TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND
CITY COUNCIL
FROM: Angel Rios Jr.
SUBJECT: Blue Zones Assessment,
Readiness, and Feasibility
Report
DATE: September 30, 2024
Approved
Date:
10/7/24
COUNCIL DISTRICT: Citywide
RECOMMENDATION
Accept the Blue Zones Assessment, Readiness, and Feasibility Report.
SUMMARY AND OUTCOME
The purpose of this item is for the City Council to review, discuss, and accept the Blue Zones Assessment, Readiness, and Feasibility Report.
BACKGROUND
As recommended through a City Council Budget Document from Councilmember Dev Davis and as directed through the City Council’s approval of the Mayor’s June Budget Message for Fiscal Year 2023-2024, the City Council allocated $150,000 to study the implementation of a Blue Zones project in San José. Blue Zones is an organization aimed at improving the health, longevity, and quality of life of a community through engaging communities to strengthen social connections, supporting places such as worksites and schools to make healthier options accessible, and enacting policies that optimize the use of city streets, public spaces, and community involvement. Over the past year, the funds budgeted by the City, combined with funding from the County of Santa Clara, The Health Trust, Santa Clara Family Health Plan, and Adobe have been used to support development of the Blue Zones Assessment, Readiness, and Feasibility Report (“Report,” hereafter) by the Blue Zones organization. The draft Report is attached to this memorandum.
The purpose of the Report is to share the current state of health and wellbeing among San José residents as well as the environmental and social factors that shape COUNCIL AGENDA: 10/22/24
FILE: 24-2101
ITEM: 7.1
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 30, 2024
Subject: Blue Zones Assessment, Readiness, and Feasibility Report
wellbeing. The report also identifies opportunities for initiatives that can make improvements to health and wellbeing in San José. Taken together, the information presented in the Report is intended to help gauge the interest of the City and other partners in participating in a Blue Zone project in San José.
The Report has already been reviewed and discussed at a joint meeting of the City’s Neighborhood Services and Education Committee and the County of Santa Clara’s Children, Seniors and Families Committee on September 16, 2024. At that meeting, the Neighborhood Services and Education Committee referred the Report to the October 22, 2024, City Council meeting for consideration. In addition, the County of Santa Clara’s Children, Seniors and Families Committee referred the Report to the October 22, 2024, Board of Supervisors meeting for consideration.
ANALYSIS
Report Summary
The Report begins with an assessment of health and wellbeing in San José using Gallup survey data. It breaks down measures of wellbeing by gender, income, race, age, and geography and maps life expectancy across San José zip codes. It also analyzes factors that contribute to wellbeing in San José, concluding that workplace character, public safety, community character, health behaviors (such as smoking), and health status (such as an existing health condition) all help to determine wellbeing.
Among these factors, the Report concludes that health status has the greatest effect on wellbeing.
The Report then proceeds to identify potential strategies to improve health and wellbeing in San José. These strategies are broken down across the following categories listed below.
• Policy: The Report details strategies that local government can employ to improve health and wellbeing, including strategies to improve traffic safety; encourage walking, biking, and transit use; provide housing and improve the built environment; improve access to healthy food; and reduce tobacco and alcohol use.
• Places: The Report details strategies that Blue Zones uses to work with schools, employers, restaurants, and grocery stores to promote health and wellbeing. • People: Finally, the Report outlines strategies that Blue Zones uses to engage community members and community and faith-based organizations to help inform future work and provide tools and resources that promote healthy choices.
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 30, 2024
Subject: Blue Zones Assessment, Readiness, and Feasibility Report
The strategies identified in the Report are not intended to be a final work plan for Blue Zones or for the City. Instead, they’re intended as an inventory of potential strategies that could be employed as part of a future Blue Zones project.
Blue Zones Project
As mentioned above, the Report is intended to help the San José community gauge interest in collaborating with Blue Zones on a project in San Jose. The Blue Zones model for local projects involves Blue Zones hiring local staff who are based in the subject jurisdiction. These staff are employees of Blue Zones and report up through the Blue Zones organization. These local staff are funded by money raised from philanthropies, corporations, and government agencies. They work in collaboration with community organizations, local government, and other community stakeholders to advance strategies to improve local health and wellbeing, such as those described in the Report. Their work is coordinated with a local steering committee, which includes representatives of their community partners.
