San Antonio's downtown is growing. Walking and biking around is easier than ever, and many young people are heading to downtown for the business and night life. However, downtown San Antonio is missing one thing that is keeping it from becoming a pale where young people and families want to live: a grocery store. Would you want to raise your family in a place where you couldn't buy fresh fruits and vegetables for your kids? City officials decided recently to solicit proposals from anyone serious about opening a major grocery store downtown, an amenity they think is necessary to revitalize the urban core. La Fiesta is one food retailer considering a downtown location. Currently, it looks like HEB might be the lucky food retailer that gets to claim stake to San Antonio's downtown ...
More than half of the children in the Coachella Valley are overweight or obese, according to the most recent statistic. The demographics of the Coachella Valley’s youth adds to the area’s challenge. Latino children and low-income children — 78 and 75 percent of the valley’s public school students, respectively — are more likely to be overweight or obese. Almost twice as many Latino children in the Coachella Valley were overweight as compared to white children, according to 2010 Health Assessment Resource Center statistics. Realizing the need for change, the valley has been implementing various programs around the area to help set kids back on the path to life-long health. One shining example of progress is Palm Springs Unified School District (PSUSD), who won the Healthy ...
A company by the name of Healthways is working with communities in California and Iowa to shape policies that would make communities more active through the Blue Zones Project. According to a blog post from the DC.StreetsBlog.org, the Blue Zones Project---a collaborative effort of AARP, Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute---is now working to integrate more physical activity into daily life. The blog post mentions that communities near Los Angeles like Hermosa, Rendondo Beach, and Mahattan Beach, participated in a planning process to institute walking school buses, to create a livable streets plan and to develop a master bike plan. It also states that since the start of the Blue Zones project in Southern California, ten local schools have ...
CycloBia is Brownsville's version of Ciclovia--an open streets event--which originated in Colombia. The first CycloBia was held November of 2012. The event was a way of getting people to leave their houses and become active, by riding bikes and walking down a temporarily closed off streets in Brownsville. CycloBia not only gave participants a chance to ride their bikes through downtown Brownsville, but also the opportunity to participate in "reclovias"--free exercise sessions available at four different locations, along the closed off streets. In this blog, Lisa Mitchell-Bennett, a participant of the Brownsville CycloBia, shares the wonderful experience she had while attending Brownsville's first CycloBia. She describes the healthy event as one where "the streets belonged to ...
In Florida, Broward County Commissioners recently adopted a Complete Streets policy, which will help create safer roads for cyclists, pedestrians, transit riders, and motorists of all ages. Not will only there be safer roads, but this type of policy helps create a healthy environment which promotes walking and cycling. According to a blog post from BrowardNet, Mayor Kristin Jacobs of Broward County encouraged the collaboration of a multidisciplinary team to create a Complete Streets policy. In this effort the Broward Metropolitan Planing Organization, the Florida Department of Transportation, the Broward Regional Health Planning Council, and others worked to design the Complete Streets guidelines. Over 2,000 Broward residents have participated in public workshops, focus groups, and ...
State restrictions on transportation funds can limit opportunities to create sidewalks and bike lanes. According to a DCStreetsblog.org blog post, 22 state constitutions (Colorado included) allowed gas tax revenues and vehicle registration fees to be used only towards the development of highways and bridges. Recently, advocates in Colorado found a way to modify this law, so that at least 15% of funds are made available for sidewalks, bus ways, and bike lanes. Now, thanks to the work of these transit and environmental advocates, $250 million of the state's revenue will be available for walking, biking, and transit projects. Advocates worked with local government officials and came up with a solution that state lawmakers would be willing to accept. The new policy is framed so that local ...
Students at Briscoe Elementary in Houston Texas are learning the meaning of what it is to live a healthy lifestyle. Thanks to the collaboration of Children and Neighbors Defeat Obesity (CAN DO) Houston, the city's parks and recreation department, and strong leadership from the school's principal, Mr. Juan Gonzalez, students are able to attend after school activities held at Mason Park. After school activities are provided free of charge by the parks and recreation department, but it wasn't until a CAN DO board member suggested the idea of transporting students to Mason Park, that the idea took off. An Interview with Briscoe Elementary Principal Juan Gonzalez "Parents believed that they [children] would not be safe walking, so we came up with the idea of buses," Principal ...
In East Baltimore, just hopping into a car and driving to pick up apples from the grocery store is not that easy. Many residents in the area don't have cars, and grocery stores are not within walking distance. These types of areas are called food deserts, leaving residents little food choices, especially when it comes to healthy foods. One local supermarket is hoping to help. "They define food deserts by the distance that people have to walk to get to the supermarket and that distance could be as short as half a mile but they factor in poverty levels and vehicle ownership which is low in many neighborhoods in Baltimore." Santoni's Super Market Owner Rob Santoni, Jr. says. Santoni says the answer is not putting a market on every corner, but making it easier to get to the ones you have. On ...
The Partners for Active Living (PAL) group works to bring healthy changes to the community of Spartanburg County in South Carolina. PAL believes that the relationship between physical activity and the built environment is key to improving the health of Spartanburg. Therefore, this organization focuses their efforts on developing policies which support walking and biking opportunities for the citizens of Spartanburg. PAL also sits on Spartanburg's childhood obesity taskforce, which consists of city officials, county officials, school officials, local non-profits, and philanthropic ...
