Open Voices News Roundup: November 6

Every week, we bring you the latest news in placemaking, landscape architecture and urban planning, the nature-mental health link, and much more. Check back each week for new roundups and items.

Get Out and Walk – It’s For Your Own Good

“Imagine this: Your doctor pulls out a prescription pad, but doesn’t prescribe a drug. Instead, the doctor orders a brisk walk in a local park. This kind of “fitness prescription” will likely become more common as we learn more about the relationship between health and regular outdoor exercise. The current state of American fitness is alarming. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than half of all adults are getting the recommended amount of physical activity … and 29 percent engage in no leisure-time physical activity at all. The numbers aren’t much better for children and adolescents, with only about 27 percent getting enough exercise. Our sedentary lifestyle is contributing to a national epidemic of obesity, which can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, high cholesterol, congestive heart failure, stroke, colon cancer, gallstones and arthritis, just to name a few!”

Minneapolis Park Will Green a Brown Part of Downtown, But at What Cost?

“The saga of Minneapolis’s Downtown East Commons, an ambitious planned park in a part of the city lacking in green space, is enough to make one’s head spin. Next to a planned football stadium that will replace Minneapolis’s aging Metrodome, the Downtown East Commons is envisioned as a two-block, 4.2-acre “front yard” for the new stadium and a planned mixed-use complex all built by developer Ryan Companies. Initially the space was proposed as a smaller plaza, a staging area for game-day events. The city asked the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority to turn the plaza into a park that the MSFA and the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings could use on game days.”

Small Cities and Towns are Urban Places, Too

“The Washington Post recently told the story of Drew Murphy—an educated young man living the walkable urban life like many in his generation, with a twist. He doesn’t live in the city.The Post reports on what it calls the “mini-DC” phenomenon: People living in small cities in the region, like Frederick, Alexandria, Anapolis, and Leesburg–some way outside the central city. A similar trend is occurring across the nation in smaller cities like Pasadena CA, West Palm Beach FL, and Evanston IL, the Post reports. This is not a new trend—all of these municipalities have been reviving for many years. But this has received less attention than big-city revival in DC, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and other major metros. The media usually frames this as city versus suburb—and revival in outlying cities and towns appears to run counter to the storyline.”

As Boomers Age, Walkable Cities Become More Important

“It’s a charmed feature of family life that the oldest and youngest often find common cause. In league against the conservatism of parents, grandparents and grandkids might push for dessert before dinner or agree on the harmlessness of playing outside in the rain. It seems that the two cohorts have also found themselves in a natural alliance on urban planning. Both the old and the young, according to surveys, want to live where they can walk, use transit, and enjoy public space. Millennials may embody this lifestyle in film and on television, but the elderly are exerting their influence behind the scenes. The AARP, which counts some 37 million members over 50, has quietly mounted a campaign for a built environment less oriented toward private automobiles.”