When I first encountered this doyenne of urban activism, she offered one of the sharpest critiques I’d ever heard. Jane Jacobs was relentless, and stood up to anyone in her quest to understand what really makes a city I first met Jane Jacobs in the early 90s. She was sitting in the front row of…
We’ve heard it before: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Such a cliche, right? But a single step will start you on the path toward better health, and you’ll need to accrue significantly less than a thousand miles. In fact, you just need 10,000 steps. That magic number may seem…
Department of Transportation General Manager Seleta Reynolds Talks DASH Buses, Pedestrian Safety and the Idea of Car-Free Streets in Downtown When Seleta Reynolds graduated from Brown University in 1998, she had an American history degree but no clue as to a career path. She took on an internship with the city of Oakland, thinking it…
Millions of people are tracking their health and fitness patterns on electronic devices, as shown by the multi-billion dollar market for wearables such as Fitbit and Apple Watch. And medical researchers are always looking for ways to increase the population samples reflected in research surveys, where getting hundreds of participants can be a trial. That’s…
Stocking up on bikinis and maillots for Memorial Day weekend may be the best gymspiration there is. Who doesn’t want to look their absolute fittest when dressed in mere inches of spandex at the beach? No need to clear your schedule in favor of booking back-to-back cult classes—according to celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak, whose clients…
If you love city life and want a healthy lifestyle, pack your bags and head for our nation’s capital. For the third year in a row, according to the American Fitness Index, Washington, D.C., has ranked number one as the fittest major city in America. The annual report, published by the American College of Sports Medicine,…
Take action to be healthy and safe and encourage men and boys in your life to make their health a priority. Learn about steps men can take each day to improve health. Get Good Sleep Adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep. Insufficient sleep is associated with a number of chronic diseases and conditions, such…
A major overhaul of a huge Houston park reveals disparities in what white, black, and Latino residents want—and need. Houston is embarking upon a $220 million parks project called Bayou Greenways 2020, a 150-mile network of continuous hiking trails, biking paths, and green space that will run throughout the city. When completed in 2020, it…
The impact of the built environment on health is still a fairly new research field, and many investigations have relied on the use of cross-sectional data, a research model that carries the risk of incorrectly suggesting reverse causation.1 A study in this issue of EHP, however, uses a more robust longitudinal design and reports that…
We all take walks, but Ken Ilgunas had a weird idea to go on an especially long walk. Why was it weird? He wanted to walk the length of the proposed Keystone Pipeline, from the wilds of Canada through the Great Plains and to the Gulf Coast of Texas. Walking and sprinting, hitchhiking, and finding…
