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public health

How "Pocket Parks" Make Cities Safer and Healthier

November 23, 2011 by Kaid Benfield
with 274 views
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     A research team has found that distressed neighborhoods where vacant lots have been converted into small parks and community green spaces are associated with reduced crime when compared to neighborhoods with unimproved vacant lots.  The study was conducted by a group from the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman... [read more]

Communicating about Local Chemical Hazards

November 15, 2011 by Kat Friedrich
with 52 views
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This factory has been open since before World War II. A local business directory estimates that it employs 5,500 people. A Boston Globe story reports a lower number and comments that the company sought state aid recently to prevent layoffs. What’s wrong with this industrial picture? [read more]

WHO: Air Pollution Kills More Than 2 Million People Each Year

October 5, 2011 by TheCityFix - produced by EMBARQ
with 249 views
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The World Health Organization released an unprecedented compilation of air quality data last week hat shows a dangerous increase in air pollution levels. According to the data, over 2 million people die every year from indoor and outdoor air pollution, and the collected air quality levels are alarmingly threatening people’s health in many cities. [read more]

Mapping Drainage Is The 1st Step To Improve Public Health In Urban Slums

September 1, 2011 by Primož Kovačič
with 273 views
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I believe that the reasons to map open drainage in the slums are well known and are obvious to most people. Everyone who’s ever been to the slums knows that open drainage presents a huge health hazard to the people living around it. In combination with poor or non-existent water and sanitation systems, open drainage presents a recipe for... [read more]

How Renewable Energy Is Like The Swine Flu

June 9, 2011 by Steve Offutt
with 120 views
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Recently I visited an old friend of mine, and at one point our discussion turned to climate change and renewable energy.  He made the comment that renewables certainly make a lot of sense, but it's "up to the market" to determine their viability.  My initial response was that the fossil fuels we have depended on for so long... [read more]

Landscape Architects Must Fight for Public Health

December 16, 2010 by The Dirt ASLA
with 969 views
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An essay by Thomas Fisher, dean of the College of Design at the Univeristy of Minnesota,  in Places argues that Frederick Law Olmsted‘s early work as general secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission serves as a important model for today’s landscape architects. Fisher believes landscape architects must once again... [read more]

For business, is health the new “green”?

May 2, 2010 by Marc Gunther
with 1,171 views
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A decade ago, few people would have thought that major banks, retailers or Internet companies would need environmental strategies. Yet today, they do–Bank of America has promised to invest $20 billion on sustainability initiatives over 10 years,  Wal-Mart’s aggressive environmental efforts are well known and eBay, while selling... [read more]

The ROI for smart growth and placemaking: "Love Ain’t Enough: Put Up or Shut Up"

March 26, 2010 by John Michlig
with 270 views
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Fortunately, creating communities that feature great places and human-scaled development is paying off in terms of higher property values and their attraction of non-polluting industries. This link features other returns-on-investment in digest form: Like any next, big something, placemaking is growing up. And in its role as gawky... [read more]