On November 15th, I woke up to find that award-winning neighborhood blogger David Burton had written about my team’s work in neighborhood research! What a delightful surprise!
While I have shared on this site about my ‘Good Neighbor’ day work here in Millwood, and touched on my church’s efforts in the City of Spokane Valley, untold until now was the story of my research team working with Mayor Mary Lou Steward on a proclamation for Blaine, WA. Our story was featured this month in the local Blaine and Birch Bay community newspaper, The Northern Light, along with a promotion for my upcoming classes on how healthy neighboring translates into a solid public health strategy. The Northern Light article sparked David Burton’s blog post!
According to David Burton, “The Blaine experience offers five clear takeaways for any city, county, or neighborhood:
- Lesson 1: Health is hyperlocal. Where people spend their time—and who they interact with daily—matters profoundly for long-term health.
- Lesson 2: Neighboring must be rebuilt intentionally. After 50+ years of social retreat, the skills and habits of “being a good neighbor” need to be relearned and practiced.
- Lesson 3: Neighboring reduces chronic stress. Warm, reliable relationships in a neighborhood lower allostatic load, which reduces risk for chronic disease.
- Lesson 4: Prevention science belongs in everyday life. Community health isn’t something that happens only in clinics; it happens on sidewalks, porches, driveways, and parks.
- Lesson 5: Collaboration makes neighboring scalable. Coalitions like BBB Collective and Birch Bay-Blaine Thrives create the infrastructure that allows individual neighborly actions to become community-wide culture shifts.” (Burton, 2025)*
* We Are Neighbors Blog Post: Good Neighbors, Good Health: What Blaine, Washington Is Teaching the Rest of Us
The Northern Light Article: WSU Extension focuses on Blaine for good neighboring research
Shawna Beese Mayor-elect Millwood 