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).