It's about making Lansing the best place it can be

About 70 Lansing area community leaders participated in a kick-off breakfast to mark the capital city joining the AARP Age-Friendly Communities Network on March 16.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, AARP Michigan State Director Paula Cunningham and others spoke to the group about what it means to become an age-friendly city.

"What is an age-friendly community? It's an inclusive, accessible environment that promotes active aging," said Karen Kafantaris, AARP Michigan Associate State Director for Community Outreach.

Bernero commented that it means a new mind set for the city.

"Every time we put a road down, we have to think about walking and biking," he said. "I'm committed to this."

Bernero added that the city has some work to do.

"Some of our environments don't let us be active where we are," he said, noting that many neighborhoods have sidewalks in disrepair or no sidewalks at all.

Cunningham said the aim of the network is to make Lansing a community where people of all ages want to live, work and play.

"It's our community and we want people to stay here," she said.

Andy Kilpatrick, Lansing transportation engineer, noted that the city can't do this alone.

"We need to bring everybody along, including everybody in this room," he said. "This is a program that will allow the city to be community friendly, people friendly."

The next step will be organizing community conversations to learn residents' vision of their city. Contact Karen Kafantaris at kkafantaris@aarp.org or 517-267-8916 to learn more about hosting or organizing a community conversation.