Organizing for America | Nancy Finegood's Blog: Fighting obesity with architecture

Fighting obesity with architecture

By Preserve History - Aug 20th, 2008 at 12:46 pm EDT

Also listed in: Historic Preservation for Obama

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Forget those awful diets...there is actual medical evidence that preservation is good for us!

Check out this article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25890997

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Why Aren't We Hearing More About This? | Report to Admin

By Preservation Voter Aug 23rd 2008 at 2:43 pm EDT (Updated Aug 23rd 2008 at 2:43 pm EDT)

Thanks Preservation Voter for bringing this to our attention. I love this quote from the article:

"A new study found that . . Those who live in neighborhoods built before 1950 are trimmer than their counterparts who reside in more modern communities. 'The older neighborhoods had a reduced level of obesity because they were generally built with the pedestrian in mind and not cars,' said Ken Smith, a co-author of the study."

This study links amazingly to one of the plank's in Barack's platform: "Foster Healthy Communities: How a community is designed – including the layout of its roads, buildings and parks – has a huge impact on the health of its residents." See Link

My question, though, is why aren't we hearing anything about these agenda items from the campaign or its surrogates? Bob Herbert really put voice to this question in the New York Times last week. He wrote:

"Domestic issues? An urban agenda? Rebuilding the nation’s aging infrastructure?

They haven’t drawn nearly as much attention as the two favorite topics in this campaign: foolishness and foreign affairs. . . . What we haven’t had is a deep exploration of problems here at home that are threatening the very vibrancy of the nation, including: the dismal employment picture (there are many more Americans out of work than the official statistics show); the terrible toll that the housing and mortgage crisis is taking on families from one coast to the other; the tens of millions of Americans who are without health insurance coverage; the stunning high school dropout numbers; and a demoralizing problem with violent crime in several parts of the country."

You can read the whole Herbert piece here:
Link

These issues are truly compelling to a whole segment of the voting public. I think all of us need to do more to encourage the campaign to showcase these ideas and to spread the word about Obama's views on these topics.

Urban Update is on the way. | Report to Admin

By Andrew Aug 25th 2008 at 10:41 pm EDT (Updated Aug 25th 2008 at 10:41 pm EDT)

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Barack's campaign plans to relaunch its "urban agenda" Monday. Read the full article here: Link

Here is a great quote:

"Centerpieces include creation of a new White House Office of Urban Policy and the restoration of billions of dollars cut from community block grants, a key source of funding for cities.

In a nod to one of the mayors' top priorities, Sen. Obama would open a national bank, seeded with $60 billion over 10 years, to finance road, bridge, airport and other public-works projects in metropolitan areas. The bank would be modeled on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., with an independent board of directors.

Sen. Obama says his administration would shift urban-policy making to so-called smart-growth strategies that synchronize transportation, commercial and housing needs for entire regions, rather than following the tradition of focusing first on fighting poverty and crime. He would fund $200 million in annual grants to develop "regional clusters," such as the high-technology-focused area known as the Research Triangle in North Carolina."

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