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Issues: Health and the Environment
All contributor posts in Health and the Environment
May 14, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice
, Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- baltimore, community, food, fooddeserts, neighborhood, publichealth, smartercities, smartgrowth
Thanks to Daniel and his thoughtful blog Discovering Urbanism for highlighting an innovative program designed to help residents of urban “food deserts” - neighborhoods without nearby access to supermarkets - obtain fresh, healthy food more conveniently. The program also helps...
May 11, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise
, Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
, Moving Beyond Oil
- Tags:
- community, connectivity, neighborhood, smartgrowth, streets, walkability
The degree to which our streets connect with each other has a major impact on how our communities feel and function, and a major effect also on their walkability. Generally speaking, the more connections (more frequent intersections, smaller block sizes)...
May 10, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
, Moving Beyond Oil
- Tags:
- community, neighborhood, smartercities, smartgrowth, streets, transportation, walkability
Washington Post columnist and architect Roger Lewis has published a terrific, concise summary of why we should do more to promote walking as a transportation mode and what a community needs to become more walkable. I hope that policy advocates...
May 7, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise
, Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- community, density, neighborhood, parks, smartercities, smartgrowth
Peter Harnik knows more about city parks than anyone else I know. And he has now put much of what he knows into a handy new book, Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities (Island Press, 2010). I was...
May 6, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise
, Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- atlanta, community, glenwoodpark, markettransformation, neighborhood, newurbanism, smartgrowth, sprawl
For some time, I have been intrigued by Atlanta as a city that contains both some of America's worst-case, most godawful sprawl and some of its most encouraging examples of smart growth. On the sprawl side, the grasp of metro Atlanta grew from...
May 4, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise
, Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- community, neighborhood, smartgrowth, streets, walkability
Our streets (including sidewalks, street trees, fixtures and so forth) are our most important public spaces. Whether we experience them on foot, driving along, or simply through a window, streets form the places where we most often experience that...
April 22, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- 40earthday, bicycling, community, earthday, neighborhood, smartgrowth, washingtondc
Kaid Benfield writes (almost) daily about community, development, and the environment. For more posts, see his blog's home page. ...
April 16, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise
, Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- community, health, neighborhood, smartgrowth, sprawl, transportation, walkability
Dick is a nice guy and one of the true leaders in the fields of public health, sustainability, and the built environment. He is being featured in a documentary, and here is a short trailer that shows you why. It...
March 31, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- community, helpingjohnnywalktoschool, nationaltrust, neighborhood, schools, smartercities, smartgrowth, sprawl, walking
“Aside from reduced CO2, less traffic time and health advantages, the most important benefit of walk to school programs is teaching children self-reliance.” The quote comes from architect and urbanist Ann Daigle, who puts into practice all the things...
March 26, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
, Moving Beyond Oil
- Tags:
- bicycling, community, fitness, smartgrowth, transportation
Amazingly, there are some well-meaning transportation advocates who would like the phrase “avid cyclist” banned from the lexicon. Their argument goes something like, “this phrase marginalizes all who bicycle and causes people in policy positions to discount cycling as...
March 25, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
, Moving Beyond Oil
- Tags:
- community, completestreets, neighborhood, sanfrancisco, smartgrowth, transit, transportation, walkability
As a member of the Complete Streets Coalition, NRDC believes that streets should be for everyone: walkers, cyclists, drivers, transit users, merchants, offices, even nature. Streets comprise the most important public spaces in our communities, and as such they should...
March 22, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice
, Green Enterprise
, Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- community, development, LISC, neighborhood, revitalization, smartercities, smartgrowth, sustainablecommunities
Earlier this month I had the honor of participating in a webcast on the subject of sustainable community development, hosted by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. One of the nation’s premier organizations in its field, LISC “mobilizes corporate, government and...
March 19, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice
, Green Enterprise
, Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- community, disinvestment, greeninfrastructure, neighborhood, revitalization, smartercities, smartgrowth, stormwater
Distressed city neighborhoods, more than others, are deficient in environmental amenities, particularly those that are typically provided by nature. That is almost a tautology, but they especially need trees, pocket parks, rain gardens, vegetated swales, permeable pavements, roof gardens and...
March 2, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice
, Green Enterprise
, Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- alonzomourning, duany, earthquake, emergency, haiti, housing, rebuilding, relief, shelter, smartgrowth
Former Georgetown University and Miami Heat basketball star Alonzo Mourning has always acted with intensity and purpose, as anyone on the receiving end of one of the nearly 3000 shots he blocked during his playing career can attest. Now...
February 25, 2010
Posted by Kaid Benfield in Health and the Environment
, Living Sustainably
- Tags:
- apartments, china, collapse, construction, density, highrises, housing, smartgrowth
Yes, believe your eyes: that’s an apartment building in Shanghai, virtually intact but on its side after, well, falling over. The building was one of eleven 13-story buildings being constructed in the Lotus Riverside complex in China’s largest city. ...