An Introduction to Healthy Places
The environment consists of the external (or nongenetic) factors—physical, nutritional, social, behavioral, and others—that act on humans, and the built environment is made up of the many aspects of their surroundings created by humans, such as buildings,
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annenberg et al. (eds.), Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-being, and Sustainability, DOI 10.5822/978-1-61091-036-1_1, © Island Press 2011
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INTRODUCTION
Introduction The citizens of Bay City were fed up. Getting across town to go to work or shopping had become an ordeal; the streets seemed perpetually clogged, and it was impossible to find parking. For people who had bought homes in the suburbs, life seemed to take place more and more in their cars—chauffeuring children to school and soccer games, driving long distances to stores, and worst of all, commuting to work. Meanwhile, the Bay City Courier reported a steady drumbeat of bad news: air quality was worsening, the health department reported a growing epidemic of obesity, and nearly every day there was a tragic car crash that killed or injured somebody. The mayor, the city council, and the transportation department teamed up to address some of the quality of life problems. They envisioned an ambitious program of road building. Key components included a six-lane arterial highway along the bay shore, two new arterials crossing the city, and thousands of new parking spaces. Although this plan would destroy historic and beautiful bay views, sever a few older neighborhoods, and remove half of a prized city park, it would move traffic more effectively. But the roads were never built. The local health department, urban planners, architects, physicians and nurses, park officials, historic preservationists, environmentalists, and neighborhood associations all came together in a remarkable display of unity. The coalition they formed proposed an alternative plan, one that centered on extensive pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, investments in bus and light-rail transit, mixed-use development along the bay shore, and investments in parks throughout the city. The plan emphasized equity and included policies to avoid displacing established communities and to ensure a mix of housing types. The cost of this alternative plan would be slightly less than that of the combined road projects, and it would create a similar number of construction jobs. The alternative plan won the day. It took more than twenty years to implement, and it required considerable political leadership to stick with it during the inevitable cost overruns and budget crises. But after twenty years, a remarkable series of changes had ensued. The proportion of people walking or biking to work had risen from 3 percent to 14 percent, and the proportion of students walking or biking to school had risen from 5 percent to 21 percent. Transit ridership had increased more than fourfold. Traffic volume had actually decreased, air quality had improved marginally, and the epidemic of obesity had stabilized and was showing signs of reversing. Because many young families had moved into the city, the public schools had improved considerably and were now among the best in the state. And Bay
AN INTRODUCTION TO HEALTHY PLACES
City had become a destination city, attracting several prized high
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