Designing Healthy Communities

Richard J. Jackson, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician and professor and chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the School of Public Health at University of California, Los Angeles. He is former California State Health Officer and for nine years was the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Environmental Health in Atlanta. Stacy Sinclair, EdD, is director of education for Media Policy Center in Santa Monica, California, which produced the documentary Designing Healthy Communities. She also is cofounder of EdExcellence Consulting, Inc.

• Foreword viiAnthony Iton Preface ixThe Author xviiPrologue: Why I Care About the Built Environment xixPART I. HEALTH AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT: AN INTRODUCTIONChapter 1 What Does Love, or Caritas, Have to Do with the Built Environment? 3We Love Our Families and Our Country, but Do We Really Love Ourselves? 4For Love of Family 6For Love of Community 7For Love of Our Nation and the World 14Chapter 2 What Is Health, and How Do We Measure It? 15Personal Health 17Public Health Policy 23Environmental Health 28Mental and Social Health 30Chapter 3 Can the Built Environment Build Community? 35Organic Places Are Healthy Places 36Urban Centers 41State and Nation 45PART II. EXAMPLES OF CHANGEChapter 4 From Monoculture to Human Culture: the Belmar district of Lakewood, Colorado 53Symptoms 54Diagnosis 60Cure 62Prevention 64Chapter 5 Using New Urbanism Principles to Build Community: Prairie Crossing, Illinois 67Symptoms 69Diagnosis 70Cure 73Prevention 77Chapter 6 Saving America’s Downtowns and Local History Through the Political Process: Charleston, South Carolina 79Symptoms 80Diagnosis 82Cure 86Prevention 88Chapter 7 Reinventing a Healthy City Through Community Leadership for Sustainability: Elgin, Illinois 91Symptoms 92Diagnosis 94Cure 98Prevention 104Chapter 8 Ending Car Captivity: Boulder, Colorado 107Symptoms 108Diagnosis 110Cure 115Prevention 117Chapter 9 Ports as Partners in Health: Oakland, California 119Symptoms 120Diagnosis 123Cure 132Prevention 135Chapter 10 The City That Won’t Give Up: Detroit, Michigan 139Symptoms 140Diagnosis 144Cure (or at Least Treatment) 146Prevention 155PART III. BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLDChapter 11 What’s Happening in Your Community? 159Determining the Health of Your Community 159Conducting an Audit of Your Built Environment 166Chapter 12 Who Are the Players? 175Finding Your Stakeholders 178Social Networking 187Getting Everyone to Pull Together 188Chapter 13 Create an Action Plan 189Analyze the Symptoms 189Determine the Diagnosis 194Implement the Cure 195Protect Through Prevention 206Epilogue: Now It’s Your Turn 207Notes 213Index 219

“Though intended as a companion to a four-part TV series he is hosting on PBS stations, the book stands on its own very well. Though professionals of many stripes can learn from Designing Healthy Communities, its greatest strength is likely to lie in energizing and educating a broad public — readers described by Dr. Jackson as “those of us who are concerned about our communities and the world we are giving to our children.” – Better Cities/Towns, February 2012. “It’s called the ‘built environment’ and if you’re a public health whiz, you know exactly what that means. If you don’t, Dr. Richard Jackson, Chair of UCLA’s Environmental Health Sciences Department believes it’s critical you do.” – The California Report health blog, KQED (San Francisco)“An admirer of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Dr. Jackson argues that such details of daily life make existence worthwhile. And that is what “Designing Healthy Communities” is all about.” – Reporting on Health (USC Annenberg)“The new book, “Designing Healthy Communities,” says: ‘When there is nearly nothing within walking distance to interest a young person and it is near-lethal to bicycle, he or she must relinquish autonomy — a capacity every creature must develop just as much as strength and endurance.’” – New York Times, January, 31, 2012