February 2012 Healthy Community Design News Dear Healthy Community Design News Subscribers, The Healthy Community Design Initiative s (HCDI) Healthy Community Design Checklist is now available at http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/factsheets/healthy_community_checklist.pdf. The plain-language checklist is for community members with little or no knowledge of the public health and built environment connection. It includes healthy community design elements that should be considered while participating in a land-use planning process. The checklist was piloted on two charrettes that engaged community members (a charrette is an intensive planning session where citizens, designers and others collaborate on a vision for development). At both charrettes, I presented an adapted version of the HCDI Healthy Community Design PowerPoint presentation available online at http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/media.htm. My adapted presentation included a slide on the top chronic disease killers in the community over the past 5 years. The statistics came from the state health department. Charrette organizers found in their postevaluation that community members learned a lot about healthy community design as a result of the presentation. They also said the checklist was useful in helping them make healthy land-use decisions for their community. The final concept development drawings, based on community input, reflected the community members new knowledge and desire to incorporate healthy community design principles into the plan. In the new report, Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2012 Benchmarking Report, the Alliance for Biking & Walking ranks all 50 states and the 51 largest U.S. cities on bicycling and walking levels, safety, funding, and other factors. The report, funded by CDC s Healthy Community Design Initiative, is available at http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/memberservices/201 2_benchmarking_report/. Did the Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2010 Benchmarking Report play a role in your work since its release 2 years ago? Do you have a favorite chapter, chart, or go-to reference? Was anything left out of the report that you would find useful? Did evidence in the report help you get an ordinance or law passed? We want to hear about it! Please email your stories, successes, and suggestions to Hope Roobol
(hroobol@cdc.gov) at CDC s Healthy Community Design Initiative by February 17, 2012. If you are attending the annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference in San Diego on February 2-4, 2012 (www.newpartners.org), stop by CDC s Healthy Community Design exhibit booth and say hello. Until next time, keep up the great work! --Charles Green, CGreen1@cdc.gov www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces To keep our faces toward change, and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate, is strength undefeatable. ---Helen Keller Conferences, March, April, and May 2012 March 12-14, 2012, Active Living Research Conference San Diego, CA http://www.activelivingresearch.org/conference April 3-4, 2012, Inaugural National Health Impact Assessment Meeting Washington, DC http://www.cvent.com/d/2cq8vk April 14-17, 2012, American Planning Association Planning Conference Los Angeles, CA http://www.planning.org/conference/index.htm May 9-12, 2012, Congress for the New Urbanism 20: The New World West Palm Beach, FL http://www.cnu20.org/ May 17-19, 2012, American Institute of Architects National Convention Washington, DC http://www.aia.org/conferences/index.htm May 20-24, 2012, 49th International Making Cities Livable Conference on True Urbanism: Planning Healthy Communities for All http://www.livablecities.org/conferences/49th-conference-portland Funding Opportunity National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Grant (application deadline March 1, 2012)
http://arts.gov/grants/apply/ourtown/index.html The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will provide a limited number of grants, ranging from $25,000 to $150,000, for creative placemaking projects that contribute toward the livability of communities and help transform them into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core. News HUD Awards $3.6 Million in Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, January 10, 2012) http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/hud?src=/press/press_releases_media_adviso ries/2012/hudno.12-003 The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded 13 communities a total of $3.6 million in grants to begin grassroots efforts to revitalize housing, communities. Building on nearly 20 years of success through HUD s HOPE VI Program, Choice Neighborhoods links housing improvements with a wider variety of public services including schools, public transit, and employment opportunities. This Federal support provides an incentive for the local community to take steps to create viable neighborhood transformation and communities that are sustainable and mixed-income. Transit Agencies Face the New Calculus of Broader Backsides (New York Times, January 15, 2011) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/nyregion/transit-agencies-in-new-yorkarea-consider-wider-seats.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha29 The problem of American waists that are too big for seats meant to accommodate them is certainly not new. Today, everything from love seats to toilet seats can be built bigger to accommodate wider profiles, and the seats offered on public transportation are no different. Each time an agency decides to purchase new trains or buses, it must consider whether to make its seats wider, knowing that a decision to do so could come at the expense of passenger capacity. Take a Walk (Builder, January 5, 2012) http://www.builderonline.com/new-urbanism/take-a-walk.aspx According to The 2011 Community Preference Survey, a poll of 2,071 American adults conducted on behalf of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 77% of those polled considered having sidewalks and places to take a walk one of their top priorities when deciding where they d like to live. Six in 10 adults said they would rather live in a neighborhood that featured a mix of houses, stores, and businesses within an easy walk, than a community of only houses that required driving to get to businesses.
Journal Articles Grabow ML, Spak SN, Holloway T, Stone B Jr, Mednick AC, Patz JA. 2012. Air quality and exercise-related health benefits from reduced car travel in the Midwestern United States. Environ Health Perspect 120:68-76. http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetcharticle.action?articleuri=info%3adoi% 2F10.1289%2Fehp.1103440 Researchers sought to quantify benefits from reducing automobile usage for short urban and suburban trips. Findings suggest that significant health and economic benefits are possible if bicycling replaces short car trips. Less dependence on automobiles in urban areas would also improve health in downwind rural settings. Held C, Iqbal R, Lear SA, Rosengren A, Islam S, Mathew J, Yusuf S. 2012. Physical activity levels, ownership of good promoting sedentary behaviour and risk of myocardial infarction: results of the INTERHEART study. Eur Heart J. First published online January 11, 2012 doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehr432. http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/eurheartj/press_releases/freepdf /prpaper.pdf The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between occupational and leisure-time physical activity (PA), ownership of goods promoting sedentary behavior, and the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in different socio-economic populations of the world. Researchers found that leisure-time PA and mild-tomoderate occupational PA, but not heavy physical labour, were associated with a reduced risk, while ownership of a car and TV was associated with an increased risk of MI across all economic regions. New and Notable Resources Federal Highway Administration. Memorandum: promoting the implementation of proven safety countermeasures. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Transportation, 2012. http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/provencountermeasures/ Updated version of their 2008 memorandum that summarizes the Federal Highway Administration s best available evidence for which safety improvements keep people alive. Altanta Urban Gardening Program. Community garden manual. Atlanta, GA: Atlanta Regional Commission, no date. http://documents.atlantaregional.com/aging/ascommunitygardensummitmanu al2.pdf Manual offering information on how to start and sustain participation in a community garden.
Livability & Smart Growth Assessment Tools Database (Safe States Alliance) http://livability.safestates.org/ Database including assessment tools and checklists to help users evaluate their communities' degree of livability. The database provides the information needed to create safer and healthier neighborhoods. Tools in the database are searchable by community size, assessment type, user role, and six topic areas developed as a practical combination of the Livability and Smart Growth principles. It is important to know where you re going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement. ---Benjamin Burt Healthy Community Design News is compiled and managed by Charles L. Green, MA, MFA Health Communication Specialist Healthy Community Design Initiative Division of Emergency and Environmental Health Services National Center for Environmental Health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 4770 Buford Highway, Mailstop F60 Atlanta, Georgia 30341 W: 770-488-0626 E: CGreen1@cdc.gov To subscribe to the CDC-facilitated Healthy Community Design News Listserv, go to http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/listserv.htm. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.CDC.GOV with the following command in the body of the e-mail: SIGNOFF LIVABILITY-GROUP. DISCLAIMER: The contents of this e-newsletter do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or the federal government. CDC, HHS, or the federal government is not responsible for the contents of the information contained in this e-newsletter. Links to nonfederal organizations found in this newsletter are provided solely as a service to our readers. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the
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