suzanne

The gap between rich and poor in the US has widened markedly during the last 20 years. Middle class working families are rapidly slipping into poverty, and the poor increasingly see problems of health (over 30% obesity rates, with concomitant diabetes, cardio-vascular disease, etc.) and social health (unemployment, violence, and crime) devastating their neighborhood. These … Read more

Designing Healthy Communities[i] is an inspiring and essential book for all who care about how to improve conditions for ourselves and for our children in our communities. Dick Jackson, a world renowned public health expert, speaks directly to the reader with clarity and passion, and provides numerous examples of how each of us can contribute … Read more

Walkable neighborhoods provide a surprising number of benefits to our health, our financial wellbeing, our communities and global preservation. Compact development lessens our ever-expanding dependency upon the automobile, one of the leading causes of climate change. According to research[i], those who are residents of a walkable neighborhood weigh 6-10 pounds less than those who live … Read more

Westland, MI takes seriously the fun value of mud baths. In July every year Wayne County Parks and Recreation Department mixes 200 tons of topsoil and 20,000 gallons of water to create a giant lake of mud for children to play in at the “Mud Day” festival. They are following in the footsteps of spa … Read more

Most long time residents of Salt Lake City will tell you, they would have never believed their city could be at the forefront of public transportation innovation. Looking back just a few decades, Salt Lake was just as automobile dependent as most rust belt cities. Local government support for new planning techniques has revolutionized the … Read more

What were they thinking? They portray a girl in a car gloating while the embarrassed biker tries not to be identified? This ad, run in student newspapers and fliers across the country, infuriated and disgusted students, faculty and university staff. GM thought they were being very cute, but apparently they did not anticipate the angry … Read more

We are saddened by the sudden passing of Peter Benson, President of the Search Institute and author of All Kids Are Our Kids. If you heard his speech at the 46th IMCL Conference in Santa Fe, or have read All Kids Are Our Kids, you will know that Peter was a passionate advocate for rebuilding … Read more

What is a “Community Hub”? The term is being used in different ways, in different places. From the British “Pub is the Hub”, to schools, neighborhoods, and neighborhood plazas, they are all steps toward the creation of more livable communities. The only way we can make our cities and communities more healthy, livable, creative (and … Read more

Making Healthy Places is an essential book for all those concerned with how the built environment affects physical, mental and social health and well-being. Andrew Dannenberg, Howard Frumkin and Richard Jackson have compiled a comprehensive text that lays out this new field of study, looks at the data, and identifies some of the tools for … Read more