I LOVE Saint Paul. I'm far from alone.

And I look forward to it becoming even more loveable so more people live, work and play there. We don't have a healthy Twin Cities without a healthy downtown Saint Paul and a healthy downtown Minneapolis.

Could aging be a ticket to downtown vitality in Saint Paul?

The Saint Paul Foundation is reaching out to crank up the idea machine via the MN Idea Open website and Forever Saint Paul Challenge to dig up ideas to seed Saint Paul's future prosperity.

This video (the English subtitles kick in at 5 seconds) featuring IBM and the City of Bolzano, Italy (hat tip to Minneapolitan A. Richard (Dick) Olson, who helped IBM grow and develop new markets in Asia and South Pacific before retiring to new adventures) makes me wonder if the "hometown" qualities of Saint Paul could be linked with technology , the city's large health care centers, senior services organizations, YMCA, others to do what is being done in Bolzano – keeping people healthier at a lower cost and fully participating in their hometown.

If Saint Paul is good for one's aging parents, could it be good for their adult kids and grandchildren, too, as a place to live or frequently visit and play ? Could Saint Paul become the place where those kids want to grow old? If so, it could keep the cycle of living, aging in community, going to baseball and hockey games, spending at local businesses, riding light rail, and making Saint Paul better not just for the Twin Cities, but the region, country and world.

A truly intergenerational community that thrives for the long-term needs to view and address aging in a whole new way. That's not just the Forever Saint Paul Challenge – that's the "Every City in America" Challenge. And it's one incredible opportunity for some extraordinary collaboration in Saint Paul to potentially show the way to do it.