Discussion centered around a more livable and friendly community

PALMER — The Palmer Train Depot was packed Jan. 17, mostly with people who walked there. Gil Penalosa, founder of 8 80 cities who was brought to Alaska by AARP gave a lecture on things that can be done without expenses to help make communities more livable and friendly to walking and biking. Penalosa started 8 80 Cities and has worked in 350 cities worldwide trying to create more friendly environments for 8-year-old and 80-year-old citizens.

“It’s about having priorities and people first,” Penalosa said.

Penalosa said that problems that plague cities do not discriminate if there are 2,000 or A half-million people. Residents below the age of 16 cannot drive and must walk or bike if they are to be independently mobile, and senior citizens suffer the same difficulty. Penalosa said that more than twice the number of senior citizens die in fatalities from being hit by cars. Penalosa described these not as accidents, which are not preventable, but incidents, because they are preventable. Penalosa said that the amount of youths in the next 25 years will grow by nine percent, but the number of seniors will grow by 60 percent, and the population of the Mat-Su Valley he predicted to double.

“I think the community is really ripe for the conversation,” AARP State President Terry Snyder said.

Snyder saw Penalosa speak at a conference two years ago and was excited about having him speak in Palmer. Before speaking at the depot, he met with Mayor Ethan Berkowitz in Anchorage and also sat with stakeholders in Anchorage to discuss parks, the school district, and how they can move things forward.

“I think we’re having some serious discussions about land use here and the lack of planning for people as we fill in only place in the state that’s growing,” Snyder said.

Penalosa stressed the availability of sustainable mobility for those who walk or bike, and how the economic impact of being able to have a sustainably mobile community can have a positive impact on citizens, especially two-car families. Penalosa went over his eight messages on how to fix problems of mobility. Penalosa described mobility not as a frivolity, but as a way of life for many people.

“How do we want to live. What is the Mat-Su that you want to become,” Penalosa said.

Penalosa warned against the C.A.V.E. people or Citizens Against Virtually Everything. Penalosa told stories of opening up streets for people and closing them for cars to get more people out and socializing. Penalosa discussed how parks can be made more friendly for socializing and that obesity and depression cause many health issues that plague U.S. citizens at an increasing rate.

“It’s not just about recreation it’s about changing minds. The streets are a public space, they belong to everyone and they have different uses,” Penalosa said.

Penalosa stressed the crowd of over 100 that gathered for two hours to hear him speak about how walking, cycling, parks and streets are not the means but the ends to a solution for healthier cities.

I’m not saying that this is the end of the car in the street but the way we use cars in the U.S. is changing very very fast,” Penalosa said.

Penalosa described the quality of the infrastructure as the respect government has for its people.

“All the data shows that people want to drive cars less and walk more, and recreate more. So it’s about trying to roll out some of those tools,” Snyder said.

Snyder says that the livable communities model in changing cities planning to be more age friendly is beneficial because no one age friendly community looks like another. Even if Palmer were to become the state’s first city to earn the Age Friendly badge, it would not change the unique character of the ity.

“People are driving less. It’s all public space and we need to be really looking hard at who we’re servicing with those streets, are we planning our borough for people or for cars,” Snyder said.

A panel of eight members of the community including the borough mayor, representatives from the medical community, real estate, and the school district were all given five things that they would improve if they were given a magic wand and money or politics were not an issue.

Amy Spargo, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction at the Mat-Su Borough School District, listed increase in childhood education as her number one thing she would do with a magic wand.

Jill Valerius, a doctor, also had education as her top priority.

“We need to help people understand how they can live their best lives,” Valerius said.

Snyder was pleased to see that education played such a strong role in the answers to the magic wand question that the panelists gave. The questions were asked of the panelist prior to the meeting, and the first three panelists all listed education as their top priority.

“A good education was really key for that, which I think is really telling on a community that sometimes struggles to support education,” Snyder said.

Snyder said that opposing viewpoints are necessary if the community is to make any progress toward safer access to walkways and bike paths and more available public transit.

“We’re all going to disagree of how we make a good community great. At least this gives us some structure of that vision,” Snyder said. “We may disagree fundamentally on a lot of different things but what’s great about this is we can find consensus in things that we really care about in our community.”

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.