Creating Healthy Communities

Whenever possible, I ride my bike to work.  I love it, and I realize how lucky I am to be able to do this.  Today I went to an event called “Designing Healthy Communities:  Zoning Reform to Inspire Healthy Living” at the Massachusetts Statehouse.  It was part of a campaign by the Massachusetts Public Health Association to increase access to healthy, affordable food and safe public space for physical activity.  I learned today why so few people bike to work.

It was fascinating and inspiring to hear some of the work that’s being done in local communities to support healthy living and to learn about the history of our zoning laws.  Today, many communities are designed so that people live and play far from where they work, shop and do other activities.  This makes it difficult to be physically active because it’s no longer an intrinsic part of our day.  Instead, today, often the people who exercise are those who have the luxury of the time to do this.  

It wasn’t always like this. In fact, about 100 years ago, zoning laws were put in place to separate where people lived and played from where they worked.  Ironically, these zoning laws were meant to support public health because people often worked at industrial sites that made them sick.  These were not healthy places to be.  By separating people’s homes from these sites, they were less likely to get sick.  Due to advances in public health, and environmental protection laws over the past several decades, this has changed.  Our worksites are no longer the unhealthy environments they once were.  And yet we now have other health problems, such as increases in chronic disease, from drive everywhere we go and not being physically active enough.  That’s what the event at the statehouse was all about.  

How can we change the antiquated zoning laws to make it easier for our communities to have mixed use developments, so that people live close to where they play, work and shop.  How can communities connect residents to safe, beautiful places to be physically active?  There’s great work being done in Massachusetts on this issue.  For example, Revere has a beautiful beach on the east side of the city; however, most residents live on the west side of the city and the two sides are intersected by several major highways, making it difficult for people to get to the beach.  Revere residents got together in a coalition called “Revere on the Move” and they created an urban trail, with bright blue poles which serve as mile markers, so that people now have a long trail that they can use for exercise.  Their next step is to think about how they can create the opportunities for everyone to by physically active; not just the folks with the time and intention to exercise.  It will be exciting to see what they do next!  Click here for a link to a fact sheet on the campaign.