When Urban Planning and Obesity Collide

[marmar]

from GOOD:






After all, research has linked urban sprawl, a car-dependent culture, and even the absence of a sidewalk in front of homes to neighborhoods full of people with higher body mass indexes. Design has facilitated eating in cars. We've engineered dishwashing and walking out of our lives. Still, others say the link between obesity and sprawl is a matter of self-selection; building walkable communities will attract the kind of people who want to live and walk there.

Either way, the notion of "fat cities" has captured our imaginations as a metaphor for the sprawling post-war metropolis—and urban design has become a serious front in the battle to fight obesity. As the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Risa Lavizzo-Mourey told The New York Times today: "The changes to our physical and social environments that have contributed to the epidemic were gradual and have had decades to gain momentum."

Now, public health crusaders are working to reverse that. In Louisville, Kentucky, nonprofits have contributed about $4.5 million in grants to establish bike lanes, develop small “pocket” parks, improve traffic patterns, and remake sidewalks. They've sponsored multi-generational dance and fitness classes and a bike repair program.

Design initiatives like these are up against formidable odds: by January 4 each year, food marketing in the United States reaches $100 million, just about the entire annual operating budget of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. So while urban design isn't not the silver bullet for solving the problems associated with fat cities, it will be interesting to see these projects play out in the long run.

Image via "ACTIVE Louisville: Incorporating Active Living Principles into Planning and Design"


http://www.good.is/post/where-urban-planning-and-obesity-collide/

[Taverner]

1. You'd be surprised how much walking 30 minutes a day helps

For most people, walking on a flat surface gets their HR to that magic "65% MHR" Quadrant - which is when your body burns the most fat

[NutmegYankee]

7. Indeed! I lost a lot of weight from walking 30 minutes a day.

I pulled back on sugar, eliminated HFCS, and ate more vegetables in each meal and the walking kept the metabolism up.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Highly Recommended!

Highly!

:hi:

[Odin2005]

3. Good! We need WALKABLE and HUMAN-SCALE communities.

[JanMichael]

4. I've been pushing for Walkable and Livable neighborhoods for years now.

Sadly developers rule the roost in most towns which makes progressive planning a hell of a sale.

One thing that can override regressive development is simple - stand at your work station or desk. Sitting constantly at work, at school, at home and in cars, is killing us. A very conservative estimate on standing v. sitting is 30 calories an hour (note: walking on a treadmill at 1/2mph burns 100 or so more per hour), add that times 6 hours a day, 20 days a month, 12 months a year, and you can see the difference in weight over time.

Plus sitting restricts certain metabolic production capacity in the legs and butt which makes it even worse over time.

Oh hell then toss in lousy food choices and necessities and boom. It's a public health issue now.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. My BFF from college is the lead planner for the Louisville development.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110606/NEWS01/306060086/Louisville-working-link-historic-Olmsted-parkways

[SoCalDem]

6. In other words, going back to what WORKED in times-past

and a way of living that humans can enjoy..

a world where kids can walk to school..where people can walk to a local store (or bike)..to having smaller more human-friendly parks

The "village" style of life is a LOT less stressful, and probably healthier for us all..

[customerserviceguy]

9. But in my neighborhood, kids don't even walk to the bus stop

Their parents drive them to it, and wait in the SUV for the bus. In the winter, of course, the engine is running to keep the heat, and the same in the warmer months with the A/C on.

I guess their fear is that someone will snatch little Ryan or Amber, how do we engineer that out of our cities when our only response to child molestation is to simply hand out lists of those we've caught and released?

[SaveNC]

10. Mine drive two blocks to the pool.

It's rather impressive.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. What's sad is the risk of molestion to little Ryan or Amber is far greater in the homes of family

members and family friends than on the walk to school.

[customerserviceguy]

12. Perhaps

But how can you convince the dad in the SUV or the soccer mom of that?

[Gormy Cuss]

13. Statistically proven, but yes, convincing the Surburban Assault Vehicle parents is another matter.

eom

[customerserviceguy]

14. Maybe you have a blessed lack of them where you live

But they're all over suburban NY.

[Gormy Cuss]

15. Gawd no. I live in east suburban SF bay area.

They're more common than dirt.

[Obamanaut]

8. Walking is included in the weight loss phrase "eat less, move more". Imagine! nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. So, so incredibly true.