A new study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows that living in poor and violent neighborhoods can significantly increase your risk of heart attack or stroke.
"Living in some of Baltimore's poorest and most violent neighborhoods can significantly increase your risk of heart attack or stroke, according to a study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In the worst areas, the hazard is on a par with being a regular smoker.
The results confirm the suspicions of a small group of urban researchers who in recent years have come to believe that impoverished environments can seriously damage health, even for people not directly touched by violence or who do not have unhealthy eating and lifestyle habits.
Researchers suspect the culprit is the stress of living in communities where gunfire and dilapidated housing are common and where stress-reducing activities such as recreational walks can be dangerous.
'We think of health in terms of medicine and genes and lifestyle,' says Dr. Thomas A. Glass, a researcher at the university's Bloomberg School of Public Health and the study's lead author. 'We need to think of it more in terms of environment.'
Read the full story: Where you live can harm health
Fixing the Harms of the Eviction System
Emily Benfer talks about what needs to change in our housing and eviction systems—not just now, but once the pandemic is past, the connections between health and housing, and how she came to be a go-to voice on the eviction crisis.
After the Plague: Go Big or Go Backwards?
Among unwelcome lessons of COVID-19 is growing evidence of what was already broken in politics and business. Ben Brown looks at making bold changes in order to improve the lives of the left out and left behind.
Study: Location Matters for Farmers' Markets
Research conducted in Flint, Michigan, found that changing the location of the local farmers' market had a dramatic effect in how residents shopped.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
Nation's most wind-powered state turns to coal as data centers increase energy demand
For the first time in decades, Iowa has increased its generation of coal power.
NYC cools commuters with city's first rain garden above a bus stop
New York City officials say the plants in the rain garden can absorb 16 gallons of rainwater during heavy storms.
Brightline West’s future may rely on $6 billion federal loan
The company has until Nov. 2 to make a $400 million equity investment into its proposed high-speed rail line.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Greater Baltimore Committee
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association