STORY BY E.B. BOYD ILLUSTRATION BY SABINE HEINE ·
WWW.HEINWELT.DE
THE NEW URBAN
or much of history, cities have been seen as unhealthy places: grimy, con- gested, polluted, and dangerous. In the
industrial age, cramped conditions and poor hygiene systems put city dwellers at greater risk from infectious disease. But today’s biggest health challenges are
chronic, not infectious—diseases of lifestyle. And according to many measures, urbanites are now actually healthier than their suburban and rural counterparts, with lower rates of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. That’s in part because city dwellers tend to be more active: their environment gives them
ADVANTAGE
more reasons to walk or bike instead of drive. Research has shown that each hour spent in a car per day is associated with a six percent increase in the likelihood of obesity. Cities are taking note. Instead of designing
streets and developments around cars, plan- ners are looking for ways to maximize residents’ opportunities to get moving—in greener, better- equipped neighborhood parks, and on innova- tive networks of urban trails that allow people to exercise on their way to work or school. From San Francisco to Memphis, here are four ways parks and green space keep resi- dents healthy, happy, and at home in the city.
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