livagreen » Health

Community Garden Policy Kit

admin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:14:09 +0000

This new resource from Planning for Healthy Places (a project of the Public Health, Law and Policy) of interest to groups working to establish community gardens on private land, Model lease, gardener agreement, rules, and more… http://www.phlpnet.org/CommunityGardenToolkit

Planning Healthy and Child-Friendly Communities Conference Report available online

admin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:42:16 +0000

The Conference Report from the 48th IMCL Conference on Planning Healthy and Child-Friendly Communities in Charleston, SC is now available free online to review or download. The conference was outstanding, an unprecedented gathering of leaders and experts renowned for their breadth of vision, depth of experience, insightful strategies, tools, and wisdom.

For the first time, we are making audio and transcripts of keynote speeches, slides, and papers available online as an eConference. Now, you may register for the conference and listen to, and review or download all the presentations. Access is available until May 1st by creating an account at http://www.livablecities.org/user/register. Keynote speeches and papers have also been published in the form of eight new Documentation Sets on specific themes. Your city, firm, or university will find these invaluable resources.

The IMCL work of making our cities healthy and child-friendly continues. In the near future, we shall announce a Call for Papers and Invitation to Exhibit for the 49th IMCL Conference to take place in Portland, OR, May 2012. If you have subscribed to the IMCL Newsletter (see below), you will receive the first announcement.

Jason Corburn's New Blog: Healthy Cities

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:49:05 +0000

Check out Kason Corburn’s new Healthy Cities blog. Livagreen.com will be subscribing to his RSS feed under the sustainable communities tab. Jason is an Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. He also teaches in the School of Public Health, is a member of the Global Metropolitan Studies initiative and Chair of the Executive Committee of the College of Environmental Design. His most recent posts cites a Contra Costa Times article on how “Residents of poor East Oakland die, on average, 16 years before residents of wealthier neighborhoods in the Oakland Hills.” indicating that to a large degree where you live and the quality of the environment “your degree of suffering and length of life.” You can also check out his two excellent books: Towards a Healthier City and Street Science published by MIT press.

Obesity and Climate Change????

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Car-free Development: Where's the Transit?

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:35:00 +0000

“Quarry Village is a proposed 1,000-unit neighborhood that would fill a former quarry near Cal State East Bay and 1 1/2 miles from the Hayward BART Station…. I’m skeptical that you can eliminate cars in a development that is not directly on top of transit,” said Jeff Loux, a land-use expert and UC Davis professor who has visited Vauban.”

Quite a surprising article here on a new development that tries to be car-less without transit. Based on the existing body of knowledge on transit behavior research, Mr. Loux’s statement above strikes me as the understatement of the year so far, and he rely’s on the rational that a frequent shuttle system might actually supplant transit accessibility. I’d be surprised if he (and the developer end up being right.