Evidence shows walkable towns healthier

In a recent large-scale study* of 16 pairs of neighborhoods, one that has a typical main street and a mix of apartments and houses has a proportion of people with BMI (body mass index) over 25 (considered a healthy level) at 35% of the population, but in areas of single-family homes with ‘poorly connected streets and a shopping center on its edge with a big parking lot’, BMI over 25 matched the national average of 60%.�

Michigan governor Jennifer

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Alternative nightlife: Dodgeball

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City living holds back aging?

Yes, apparently by 4 to 12 years.

News articles are reporting results of a new study, Suburban sprawl and physical and mental health, from the journal, Public Health.  Here’s an abstract:

“Sprawl significantly predicts chronic medical conditions and health-related quality of life, but not mental health disorders. An increase in sprawl from one standard deviation less to one standard deviation more than average implies 96 more chronic medical problems per 1000

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2000 steps to health?

That’s the magic number according to Dr. James Hill, keynote speaker at the Obesity and the Built Environment conference, organized by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

He recommends taking an extra 2000 steps a day (measured with a simple $10 pedometer) as a necessary goal in maintaining one’s health.  Unfortunately, most of our communities are auto-oriented rather than pedestrian-oriented,

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Recreation in the city

One of the drawbacks to living in the city is the lack of access to outdoor recreation.  However, with a bit of creativity and ingenuity, some of that outdoor recreation can be had downtown.

Rock climbing companies like this one that set up the rock climbing wall built right into a building wall are adding yet another avenue for fitness and fun for urban dwellers, who are already among the most fit.

There are many of us that are tired of the same ol’ Friday night

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Why are CoolTowners so fit?

They’re ‘intrinsic exercisers’ - that is, they exercise because that want to, not because they have to.  The key?  Unstructured exercise, or as I refer to it, exercise you’re not even aware of.

In The Intrinsic Exerciser: Discovering the Joy of Exercise, author Jay Kimiecik cites several studies that three 10-minute ‘exercise sessions’ are the same as one 30-minute session.  What this means is, if you just motivate yourself to move a bit more during the day,

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Evidence piling up for health and CoolTowns

If anecdotal evidence isn’t enough for you (ever notice the weight difference in people as you walk in a Walmart in suburbia vs. a main street in the city?... or travel from the city to the suburbs on the subway and see the size of people getting on board increase rather noticeably?)

Well, here’s yet more scientific evidence, highlighted on the front page of Monday’s Washington Post, and adding to that already being collected in this part of the

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Why do CoolTowns have so many good-looking people?

Because they’re fit!

CoolTowns are designed for walking.  A new study says the more people drive, the more out of shape they get.  The findings:

For every extra 30 minutes commuters drove each day, they had a 3 percent greater chance of being obese.

People who lived less than a half mile from shops were 7 percent less likely to be obese.

About 91 percent of the people surveyed said they didn’t walk to destinations. This coincides with

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Fast food = McMansions

McMansions refer to those cookie cutter neighborhoods of big homes that look alike, essentially 90% of new home construction.  There are more parallels to fast food than I thought…

Fast food is designed to be cheap and mass produced.  So are most new homes, with little variation in floor plan and style.

Fast food uses the cheapest ingredients.  Most new homes use the cheapest materials, which explains why they start falling apart after a few years.

Fast food is very

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The 12 Most Walkable Cities

I must admit the foot people really put in some extensive criteria to come up with the .  Here’s my take on walking through their ‘winners’:

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Q&A: How do you build a CoolTown in an area considered rural?

Some people move to specific places because of a job they couldn’t get anywhere else within their desired area.  Others move because of recreation they couldn’t get anywhere else in the area.

People move to/visit coastal towns for the beach, mountain towns for the skiing and river towns for the fishing and boating.  Now, since affordability is such a fundamental element of fast-growth prosperity, think of how people with limited

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Investing in a recreation entertainment town

Recreation: “Refreshment of one’s mind or body after work through activity that amuses or stimulates; play”

Thus, a recreation town is a place for play - for adults that is.  One that extends this into the nightlife could be referred to as a recreation entertainment town.  Such a destination, oriented toward an active, entrepreneurial, creative audience would have:

A natural greenbelt for joggers, bikers and skaters to go from one town to the

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Recreation in the city (naturally)

Many joggers would love to run through a scene like this every morning.  In Washington DC, you’d have to live in the heart of the city to do so.

CoolTowns are not all about urbanity - it’s about balance, diversity and yes, entertainment and recreation.  The best towns have a greenbelt corridor, usually along a natural waterway, that allows the most urban dweller a job, skate or bike ride for 25 miles completely immersed in nature, just like Rock Creek Park

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Wheels on your feet that is.

One of the most popular outdoor recreational activities is exploring, whether it’s by foot, kayak or cross country skis.  In the city, especially San Francisco and Paris, it’s by skate.  When you bring hundreds of them together on a Friday night, it turns into entertainment as well.

Let me describe the Friday night skate in San Francisco:  In the early evening an average of 300-400 skaters (beginners and advanced) get together at

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The best kind of entertainment, in my opinion, is the kind that keeps you fit:  Dancing, rock climbing, roller-blading, sports and again, dancing.  Dancing deserves to be mentioned twice.

In the bestseller Tuesday’s With Morrie”, Morrie, who is terminally ill, describes his perfect day (evening) from the point of view of someone who cherishes his last few days: “In the evening, we’d all go together to a restaurant with some great pasta… and then we’d dance the rest

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There are many reasons why fast food doesn’t jive with a CoolTown, and here’s a whole book of them.  Below are listed just a few:

Health:  As covered in this particular week’s blog, there are many ways town planning can promote health, and avoiding these is one of them.

Local economy:  I’ve got an upcoming week’s blog on this, but fast food chains simply take more money out of the local economy than local entrepreneurs.  The National Main Street Center is the best resource on

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Investing in a healthy town

Here are the health-oriented town features that investors are implementing in the CoolTown model.

1. Genuine walkability.  I mean ‘genuine’ in that people will actually want to walk to destinations, rather than it being a theoretical possibility.  I see the word often abused as such.  Few people enjoy walking across parking lots, especially at night.
2. Enough fast food joints!  If you read the book Fast Food Nation you may never eat at one again.  You’ll see a

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What are CoolTown-oriented shoes?

What’s a typical week in a health-oriented town?There really is such a thing, in my opinion.  Once I got ‘urban dress/walking shoes’, I found myself getting twice as much exercise.

Go to Nike and look up “prestos”.  My shoe expert of a friend recommended I get these when I asked him if there was such a thing as shoes I could go to a meeting with, and run in.  Well, for my sake, these shoes are just that!  Not only do I wear these to business meetings, but I

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How do you know you’re in a healthy town?  Just walk around and look.  For some reason, the people at suburban Walmarts just don’t seem nearly as fit as those strolling through city downtowns.

Here’s my list of choices in a typical week:  Less than one block away:  Pick-up basketball games, throwing a frisbee, running up and down stairs, jogging to the grocery or drugstore.  Just a few blocks away:  Walking to the subway, yoga, salsa

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This week The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is sponsoring The Shape We’re In, focusing on why nearly two-thirds of Americans are out of shape.

The series kicks off with Experts plotting America’s new diet: Less sprawl, less fat, less frenzy. From the article:  “Right now, 75 percent of all trips less than a mile are taken by car. About 25 percent of people are physically active. Another 50 percent do a little activity. And 25 percent do virtually nothing.“

Here’s

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