Designing Healthy Communities — Improving our nation’s public health by re-designing and restoring our built environment

Designing Healthy Communities — Improving our nation’s public health by re-designing and restoring our built environment

This project strives to ” offer best practice models to improve our nation’s public health by re-designing and restoring our built environment” [From their about page]

The present focus areas are Health,Transportation, Design, Food, and People.

Links in each of the above 5 areas include related PBS  series episodes and programs (as Tavis Smiley ),  related studies (as Pew reports),  and other related videos and news items.

Information about one this project’s DVD series Designing Healthy Communities (to be shown on PBS) may be found at http://designinghealthycommunities.org/designing-healthy-communities-complete-dvd-series/

Related articles

• Coming Soon to PBS – “Designing Healthy Communities” (aa47.wordpress.com)
• Communities Learn the Good Life Can Be a Killer (NYTimes)
• A Syndemic Approach to Healthy Sustainable Cities (pollutionfree.wordpress.com)
• Anti-Sprawl Doctor to Host PBS Series on Urban Design and Public Health (dc.streetsblog.org)
• Communities Learn the Good Life Can Be a Killer (well.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Physical Environment V. Built Environment (happyspacesprojectblog.wordpress.com)
• Sustainable Cities for All (healthycities.wordpress.com)
• Public Interest Architect Joins Board of Trustees at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California (prweb.com)

Excerpt:

Developers in the last half-century called it progress when they built homes and shopping malls far from city centers throughout the country, sounding the death knell for many downtowns. But now an alarmed cadre of public health experts say these expanded metropolitan areas have had a far more serious impact on the people who live there by creating vehicle-dependent environments that foster obesity, poor health, social isolation, excessive stress and depression.

As a result, these experts say, our “built environment” — where we live, work, play and shop — has become a leading cause of disability and death in the 21st century.

•  
• You: L.A. County takes step to promote exercise, reduce obesity (latimes.com)
• Sick of the suburbs: How badly designed communities trash our health (grist.org)
• Sick of the suburb (urbanvista.net)
• Responsible Urban Design (dirt.asla.org)
• A Syndemic Approach to Healthy Sustainable Cities (pollutionfree.wordpress.com)
• Anti-Sprawl Doctor to Host PBS Series on Urban Design and Public Health (dc.streetsblog.org)
• Communities Learn the Good Life Can Be a Killer (well.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Physical Environment V. Built Environment (happyspacesprojectblog.wordpress.com)
• Sustainable Cities for All (healthycities.wordpress.com)
• Public Interest Architect Joins Board of Trustees at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California (prweb.com)