The city we could be

Dave Beal: Vision for DMC must go beyond buildings and jobs

Post-Bulletin | Posted: Saturday, October 12, 2013 8:49 am | http://bit.ly/GUhOHj

At its recent meeting, the Destination Medical Center Corporation governing board reviewed a slide deck containing the current plan for planning the plan for a destination medical center in Rochester. In the plan’s "Statement of Public Purpose", the first DMC goal is: “Create a comprehensive strategic plan with a compelling vision that harnesses the energy and creativity of the entire community.”

There was much discussion among the board members about this compelling vision. It is no small task to craft a vision sufficiently compelling to harness "the energy and creativity of the entire community". One suspects it will require more than streetscapes and Gantt charts. More even than the promise of jobs.

The promise of jobs by itself falls short of "compelling” not because jobs are not important or necessary. On the contrary, it is because jobs are necessary that they are not sufficiently compelling to ignite of aspirations of an entire community. A job is so important an expectation, so necessary, that it rests at the base of our needs like food and shelter. As such, jobs alone do not offer a community the sort of far horizon that calls us toward it with a long desire and a high heart.

Instead, in addition to the promise of jobs, we require a vision for Rochester that encompasses the connections between social and economic progress. A path for development that understands that markets are defined by human needs other than, and in addition to, economic ones.

The economic case for the DMC and city/county planning now being planned is pretty clear and well-rehearsed. But more is required. We require a vision that will raise our eyes from the work in front of us toward a full and better life that inspires all of us to see the "shining city on the hill" that has captured the American imagination for nearly 400 years.

At the DMCC meeting, board member Bill George suggested that health and wellness might serve as the basis for this compelling vision. He is not alone in thinking so. Health and wellness do hold the kernel of a vision fitting for a city that is the home of Mayo Clinic and intends to become a world destination for medicine. Others are concluding that aspiring to be "the healthiest city in the world" provides the vision that can join the economic potential of DMC, and the prosperity it forecasts, with the social promise of a full and better life for all of us who reside here. This vision of a better life in the world’s healthiest city possesses the breadth of purpose, scope, and scale that can enlist the entire community in its pursuit.

According to Healthy People 2020, “Health starts in our homes, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and communities.” Health requires that we take care of ourselves, eat right, keep active, avoid bad habits like smoking, and get regular check-ups. But: “Our health is also determined in part by access to social and economic opportunities; the resources and supports available in our homes, neighborhoods, and communities; the quality of our schooling; the safety of our workplaces; the cleanliness of our water, food, and air; and the nature of our social interactions and relationships”

A recent report from the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation observes, “An individual’s health is affected by much more than medical care.” Social interaction, education, safety, shelter, food, transportation, and financial stability all play determinative roles. In other words, becoming the world’s healthiest city requires more than building a world center of health care. It requires a community that places health at its center and cares about it like no other city in the world.

Consider this vision: the world's destination medical center residing in the world's healthiest city. It conceives an achievement well within the reach of this city poised as we are for an even greater abundance of talent, resources, assets, and a habit of concerted effort. It anticipates a future few other cities could dare even to contemplate. It calls to all sectors of our economy and public life. It requires attention to all our communities and neighborhoods for all will be required. This vision brings to the next two decades of development a shared horizon toward which all of us can journey for it requires all of us to get there.

This vision is a compelling one of Rochester as a destination worthy of all our destinies. Common destinies that embrace all who live or will come to live here, harnessing our energy and creativity to build and sustain a better life in a city committed to becoming the healthiest in the world.

We are not that city yet, but we could be.

Coordinates of a common destination

"...by virtue of free and sincere promises." - Hannah Arendt

In America I encountered sorts of associations of which, I confess, I had no idea, and I often admired the infinite art with which the inhabitants of the United States managed to fix a common goal to the efforts of many men and to get them to advance to it freely.

- Alexis de Tocqueville, "On the Use That the Americans

Make of Association in Civil Life," Democracy in America

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Previously on Viva City:

Instead, in addition to the promise of jobs, we require a vision for Rochester that encompasses the connections between social and economic progress. A path for development that understands that markets are defined by human needs other than, and in addition to, economic ones.

Consider this vision: the world's destination medical center residing in the world's healthiest city. It conceives an achievement well within the reach of this city.....

 

This vision: a rationale in brief

• The "vision" will be "compelling" to the entire community to the extent it is broad and inclusive.
• For "health and wellness" as a vision to be broad and inclusive it will require a view aligned with social determinants of health, health equity, etc.
• A vision compelling to the community would best arise from that community with priorities already reflective of its concerns.
• Though this vision is seen as integral to the DMCC strategic planning, the DMCC should position itself not as its source or author, but as one among other community partners committed to its actualization.
• There are already state and local assets in place and in process that align with this vision and a nascent, loose collaboration that can expand and coalesce around it.

 

How might we begin? A compact.

We should compose a compact among willing partners that takes the form of a memorandum of understanding committing signatories to a short set of broad goals and participation in a collaborative process. An open invitation for signatories that includes state and local partners, private, public, and non-profit groups. Among the early signatories it is hoped would be DMCC.

 

On this basis would a "compelling vision" be brought into view and focus; and, in this way would the energy and creativity of the entire community be harnessed.

 

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In democratic countries the science of association is the mother science; the progress of all the others depends on the progress of that one.

Among the laws that rule human societies there is one that seems more precise and clearer than all the others. In order that men remain civilized or become so, the art of associating must be developed and perfected among them in the same ratio as equality of conditions increases.

- Tocqueville, ibid 

 

 

50 ideas for the new city: #6 | "The healthiest city in the world"

"In some ways, it's almost like building a new city."

"The healthiest city in the world"

At its third and most recent meeting, the DMCC governing board spent some time discussing the importance of a "compelling vision that harnesses the energy and creativity of the entire community" in pursuit of the destination medical center they would make of Rochester, MN. (They are not alone in thinking so, nor are they the first e.g., Viva City, April 30, 2013 http://bit.ly/GzMlJS). Board member Bill George offered that "health and wellness" might serve as the basis for this "compelling vision." Surely a vision apropos of a city that has long been the home of Mayo Clinic and a city that now intends to be one of the world's destinations for medicine.

Mr. George is not alone in thinking "health and wellness" hold the kernel of a "compelling vision". Others have and are concluding that harnessing "the energy and creativity of the entire community" will require a "a vision for Rochester that encompasses the connections between societal and economic progress. A plan that enhances social as well as economic value. A path of development that understands that markets are defined by societal as well as economic needs."

Aspiring to be "the healthiest city in the world" might provide the vision that encompasses the economic potential of DMC, the prosperity it forecasts, as well as the social promise of a better life for all who reside here. This vision of a better life is one to which all sectors of our community can be called to contribute and that all, in their entirety, would likely find sufficiently compelling to embrace - more on this later. For now consider:

The world's destination medical center residing in the world's healthiest city.

Not only is this vision  - this aspiration  -  a substantial good in and of itself, it is well within our reach to achieve. It is also an achievement few other cities would dare to contemplate (and among those that might would one not include either Cleveland or Baltimore).