BY ANNA VELASCO

The good news is that Birmingham and its oldest suburbs have all the makings to create walkable communities.

The bad news is that Birmingham has plenty of urban blight, too.

But if you turn key streets into attractive thoroughfares friendly to both cyclists and pedestrians, you can transform dead zones into thriving areas where exercise is a way of life, a national "complete streets" expert told community leaders Tuesday and Wednesday.

"There are so many areas in Birmingham that have that opportunity," said Dan Burden, head of Walkable Communities Inc. in Orlando. "You have one of the largest stocks of available, great buildings anywhere. At the same time, Birmingham has more than its share of ugly streets."

Burden favors taking older, structurally sound buildings and turning them into shops and residences while wiping off the city's landscape the vacant strip centers and their decrepit parking lots.

Burden spoke Wednesday at Jefferson County's second annual "Health Action Summit," put on by the Health Action Partnership. That group is a broad coalition including the Jefferson County Department of Health, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, Southern Environmental Center, Birmingham Metropolitan YMCA, United Way and UAB School of Public Health.

The partnership aims to improve the community's health by fostering fundamental change, such as creating livable, sustainable communities where healthful lifestyles are encouraged. Change that promotes overall health has been adopted by the Jefferson County Department of Health as central to its mission.

"For the past 40 to 50 years, care to the poor was our predominant focus," said Dr. Michael Fleenor, Jefferson County's health officer. "As we looked back at our successes, at how big a dent we had made in some of our chronic health problems, we had to essentially admit we were not doing a good job."

The Health Department wants to revitalize neighborhoods where it has clinics by helping to improve access to exercise, gardens and commerce. In the past, conservationists and industry leaders have been at odds, but Fleenor said improving health is a goal both can share.

"We want to connect communities, rather than separate them," Fleenor said. "Health can be a bridge."

People's movement:

Burden told community leaders to focus first on the old trolley car neighborhoods that are plentiful in Birmingham and its earliest suburbs. Those communities already have many of the elements needed - streets on a grid, schools, libraries and parks.

"Everything we're seeing in places where this works is a return to the past," Burden said.

Burden gave Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Charlotte as examples where making the streets friendly to people is bringing vibrancy to areas and increasing home values.

He said Birmingham has many streets that are wider than necessary for car traffic, with plenty of room for bike and pedestrian paths. Streetside parking will encourage businesses to move in, he said.

Trees and other landscaping are also important to create an attractive place where people will want to walk, Burden said. Bike lanes and cars parked on the street help create a buffer between the traffic and walkers.

"We have been building roads for cars, not people," Burden said.

He suggested starting close to downtown Birmingham for the biggest, fastest impact. For the health summit, Burden took four geographically diverse roads across Birmingham to show the impact of turning them into streets complete with biking and walking paths: Cahaba Road, between the zoo and botanical gardens; Second Avenue South, in front of the Pepper Place building; Third Avenue West near Legion Field; and West Boulevard, in Roebuck, in front of Eastern Health Center.

"This is a movement that's being started by the people," he said. "The solutions are as local as you can get, one neighborhood at a time."

Ecoscape to the east:

The Health Department is hoping its newest health clinic - Eastern Health Center, which opened in December - will be a catalyst to create a model healthful community in what has been an area of decline.

The Health Department dedicated its "ecoscape" garden and walking trail behind the new center Wednesday and wants to get sidewalks on West Boulevard to encourage the neighborhood to visit.

Fleenor announced at the health summit an $80,000 grant the department will give to a coalition of groups that propose a health-related project in the area, such as building a community garden that would provide fresh produce. Fleenor also said the department will fund smaller grants for other communities that would like to create innovative projects that promote health.

"We're not solving the basic issues by simply plopping a health center in the middle of a community," Fleenor said. "We're coming around to the idea that a larger view of health, and a longer view, is what is needed."

E-mail: avelasco@bhamnews.com