Principles For Developing A Healthy Cities

How “healthy” is the city you live in? What do you look for in a city? Does your neighborhood have accessible areas for you to workout/exercise or even walk places? Does it have sidewalks? Playgrounds for your kids? Highways close to houses? Street lights? There’s so many things that go into having your neighborhood and a city healthy and accessible. But what do you look for? I would look for sidewalks and bike lanes: Being able to walk or bike for exercise or go on daily. Plus, less traffic and air pollution means a healthier planet too.

Portland is a great city for that. So many people ride bikes and almost everywhere have bike lanes for people to ride bikes. Even having access to public transportation can contribute to a healthy lifestyle, since there's usually some walking to get to your bus stop or train station. This is also very important and Portland also has public transportation which is great because less people driving equals less people on the road – less pollution!

Another thing to look for is, access you have to nature. For example, greenways, community gardens and trails to walk or even hike on. Portland has great outdoor places to go to, like the Rose Gardens, Multnomah Falls, and the Gorge has great hikes to go on! Also, look for neighborhoods/ cities that socialize and have a high activity level! Having a sense of security and even happiness comes with being able to socialize with your neighbors. I know that growing up, we had 8 houses on our block and everyone knew each other.

Another thing I would look for is sidewalks in my neighborhood. I grew up in SW Portland in a little neighborhood that is a dead end where there weren’t any sidewalks so when I look for a house in the far future, sidewalks will probably be on my list of things I want, since I didn’t have it growing up! There are so many things that go into having a healthy city and knowing from right and wrong. Everyone’s needs are different and have their own opinion on what a healthy city is. While reading, I found that the “WHO Principles for Developing a Healthy Cities Project”. I found these to be very important while talking about healthy cities and what we do to figure out if they are “so called” healthy or not. Equity was the first definition and it said that “all people must have the right and the opportunity to realize their full potential in health. The second definition was Health Promotion and it said “build healthy public policy; create supportive environments; strength community action and develop personal skills; and reorient health services. The third definition was Intersectoral action: Health is created in the setting of everyday life and is influenced by the actions and decisions of most sectors of a community. The fourth definition said “Informed, motivated and actively participating communities are key elements for setting priorities and making and implementing decisions”. The fifth definition was Supportive environments: “a city health plan should address the creation of supportive physical and social environments. And the last definition was accountability: “decisions of politicians, senior executives and managers in all sectors have an impact on the conditions that influence health, and responsibility for such decisions should be made explicit in a clear and understandable manner.

The WHO healthy cities program in Europe has developed a set of evaluative categories that recognize the need for political and institutional change in order to move toward the healthy city. I think that all cities should have this because it is such a great outline to have and honestly, just to look at and refer to.