In San José’s case, the Blue Zones model aligns with the City’s existing effort to implement the Children and Youth Services Master Plan. As part of these implementation efforts, the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department is leading two pilot projects, one in the Poco Way and Mayfair communities and the other in the Seven Trees and Santee communities, which aim to coordinate across agencies and community organizations to improve the wellbeing of children and youth.
When staff brought forward the Children and Youth Services Master Plan to the City Council for adoption earlier this year, the staff report noted that Blue Zones was a potential partner in future implementation efforts.
1 To that end, Blue Zones has proposed an implementation strategy in San José that would focus the Blue Zones project on the two Children and Youth Services Master Plan pilot areas, corresponding to zip codes 95116, 95122, and 95111. To pursue a project in these areas, Blue Zones anticipates the need to hire nine staff members.
These staff members would be based in an office located in one of the above zip codes.
Over a five-year period, they would work in coordination with community members, community organizations, local businesses, and local government agencies to advance initiatives as identified in the Report. Blue Zones would also engage a local fiscal/contracting entity for the duration of the project to accept the funds raised to support the project, contract with Blue Zones for the implementation of the project, and pay Blue Zones for the work it performs.
The City would not assume direct management of the project (the nine staff mentioned above would be employed by Blue Zones, not by the City), but like other community
1 The staff memorandum for the Children and Youth Services Master Plan can be found here:
https://sanjose.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6478224&GUID=19F180D8- 7683-4D86-AF48- BC0EFB2CB333&Options=ID|Text|&Search=children+and+youth
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 30, 2024
Subject: Blue Zones Assessment, Readiness, and Feasibility Report
partners, the City’s collaborative participation would be important to the success of the project. Below list potential collaborative opportunities.
• Participation in the steering committee: As part of the development of the Report, Blue Zones established a steering committee comprised of community organizations and local agencies, including the City, to provide input and strategic guidance. If a Blue Zones project proceeds, the City could continue to participate in the steering committee as part of its efforts to implement the Children and Youth Services Master Plan pilot projects.
• Financial contribution: Blue Zones would raise money from philanthropies, corporations, and public agencies to support implementation of selected strategies and the nine staff members who would be based in San Jose. The City would have the opportunity to contribute funding for this purpose but would not be required to do so.
• Policy Efforts: The Report identifies a number of potential policy efforts that are within the City’s jurisdiction. If the Blue Zones project proceeds, Blue Zones would hope to collaborate with the City on policy projects aimed at improving health and wellbeing, especially where the City’s efforts in these areas align with Blue Zones aims.
Blue Zones has requested that the City in partnership with the community and other supporting agencies and organizations on the steering committee to make a decision on whether to pursue a project in San José by January 2025.
EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
The following bullets identify potential next steps for the three opportunities for collaboration identified above.
• The City’s continued participation in the Blue Zones steering committee is within the existing scope of work within the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department to implement the Children and Youth Services Master Plan pilot projects and can be accomplished as part of that effort. • A financial contribution to the Blue Zones project would need to be considered through the budget process, in the context of the City’s overall fiscal condition and other budget priorities.
• Collaboration on policy efforts could be pursued either through existing policy projects that are already on a departmental work plan and that align with the goals of the Blue Zones project or through City Council direction and resource allocation (if needed) to pursue new policy projects in collaboration with Blue Zones.
HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
September 30, 2024
Subject: Blue Zones Assessment, Readiness, and Feasibility Report
COORDINATION
This memorandum has been coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office, the City Manager’s Budget Office, and the Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services.
PUBLIC OUTREACH
This memorandum will be posted on the City Council Agenda website for the October 22, 2024 City Council meeting.
COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION AND INPUT
No commission recommendation or input is associated with this action.
CEQA
Not a Project, File No. PP17-009, Staff Reports, Assessments, Annual Reports, and Informational Memos that involve no approvals of any City action.
PUBLIC SUBSIDY REPORTING
This item does not include a public subsidy as defined in section 53083 or 53083.1 of the California Government Code or the City’s Open Government Resolution.
ANGEL RIOS JR.
Deputy City Manager
For questions, please contact Peter Hamilton, Assistant to the City Manager, Office of Administration, Policy and Intergovernmental Relations, at [email protected] or (408) 535-7998.
ATTACHMENT
Blue Zones Assessment, Readiness, and Feasibility Report