CNU's 18th Congress, meeting in Atlanta from May 19-22, will showcase the innovative work urbanists and their partners are doing to deliver solutions for economic, environmental, energy, social and health challenges. And co-organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is headquartered in Atlanta, CNU 18 New Urbanism: Rx for Healthy Places will likely be the most robust union of health professionals and the urban planning and development community ever held.

Chronic diseases associated with sedentary and isolated populations, including obesity, are one of our major crises. They have a huge impact on families, and make our healthcare system ever more costly, too. The doubling of driving nationally between 1983 and 2007, increasingly on auto-centric street systems that are dangerous by design, has sent injury and mortality rates soaring, exacerbated mental health problems for isolated non-drivers, and decreased air and water quality.

"Well-designed communities can be interventions for public health," said Dr. Howard Frumkin, honorary event chair and Special Assistant to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Climate and Health. "How we build and maintain our communities' transportation systems, infrastructure, and public spaces can either exacerbate or reduce obesity, chronic diseases, injury rates, poor mental health, and the adverse effects of climate change."

Interact with experts including Dr. Frumkin; David Byrne, musician and author of Bicycle Diaries, Catherine Ross, director of Georgia Tech's Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development; Ellen Dunham-Jones, co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia; HUD's Shelley Poticha, CNU co-founders Dan Solomon, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Peter Calthorpe, Elizabeth Moule, Andres Duany, and many others. Cutting-edge topics include urban agriculture, retrofitting suburbia, communities accommodating demographic change, location efficiency and more. Explore sessions here.

Visit http://cnu18.org for details. And register by April 20th for best rates.