Miami Beach officials leading efforts to make the city a Blue Zone region where people live longer and healthier, and continue working to secure funding from sponsors, according to Commissioner Tanya Katzoff Bhatt, who spearheads the initiative. Approaching a Blue Zone designation usually involves e ncouraging healthy habits within a community by making healthy food and opportunities to move more available and accessible. Social connections also play a major role. “The Blue Zones initiative is something that I’ve been leading since I was elected two years ago,” Ms. Bhatt said. “We, in Miami Beach, have so many of the underpinnings already that make for a really great Blue Zones community with our built infrastructure, parks and gathering spaces for community and a terrific parks and rec department that does community-building activities for kids and families and seniors. As we see people’s interest changing from kind of party ’til you drop to wellness and community and meaning, it just seemed like a really terrific opportunity to shift Miami Beach from all party all the time to something that can benefit residents wherever they are in life, from those living in $40 million penthouses and those living in four-story walkups and holding down three jobs.” She said she and the Blue Zones leadership team have been meeting with potential partners to underwrite the cost of the project to turn Miami Beach into a certified Blue Zone city, which totals to about $8 million over the course of nearly five years. “Since last … summer and the fall, we have been meeting, and when I say we it’s me and the Blue Zones leadership team … with key partnership and sponsorship prospects,” Ms. Bhatt said. “We’re very deep in conversations with both Mount Sinai and Jackson and we’ve got the Miami Foundation, who has agreed to be our third-party contracting agency or entity because nobody writes a check to the City of Miami Beach. It’s handled by a third party.” She added that they’re “in conversations with a number of individuals who are interested in getting involved in a significant way” and “continuing those conversations.” “I’m hoping we’ll have the financing – the underwriting of the initiative – secured, in place and underway within the next six months,” Ms. Bhatt said. Miami Beach launched a six-month in-depth readiness and feasibility assessment in February 2025 named Blue Zones Ignite. The report states that the Blue Zones team “identified top opportunities unique to Miami Beach that could make a profound impact on improving the well-being of the entire community,” which include enhancing the built environment, addressing housing challenges, improving the food environment and engaging the community. It also cites challenges the city faces such as housing affordability and population decline, limitations to expand parks and open space, zoning and land use constraints, transportation and connectivity, roadway safety, interagency policy alignment, environmental vulnerabilities and risk of falling behind on stormwater and infrastructure investments. “Ultimately, globally we’re seeing people change the way they spend their leisure time and disposable income, so it’s less party ’til you drop” she said. “Mind you, we’re not getting rid of our nightlife. It is a part of our Miami Beach DNA and we embrace it, but there are other ways that people are choosing to spend their time and we’re seeing those statistics globally where people are spending less time in nightclubs and more time trying to do experiences with people that they care about and things that matter to them.” The post Team seeks $8 million to make Miami Beach a Blue Zone appeared first on Miami Today. ...read more read less