San Francisco is one of 10 cities in the U.S. launching a Play Streets Program. The Play Streets
initiative is a more neighboorhood oriented version of Sunday Streets, a series of events that temporarily shuts down roads to vehicular traffic, in order to promote walking and cycling activities.
The "Play Streets for All" initiative, a collaboration between the SF Municipal Transportation Agency, Livable City, and public health organizations, will target neighborhoods in San Francisco, CA that suffer from the high rates of childhood obesity. In 2012, San Francisco hosted a total of 10 Sunday Street events. The Sunday Streets website provides information about the free events that provide an opportunity for San Francisco residents to be ...
In December of 2012, the U.S. Surgeon General announced a call to action for walking.
Walking is an activity that is a feasible and affordable means of physical activity for most individuals. However, for many Latinos access to safe places for walking and recreation remains a challenge.
The CDC is going to produce a Surgeon General’s report that is “a call to action on walking.” This will be accompanied by a national campaign for walking.
“We want to lend the voice of the Office of the Surgeon General to this particular physical activity,” said Dr. Regina Benjamin. “It’s easy to do, anyone can do it and it’s fun.” America Walks is a national coalition that seeks to mobilize individuals, organizations and businesses to increase walking and walkability in America. By ...
Hispanic and Asian children living in the San Antonio community of East Oakland lacked access to outdoor spaces for recreation. This prompted David Kakishiba of the Oakland-based East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC), to coordinate a Schoolyard initiative with the Oakland Unified School district. The Schoolyard initiative would provide a unique and dynamic environment for school children to learn and engage in physical activity. Parents, students, and teachers participated in a series of three community design workshop meetings, to provide input as to what the schoolyard should look like. Of the two top strategies for creating a healthy schoolyard, Kakishiba recommends working closely with the school district’s facilities department, and developing and following through on a ...
California state Senator Bill Monning (D- Carmel) has reintroduced a soda tax bill that has failed once before. S.B. 622 would impose a penny-per-ounce tax on sugar sweetened beverages in California. The money raised would go toward health and education programs aimed at reducing childhood obesity. Poll shows that more than half of Californians would support a soda tax if the money was used to improve school nutrition and physical education. Check out some frequently asked questions about CA's sugary beverage tax. Follow the ...
A group of 24 Spanish speaking women in Bakersfield, who were part of a walking group, recognized the need for improvements in their local park. In order to get these improvements they worked with the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention (CCROP) Program to conduct a walkability assessment of their neighborhood. The information collected through the assessment was presented before the city council, and city officials agreed to provide resources for the improvements that were needed. Later the walking group was able to gather additional support from the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce ($10,000) to create a walking path. Once funds for the path were available, volunteers from throughout the community showed up to the park to construct the walking path and even the children ...
When city planners and public health officials work together great things can happen for a community. Take for instance the community of Kettleman city, in King's County. In 2005, specialists from both fields gathered for four lunchtime roundtables where health, the built environment, and smart growth codes were discussed. Soon the team met with community residents who expressed their greatest health and safety concerns, which included: a pedestrian crossing along Highway 41 used by children who walk to school, and lack of fresh produce in their community. With the help of the planning team, residents in Kettleman were able to get a $140,000 Cal Trans Environmental Justice Grant to determine what safety measures should be added to the crossway. Public health officials were also able to ...
The Sioux City school district has initiated a program which they hope will encourage children to walk to school. Through grants from the state department of public health, school officials will initiate an effort to create a network of parents and peers who would walk to school.
As a Blue Zones designated community, Sioux City hopes to help Iowa become the healthiest state by 2016. The Sioux City school district is initiating a one week walking program at each school, but hopes that parents will continue the program on their own. Read the full news article about the Sioux City's efforts to initiate more walking to ...
Currently, Nebraska does not place as tax on groceries, and that includes sodas and other sugary drinks. One state senator would like to change that. LB 447 would tax all, non-alcoholic beverages that contain natural or artificial sweeteners at the standard sales tax rate, which is 7% in Lincoln. It would generate 11 million dollars to create the Nebraska Healthy Kids Fund to help fight childhood obesity, a report shows. Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery has pitched his soda tax proposal and asked the Legislature's Revenue Committee to include his bill in a tax commission study. The beverage industry and health activists went head-to-head debating whether to tax soda to support health programs. Check out the bill's progress ...
The Sonoma County Healthy and Sustainable Food Action Plan (Action Plan) is a collaborative effort between the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, the Sonoma County Food System Alliance and community stakeholders provides a county-wide framework to stimulate and coordinate improvements within our food system. The Action Plan encourages local governments, businesses, organizations and individuals to commit to specific actions so they can play a role in building a viable food system for Sonoma County that assists efforts to reduce childhood obesity. Highlights of the plan include support for policies that increase point-of-sale acceptance of CalFresh and WIC at farmers’ markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms, and neighborhood stores, develop tax and zoning ...
