Solving the Public Health Crisis with Smarter City Planning

At an alarming rate, American children are suffering from obesity and related afflictions. Despite all the money spent on health care, the solution to many public health problems lies not in medicine but in the fabric of cities.

1 minute read

February 17, 2007, 1:00 PM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


In the following speech from a recent New Schools Better Neighborhoods symposium, former California Health Officer Dr. Richard Jackson explains why the best cure is to design, plan, and build healthier cities, neighborhoods, and schools.

"We need to tax high-fructose corn syrup, at a penny a teaspoon. We'd raise $2 billion a year, and I wouldn't use one nickel of that on stomach-stapling surgery. I'd use it on safe routes to schools, on nutrition education for teachers, for school gardens, for play areas and physical education programs. I'd use it for prevention of this disorder; it's a life or death issue."

...

"So let's say you get your 10-year-old nephew and he lives about a mile to school, and he decides he's going to walk to school every day for a year. If he does that, he burns 52 calories; over a year, he burns 18,000 calories, which is about five pounds of body weight-just by walking to school... So what's good for our kids and their health and what's good for their neighborhood, school, and our city, state, nation, and planet are all the same thing."

Thanks to David Abel

Thursday, February 15, 2007 in The Planning Report

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