Land use/zoning/joint use

HKHC Personal Profile: Samina Raja (Buffalo, NY)

mdessauer — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:14:21 -0600

Samina Raja has been there. She knows. Some speak theoretically about food justice and health. Samina brings personal experience and cultural relevance to the conversation. “When my daughter and I moved to the United States, I was on a limited budget and always thinking about how I was going to provide for us.” A friend connected her to a community garden, which helped, but still she struggled. “I know what it feels like to be a poor person, what it feels like to scrimp. As a parent, I shouldn’t have to think about how many busses I have to take to get to the grocery store.

Healthi Kids asks, “Where are the Play Spaces?”

tschwantes — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:00:37 -0500

Rochester identifies itself as the “City of Play,” and even boasts being the home to the National Museum of Play. Yet, for many children in the city there are still barriers to play. Rochester’s Healthi Kids partnership has been interested in knowing where children play long before HKHC put out its request for proposal. Healthi Kids initiative, part of the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency (FLHSA), was formed in 2008 with funding from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation.

Active Living By Design Advocacy Resource Guide

vconti — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:40:47 -0500

Grant County, NM

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:53:18 -0600

For all the sweeping natural beauty of Grant County—majestic mountains, fragrant pine forests, high desert grasslands—there is also the triple challenge of poverty, isolation and infrastructure.

The county covers 3,900 square miles, but its population, divided almost evenly between Whites and Hispanics, is less than 30,000. Nearly half of all residents live in small rural communities distant from the county’s four incorporated towns. Thirty-eight areas are designated as colonias because of substandard housing, water and sewage systems and streets.

San Antonio, TX

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:48:01 -0600

Between its founding by Catholic missionaries in the early 1700s and its vivid mix of Spanish, German and other cultures, San Antonio is one of the most historic cities in the country. It is also one of the heaviest—a distinction it’s more than ready to shed.

Phoenix, AZ

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:32:35 -0600

In less than 20 years, tremendous growth has turned Phoenix into the nation’s fifth-largest city. But the expansion of critical infrastructure has not kept pace with its surge in population and land development. The imbalance is particularly acute in older neighborhoods, where there are too few safe and accessible parks, playgrounds, streets, bike paths and public pools for the burgeoning ranks of children.

Moore and Montgomery Counties, NC

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:18:14 -0600

The beauty of gentle pine-dotted hills hides an acute impoverishment through the southern midsection of North Carolina. In Moore and Montgomery counties, for example, one out of every five children ages 5 to 17 lives below the federal poverty level. An equal number also lives close to that edge.

For all too many young people here, their health reflects these rates. A project called Healthy Kids in the Carolinas will work in five communities in the largely rural region where overweight and obesity among elementary school students exceeds 50 percent at times.

Milwaukee, WI

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:17:21 -0600

In the late 19th century it was the settlement movement, pioneered by social reformers to alleviate conditions in poor urban areas. It took hold in Milwaukee in 1896, when the city’s first “settlement house” opened its doors to assist newly arrived European immigrants.

Now, in the early 21st century, a similar movement is afoot, and Milwaukee is turning to eight centers that uphold its historic settlement legacy and hoping they will help solve a modern-day ill.

Lake Worth, Greenacres and Palm Springs, FL

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:14:19 -0600

Palm Beach boasts sparkling white beaches, beautiful hotels and mansions of some rich and famous. Drive just a few miles south, and it’s no longer a tourist’s postcard world. The affluence and privilege disappears, to be replaced by the social and health problems of economically compromised communities.

Poverty. Homelessness. Illiteracy. Obesity. They’re all too plentiful within the trio of cities wedged here between the Atlantic Ocean and Florida Turnpike.

Kane County, IL

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:09:52 -0600

Forty miles west of Chicago lies Kane County, home to more than 500,000 people. Most of them live in smaller cities strung along the Fox River, which two decades of rapid growth has turned into a dense urban corridor of housing, strip-mall development and traffic congestion.