Mapping

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.

Active Living By Design Advocacy Resource Guide

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

Rochester, NY

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:46:39 -0600

Like other Great Lakes cities, Rochester has spent the past several decades confronting a shrinking manufacturing base, job losses and deepening poverty. The health of many residents has suffered as a consequence, and perhaps hardest hit have been residents of the Crescent, as the deteriorating neighborhoods immediately surrounding downtown are known.

Philadelphia, PA

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:31:24 -0600

It’s the same one-two punch that has hit many urban settings, but in the nation’s sixth biggest city, the combination of an often unsafe environment for physical activity and limited access to healthy food has led to a real public health crisis: Almost half of Philadelphia’s children are overweight or obese.

The specific ills that keep youth from playing outside, particularly in poorer neighborhoods, are easy to list: a high crime rate, tens of thousands of empty lots overtaken by weeds and trash, cracked sidewalks, narrow or congested streets.

Milledgeville, GA

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:15:39 -0600

From 1804 to 1868, Milledgeville proudly served as Georgia’s capital, and many remnants of that era, such as the Old Governor’s Mansion, can still be seen today. Far less grand, however, are some of the signs of modern times—a community divided by major state highways, rising unemployment and deteriorating neighborhoods.

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.

Kingston, NY

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:12:05 -0600

It’s a historic city that was New York’s first capital, a gateway city to the outdoor fun of the Catskill Mountains. Yet here on the banks of the Hudson River, Kingston is also a city trying to recast itself—as a community that helps its residents be physically active and healthy.

With nearly a fifth of its population of 24,000 living in poverty, and about 44 percent of youth overweight or obese, this aspiration will not be easy to achieve.

Fitchburg, MA

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:55:45 -0600

Fitchburg sits in the shadow of bustling Boston to the east and the magnificent Mohawk Trail to the west. Fitchburg cannot claim either of those attributes. The north-central Massachusetts city of 40,000 has been struggling since its paper industry collapsed and then disappeared in the 1970s.

Jacksonville, FL

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:53:25 -0600

Health Zone 1: It is the urban core of Jacksonville, an area where 40 percent of children live in poverty and 100 percent of residents live in distressed neighborhoods. It is a place where crime is high, and traffic is fast and heavy, and children risk their safety simply by walking to school. Messages are never subtle here, from the barrage of snack and fast-food advertising on billboards and convenience store windows, to the playgrounds that are locked immediately after school ends in the afternoon.

Charleston, WV

rosalie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:36:47 -0600

Even in West Virginia’s largest city, in the shadow of the gold-domed state Capitol, the culture of Appalachia can run as deep as in a rural hollow of coal-mining country. When it comes to eating and sitting, that’s not necessarily for the best, as evidenced by three low-income Charleston neighborhoods whose residents suffer from pronounced obesity and poor health.