Posted on May 19, 2010 by elissahoagland
Last week, the Childhood Obesity Task Force released the action plan for the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” initiative. The plan contains 70 recommendations, including greater availability of healthy food, clearer nutritional information, and increased recreational opportunities for children, including improved access to safe parks, playgrounds, and indoor and outdoor recreational facilities. The Washington Post reported [...]
Filed under: health, partnerships | Tagged: federal policy, health, michelle obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted on May 11, 2010 by Ben Welle
Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move task force is out with its “action plan” that includes 70 recommendations, with some very encouraging words related to the provision of and access to urban parks. The report is extensive and covers nearly all of the issues related to childhood obesity, grouping them into five categories as follows: Getting children [...]
Filed under: health | Tagged: federal policy | 1 Comment »
Posted on April 30, 2010 by elissahoagland
Urban parks advocates from across the country traveled to Washington, DC, on Tuesday, April 20th to lobby members of congress in support of city parks. Forty park professionals participated in City Parks Alliance Day on the Hill, which consisted of a legislative overview, training session, and congressional office visits. Participants then attended the the Congressional [...]
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Posted on April 12, 2010 by Ben Welle
First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative kicked into gear last week with a summit of federal government leaders, researchers on childhood obesity and others. The Washington Post article on the event indicates some progress in making sure things like schoolyards and parks are part of the mix: Obama gathered about 100 suits, profs, politicos [...]
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Posted on March 23, 2010 by Ben Welle
The now signed-into-law health care bill, the Affordable Care Act includes new “community transformation grants” that could provide funds for playgrounds, recreational programs and the like that encourage “active living” and access to healthy food. The details and exact nature of this effort are unclear, as the ink has barely dried on the President’s twenty-pen [...]
Filed under: health | Tagged: federal policy | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 17, 2010 by Ben Welle
The U.S. Department of Transportation will now pursue the full inclusion of pedestrians and bicyclists in transportation projects. In a blog post, DOT Secretary Ray Lahood said, “This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.” According to the National Complete Streets Coalition: The statement details what agencies large and small [...]
Filed under: planning, transportation | Tagged: federal policy | 2 Comments »
Posted on March 10, 2010 by Ben Welle
There’s a good deal of activity going on in Congress that could benefit parks and public spaces in cities, with two recent efforts showing up that have promise and would help cities in different but both very good ways: Smart Growth Around America describes the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act, which would incentivize and [...]
Filed under: funding, green infrastructure, planning, transportation | Tagged: federal policy | Leave a Comment »
Posted on February 10, 2010 by Ben Welle
A new initiative by First Lady Michelle Obama called Let’s Move will try to tackle the childhood obesity problem in the United States. Citing an obesity rate that has tripled in the last thirty years and $150-billion in related treatment costs, the First Lady is making this one of her primary tasks while in the [...]
Filed under: health | Tagged: federal policy, michelle obama | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 7, 2009 by Ben Welle
A newly-formed group out of Atlanta is proposing that the federal government assist local communities by taking troubled commercial real estate properties off the hands of banks and convert them into public parks. An article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution describes how Michael Messner, a Georgia Tech alum commissioned the school’s Research Institute to investigate [...]
Filed under: economics, renewal, stimulus funds | Tagged: federal policy | 6 Comments »
Posted on December 1, 2009 by Ben Welle
The Community Development Block Grant has been one of the most effective vehicles for creating jobs under the Recovery Act (or stimulus), according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution and posted at The Avenue. The review indicates that “some 820 CDBG grants traceable in the [Recovery.gov] database are delivering a job for every $7,000 [...]
Filed under: funding, stimulus funds | Tagged: federal policy | 1 Comment »
