A researcher at the University of Sydney in Australia offers three recommendations for planners to better negotiate the real world of politics and governance to help create healthier communities.
Jennifer Kent details three ways that urban planners can have a positive impact on public health. Writing from Australia, Kent's lessons apply easily to the United States and other countries around the world.
Although providing better infrastructure for walking and biking is a prime example of better planning producing better public health outcomes, Kent wants to focus on three les appreciated methods to promote better health.
Equity provides the overarching theme of the three recommendations that follow in the article. "Urban planners are well versed in the fundamentals of planning the equitable city," writes Kent. "But planners must work within the constraints of our political systems and prevailing approaches to government."
The three recommendations, with more detail and explanation included in the article, read as follows: 1) Play to emotions, 2) speak the language of money, and 3) enlist trusted figures.
FULL STORY: Working the system: 3 ways planners can defy the odds to promote good health for all of us
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New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions