduce crashes and tame busy streets so that
pedestrians and bicyclists feel safe crossing.


-Murray, Kentucky (pop. 18,000): The streets here were so dangerous that
children were prohibited from walking or biking to school. Local officials stepped in
to build three miles of sidewalks around schools and in low-income neighborhoods.

-Hendersonville, North Carolina (pop. 13,000): A busy road bisecting downtown
was narrowed to two lanes with wider sidewalks and traffic calming features. The
results: an increase in people walking and a plunge in retail vacancies to almost
zero.

-Iowa: Mason City (pop. 28,000), Algona (pop. 5500), Harlan (pop. 5000),
Woodbine (pop. 1500), Oskaloosa (pop. 11,500), Fairfield (pop. 9500), Spencer
(pop. 17,000), Spirit Lake (pop. 5000) and Muscatine (23,000). The next step for
the Blue Zones project after Albert Lea--which sits smack on the Iowa border--has
been communities across Iowa transforming themselves into healthier places to live
and work.

Jay Walljasper writes, speaks, edits and consults about creating stronger, more vital
communities. He is author of The Great Neighborhood Book and All That We Share: A Field
Guide to the Commons. His website: JayWalljasper.com