Keynote address given to University of South Florida on the occasion of World Health Day, addressing global urbanization and its impact on global health as well as participatory urban design and its contribution to healthy cities.

1. A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

2. WHO Healthy Cities
Healthy Cities approach
“The approach seeks to put health high on the
political and social agenda of cities and to build
a strong movement for public health at the local
level. It strongly emphasizes equity,
participatory governance and solidarity,
intersectoral collaboration and action to address
the determinants of health.”

3. Health: “the absence of sickness”
• Community health = increased capacity for
human productivity & fulfillment across
geography and demographics
• Built environment = one component of the
infrastructure and platform to achieve health.

4. Children do well when families do
well, and families do well when
they live in supportive
neighborhoods.
– Annie E Casey Foundation
Baltimore, MD

5. Cities have the capability of providing
something for everybody, only
because, and only when, they are
created by everybody. - Jane Jacobs

6. Bridgeport, CT

8. Vancouver, BC

11. Detroit, Michigan

12. Baltimore, MD

13. Austin, TX

15. San Francisco

16. Lisbon, Portugal

17. Washington, DC

18. Union Square, NYC

19. Democracy & The City

20. Greetings from Washington

21. Prague, Czech Republic Walkscore: 96

22. What does the built environment say
about our community?
Sprawl circles, Lee County, Florida

23. City-Building Guidelines
• Understand the limits of your own expertise
• LISTEN to the people and INVOLVE them in it
• Design Communities that CONNECT and
INTEGRATE people
• Focus on NEIGHBORHOODS as the community
building blocks
• ADAPT to Context & Culture

24. How Planning Conflicts Get Framed

25. Every week 1.4 million people move into cities.

27. The Urban Challenge
• As the World Economic Forum has noted, “Cities are
evolving faster than at any point in our history,
putting them on the cusp of major transformation
which, if managed well, could lead to
unprecedented economic growth and prosperity for
all, but if managed in an uncoordinated manner
could drive social, economic and environmental
decline.”

28. Trickle-down urbanism won’t work

29. “Paradoxically, what is most needed to achieve Jane
Jacobs’s vision is to deploy a Robert Moses strategy—
redesigning our streets quickly and decisively for an
increasingly urban age, this time committed to
accommodating population growth and offering
residents more options for getting around without a
car.”

30. The Fight for Urban Democracy
autocrats: Public Relations
• Sponsors decide on a course of
action and then attempt to sell
it to the public.
• people can feel manipulated
and suspicious
• often hinders them from
thinking effectively about
problems and challenges
because it avoids exposing
them to the full dialogue.
• PR seeks “buy-in”
democrats: Public Participation
• Sponsors engage public on the
front end in dialogue to help
understand the pros and cons
of different actions and seek
input, consultation,
involvement, collaboration
• Builds common understanding
of the issue and decision by
hearing and understanding all
viewpoints and information
• P2 seeks meaningful
involvement

31. The Population Boom

33. Consider: Las Vegas, Nevada

34. 115 degree days
Outside Las Vegas, Nevada

35. Day Zero Horizon?

36. Context Matters
School, Quito, Angola - 1997

37. Austin, TX
Doubling population every 20 years
Austin, TX

38. Detroit picDetroit, Michigan

39. Coral Bay, St John, 2013

40. Consider: Sao Paulo, Brazil

41. Consider: London, UK

42. Tangier, Morocco

43. Kibera – Nairobi, Kenya

44. We are all faced with a series of historic
opportunities, brilliantly disguised as insoluble
problems. – John W. Gardner

45. Sipaulovi Village, Hopi Mesa

46. Image: San Diego DENTIST!

47. “She estimates that
federal urban renewal
policies and local
decisions destroyed 1,600
African American districts
in cities across the United
States”

48. Cape Town, South Africa
“Unequal Scenes,” Johnny Miller

49. Mexico City - Johnny Miller

53. Social Trust

54. Image: WHAS, Louisville, KY

56. Del Paso Heights, referred to locally as “Del Paso
Freights” or “The Deepest Place in Hell”

57. Fifth Ward, Houston, “the bloody nickel”

58. Skid Row, Los Angeles

59. Martindale Brightwood, Indianapolis

60. Camden, New Jersey

61. Central City New Orleans, 2007

63. “our analysis shows that meaningful health gaps persist not only by place
but also by race and ethnicity. These health gaps are largely influenced by
differences in opportunities that disproportionately affect people of
color, such as access to quality education, jobs, and safe, affordable
housing.”

64. Copenhagen, Denmark
-pedestrian activity accounts for 80% of all
traffic in the city center
-commuting by bicycle accounts for 36% of all
work trips, with 50% commuting to work by
bike
-96%of residents say they can count on
someone if they are in need

65. Malmo, Sweden

66. The “lightpath,” Auckland, New Zealand
New Zealand’s life expectancy is 80 years and
the country spends approximately nine
percent of GDP on healthcare for its citizens

67. Bilbao, Spain

68. Amsterdam, The Netherlands -300,000 citizens in Amsterdam bicycle

70. Abandoned building, New Orleans

72. Washington, DC

74. San Francisco
• Pearl District
• Embarcadero

75. Portland

77. “You gave us hope. Back in 1992, your ideas seemed
like dreams. Now we are living those dreams.”
– Rick Smith, San Angelo Times-Standard, 2012

78. What it requires of us (all of us)
• Our healthy future is dependent on a democratic
revolution.
• Requires more holistic thinking about what a
healthy community represents, and how the built
environment can contribute to more than the
sum of its parts, more than simply the
aggregation of individual acts and behaviors.
• These are PUBLIC issues and responsibilities,
requiring COLLECTIVE action – therefore, they
require PUBLIC conversations and collaborations.
No more research, data, user, passive stuff.

83. Social Capital
“In these programs local residents work alongside civil society organizations to help
strengthen connections, build networks of reciprocity, and think about the needs of
the area. Rather than waiting for assistance from the government, these areas are
creating their own plans for mitigating future crises.”

85. Fremont Troll, Seattle
When urban democracy expands, cities flourish. The
placemaking outcomes – and the impact on people –
are nothing short of remarkable.

86. From derelict to active

87. 90 gardens across the city
Over 7,000 citizen gardeners

88. Community Voice & Community
Health
Over 5,000 projects

89. The Scaling Effect
• Over 40 international studies confirm that
volunteering can add years to your life. studies
suggest up to a 22% reduction in mortality rates.
• At the height of this program, over 86K
volunteers across Seattle. One study reported
that 43 percent of the city’s adults volunteered
regularly in the community and 62 percent
participated in at least one neighborhood group
as a result of these efforts.

90. Our society is being
remade.
In the time I just used to speak,
over 3,472 people moved into
cities around the world.

93. What does this mean for Tampa?

94. Today’s Panel
• Donna Petersen, ScD, MHS, CPH
• Sarah Mason WELL AP, LEED AP
• Allison G. Yeh, AICP, LEED Green Associate
• Taryn Sabia, Ed.M, M.Arch, MUCD