Mayor John Hamilton
Mayor
City of Bloomington
Defining health is tough. For one person it’s being physically fit and eating well. For another, it’s simply hoping for a ride to seek treatment and enough money to afford medicine. What are your administration’s top priorities relative to improving the health of Bloomington?
As mayor, I think about health in lots of different dimensions. Public safety is a foundation — we need a community where our physical safety is protected. We’ve made a lot of investments in our police and fire departments: greatly expanded training, important investments in equipment and facilities, more personnel, and measuring ourselves against national standards. It’s good that our overall crime rate is declining and that we see reductions in fires as well. Community-wide health means supporting healthy lifestyles: outstanding parks and recreation facilities (Bloomington’s Parks & Recreation Department just won a national gold medal last year for our efforts — best in class), trails and sidewalks that encourage walking and biking, classes to help quit smoking or get more exercise, and more. Health equity means looking at any disparities existing for our residents and health — based on physical conditions of neighborhoods or infrastructure, or social or demographic factors, or legacies of past discrimination — and working to reduce those disparities. Affordable housing is important to health too — you can’t really be healthy if you don’t have a home. We’ve supported hundreds of permanently affordable homes for people from all walks of life: working families, people with disabilities or substance use disorders, and people experiencing poverty or homelessness. Our whole formal health care system, of course, has a huge impact on the health of Bloomington residents, and, as an elected official, I join forces to try to improve accessibility, affordability, and quality for all of us. I personally like “Medicare for All Who Want It,” as a smart, major step forward, building on important improvements we’ve already seen in the Affordable Care Act.
According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 90% of Monroe County residents have “adequate access to locations for physical activity.” Increased physical activity is associated with lower risks of type 2 diabetes, cancer, stroke, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and more. The City of Bloomington manages over 2,200 acres of parkland and maintains 40 park sites. On November 16, Switchyard Park was dedicated and officially opened. Can you speak to your hopes for how Switchyard Park and the entire award-winning Bloomington parks system contributes to a healthy community? What kind of amenities does the new park offer?
Over two decades in the making, Switchyard Park’s recent opening offers Bloomingtonians a tremendous new opportunity to pursue a healthy lifestyle. The most recent Bloomington Parks & Recreation Department resident survey revealed that residents consider the department’s programs, facilities and services to be the number one contributor to their health and wellness.
To that end, Switchyard Park is designed and built to provide physical activity opportunities across 57 acres for people of all ages and abilities. With the B-Line Trail, which runs along the western edge of the park, multiple trails throughout the park, and connections to the city’s existing trail network and other trails in development (including a link to Wapehani Mountain Bike Park to the southwest), the park will be highly accessible on foot and by bike, giving residents a chance to boost their own health while contributing to the health of our environment. The park’s safe and convenient location supports the City’s pledge to the national 10-Minute Walk campaign, whose goal is to give all residents safe access to a quality park or green space within a 10-minute walk of home. In addition to the ample opportunities for enhanced physical health at the park’s sports courts, playground attractions, community garden beds, and fitness station area, the park will provide easy access to a natural setting, which has been shown to have a positive impact on mental health.
The Parks department’s commitment to Health & Wellness — together with Conservation and Social Equity (the National Parks and Recreation Association’s three guiding pillars) — was recognized with the 2018 National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management.
The City of Bloomington recently partnered with Bloomington Health Foundation to bring a new searchable online database listing thousands of free and reduced programs serving Bloomington and Monroe County called HelpingBloomingtonMonroe.org. Can you speak to this new resource and how it will help eliminate barriers to those seeking access to resources?
Helping Bloomington Monroe (HBM) is an online platform (helpingbloomingtonmonroe.org) that connects people in need with the programs that support them with dignity and ease. The site serves as a search and referral tool for social workers, care coordinators, and others who help people in need, as well as a resource that those in need can use directly. Accessible from the privacy of one’s home, at the public library, or wherever there is an internet connection, the platform connects those in need with service providers 24/7. Information is filtered by zip code and service needed to get the end-user to the needed service in a location convenient to them. Users may visit an organization website, call an organization directly, leave a message, or get directions to visit the location through a simple search process. The online platform also allows registered service providers to update information in real-time, eliminating the frustration of contacting multiple sources to get to the appropriate one.
The City is enthusiastic about this partnership with the Bloomington Health Foundation to offer this innovative tool designed to give more of our residents easy access to the services they need to thrive.
What can we do as citizens to improve health in our community?
Individuals, groups, and businesses are essential to furthering our community’s health goals. The City’s budget prioritizes several investments that specifically support our residents’ health — from creating bike/ped infrastructure to ensure public safety, developing affordable housing, investing in technology that limits environmental pollution, to making grants to support our area’s many social service agencies.
But we know that individual and corporate collaboration and investment is essential to build upon this foundation. Our community is brimming with energetic, principled folks staffing and volunteering at the many agencies that support healthy outcomes and seek to minimize disparities and inequities that have kept some folks from accessing the care and resources they need. These are people and groups that recognize that, like our human body, our community cannot thrive if one part is ailing. I salute these groups and the individuals who run them — from Volunteers in Medicine to Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, to Indiana Recovery Alliance, to CASA, to Middle Way House, to Wheeler Mission and the Shalom Community Center, just to name a few.
I would encourage my Bloomington neighbors to think about the big or small ways you might make our community just a little bit brighter and healthier for just a few more folks — whether giving to the United Way and its dozens of member agencies, to performing small-scale but meaningful acts, like helping to restore native species in your neighborhood park. You’ll be supporting our natural environment, encouraging healthy, outdoor recreation, and promoting emotionally nurturing social bonds–not only for your health, but across the community, and into the future!
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John Hamilton was elected the 26th mayor of Bloomington on November 3, 2015, and took office on January 1, 2016 for a four-year term. He is focused on improving the economy – helping it become more equitable, so Bloomington works for people from all walks of life; more sustainable, so we are building a better future with today’s efforts; and more productive, so we can help build value for all to share. John also is committed to increasing affordable housing in town, so the appeal and attractiveness of our community is available to a wide diversity of people throughout the city.
A Bloomington native, John grew up the son of a Methodist minister and a professional musician. He graduated from Harvard College and Indiana University Maurer School of Law, then had a distinguished career primarily in the public and nonprofit sectors, focused on increasing economic justice and opportunity, social and health services, civil rights, and environmental stewardship.
John founded City First Bank of D.C. (City First), a certified Community Development Financial Institution dedicated to strengthening low-to-moderate-income communities. Since 2003, City First has sparked over $1 billion in investments and has become a nationally regarded community development finance organization supporting innovation and economic opportunity.
John led two Indiana agencies, advised Governor Frank O’Bannon, and served as an elected official. As the Secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, he oversaw Indiana’s social safety net and a staff of 10,000 with an annual budget of $6 billion. He also protected our air, water and land as Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and served as an elected member of the Board of Trustees for the Monroe County Community School Corporation.
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