Miami Beach is preparing to embark on a journey to improve the community’s wellbeing and become a Blue Zones city as it is set to launch Blue Zones Ignite, an in-depth readiness and feasibility assessment, this February. The Blue Zones Project website says it seeks “to improve the overall well-being of an entire community’s residents. Well-being is a measure of a person’s overall physical, social, and emotional health. Higher well-being leads to lower healthcare costs, higher productivity and increased economic vitality, and offers benefits for everybody.” Following founder Dan Buettner’s expedition to Okinawa, Japan, in 2000 in which he investigated longevity, says the Blue Zones website, he continued to visit regions with reportedly high longevity, supported by National Geographic and a team of scientists and demographers who “traveled the world in search of communities where people not only lived longer but also enjoyed a high quality of life in their old age.” According to a Miami Beach press release that Commissioner Tanya Bhatt shared, from Feb. 5-7 the city “is launching a 6-month Blue Zones Ignite, which is an in-depth readiness and feasibility assessment.” “Ignite is the assessment process to become a Blue Zone-certified city,” said Ms. Bhatt, “and that means that we take what we already have in Miami Beach, which is so perfectly tuned to this. We have so many outdoor activities and the beach and playgrounds and park resources and open spaces and a very active healthy lifestyle in many ways, and really explore ways to build on that foundation. It’s not just about a healthy lifestyle in terms of physical activity, but in terms of eating well and connection to community and fellowship with neighbors and feeling the sense of purpose, and all these things.” The project is making sure people feel connected to one another, feel like they can “find a sense of purpose and are able to take advantage of the resources that we have here, and schools think a bit differently about the way they do things, and restaurants offer healthier options,” said Ms. Bhatt. “It falls into this branding repositioning that we’ve been talking about for the last couple of years.” It’s not as if the city will not be a place where you can “party ’til you drop,” said Ms. Bhatt, however there are going to be, and currently are, other things people can do. “One of those things is something that we’re really focusing on: health and wellness, in terms of attracting competitions and events that play into that, but also Blue Zones concept is something that is not just for tourists to enjoy, but residents to enjoy, and people may choose to start a business here, as opposed to say Fort Lauderdale, where they don’t have a Blue Zones designation,” she said. “It’s kind of a comprehensive collaboration with residents and employers and governments and schools so that everyone has better, healthier, longer life outcomes.” A public keynote event, open to the community, will take place Feb. 5 at the New World Center’s Truist Pavilion at 500 17th St. The Blue Zones’ website states Mr. Buettner “will present the research on the longest-lived and healthiest places in the world as well as the common lifestyle and cultural traits of those regions” at the community event. The kickoff meeting will be open to residents, said Ms. Bhatt, “where they learn about what the Blue Zones programming or concept is and why it might make a difference in Miami Beach, and there will be staff from the Blue Zones, folks in town for the better part of that week.” Ms. Bhatt shared via email that the Blue Zones team will present its final report of the six-month assessment and present its proposal for Miami Beach in April. Additionally, it is hoped to have “a final decision on go/no go by May … but that’s approximate timing.” Despite the project being brought to Miami Beach now, Ms. Bhatt’s passion and interest in the project was ignited years ago. “Roughly 20 years ago,” she said, “Blue Zones became a thing that was written about extensively and it was pretty interesting, and so I’ve known about it since it was first written about in National Geographic and then picked up in other press. Last year, Netflix did a documentary on Blue Zones, and it reignited my interest in it…. I knew about it from the point of view that there were cities around the world that were naturally occurring Blue Zone cities. What I didn’t know, and I learned from the documentary, was that there were cities who chose to become a Blue Zone city and actively took steps to do that.” Ms. Bhatt said she decided that if she were elected, she would want to bring the initiative to the city as it “would be a great fit for Miami Beach.” A few weeks after being elected, she was at a home for an event where someone had come up to her and introduced himself, “and said, ‘Hi, my name is Sid [Stolz, Blue Zone’s executive vice president and chief brands officer], and I work for Blue Zones, and I want to talk to you.’” Both Ms. Bhatt and Mr. Stolz wanted to bring Blue Zones to Miami Beach. “It was just perfect,” she said, “and then … it had to go through the legislative process, and my colleagues had to vote ‘yes’ that we would spend the money to do the Ignite assessment process, and that we would go through the steps, and then … from there, it takes off a life of its own. We’ve been working on it for four months or so now, getting everything ready to go. February will be when we have our big event and then the Blue Zones folks will come back and give us their assessment, and we’ll go from there.” Ms. Bhatt said she is excited as she believes the project shows “Miami Beach is maturing as a city; it’s diversifying as a city. It’s not just about a place to party, there’s arts and culture and health and wellness.” Related Posts:Miami Beach planning school speed detectorsBeach stuck with high chewing gum cleanup billRoad speed detection systems for 206 schools roar aheadMetroConnect sets record, use soars within weeksDavid Wagner: Leads Florida Blue fight against…The post Miami Beach set to take big step to join Blue Zones appeared first on Miami Today.