[*BCM*] pedestrians, cyclists, city-livers! TONIGHT's event!

[thom3 at aol.com]

<http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/best-and-worst-walking-cities-in-america-ranked-by-prevention,300717.shtml

 

 

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/homepage/x2052204094

 

Prevention magazine rates Cambridge best walking city in U.S.

Mon Mar 03, 2008, 12:55 PM EST


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Cambridge is the best walking city in America, with more residents walking to work and more parks per square mile than any other city evaluated, according to a just-released study by Prevention magazine in its April issue and the American Podiatric Medical Association. Walking kudos also goes to New York, ranked No. 2, and Ann Arbor, No. 3. The worst walking cities: Oklahoma City, North Las Vegas, and Gadsden, AL. Prevention and the APMA annually team up to measure the walkability of America’s cities as interest in walking for fitness remains strong. Walking is the most popular form of exercise with 87.5 percent of Americans walking for fitness.

New in this year’s survey, more than 500 U.S. cities, including D.C., were evaluated and ranked on 14 walking criteria, including the percentage of adults who walk to work, number of parks per square mile, use of mass transit, and percentage of adults who walk for fitness. Also new this year, a best walking city was named in each of the 50 states from an evaluation of its 10 most populated cities.

This year’s 10 best and 10 worst walking cities in the United States, according to the Prevention/APMA study: 

10 best U.S. walking cities of 2008

1. Cambridge

2. New York, N.Y. 

3. Ann Arbor, Mich. 

4. Chicago, Ill. 

5. Washington, D.C. 

6. San Francisco

7. Honolulu

8. Trenton, N.J.

9. Boston

10. Cincinnati

10 worst U.S. walking cities of 2008

1. Oklahoma City, Okla. 

2. North Las Vegas, Nev. 

3. Gadsden, Ala. 

4. Davenport, Iowa 

5. Mount Pleasant, S.C. 

6. Enid, Okla. 

7. Laredo, Texas 

8. Springdale, Ark.

9. Clarksville, Tenn.

10. Lafayette, La.


-----Original Message-----
From: jasmine laietmark <jasmine at bikesnotbombs.org>
To: Boston Critical Mass <list at bostoncriticalmass.org>
Sent: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 11:45 am
Subject: [*BCM*] pedestrians, cyclists, city-livers! TONIGHT's event!


whether or not you missed that great talk at livable streets last week- go, go go to this and the one on monday! if you want/can, of course.
this should be great- 



TONIGHT! WalkBoston Celebration, JON ORCUTT,
New York City DOT Senior Policy Advisor 
Thu. Mar. 6, 7:00 pm , come at 5:30 for eating, drinking, and shmoozing! [ @ 60 State Street, Boston ] more...

MONDAY StreetTalk! LivableStreets hosts special guest DAN BURDEN, champion of walkability! 
Mon. Mar. 10, 6:30 - 8:30 pm founder of Walkable Communities, consultant for Glatting Jackson [ @ IHCD showroom, North Station ] 

As founder and executive director of Walkable Communities, Inc., Burden spends his days walking the streets of America, advising politicians and civic leaders on how to make their communities more pedestrian and cyclist friendly. It's a challenging and daunting task to get everyone to slow down in our motorist-dominated world, but the rewards are tangible and often surprising. In the realm of "livable streets," Dan is a hero. His photographs and stories from around the world will completely change how you view walking. 

Burden is part of the suddenly arrived profession that promotes new kinds of communities. He is one of a (small but growing) group of itinerant designers and facilitators are now crisscrossing the country conducting workshops with local residents. They're exploring the possibilities of changing streets and buildings in ways that would add pleasure and reassurance to cities and towns. Does a city become more lovable as it becomes more livable? Can we find a balance between cars and people? What about the even trickier balance between land and cars and people? Can developers and local officials move from blueprints to "greenprints," so that a town's growth plans add green space to people's lives, instead of taking it away? These are a few of the many questions that Dan tackles. But it's not easy. "I tell my audiences that Schopenhauer long ago defined the three stages all new ideas go through: ridicule, violent opposition, and acceptance," says Burden. "I've never yet seen a single step skipped in any community."

Once called the "Johnny Appleseed" of livable communities, Dan drives forward as confidently as if he were entering his own neighborhood, and talks about his work and his vision of the slowly emerging, post-sprawl America. People's optimism about improving their communities often wavers when they talk about the clutter, confusion, and congestion they see through their windshields. It falters again when they reach inside themselves to describe the absences sprawl imposes on their lives: It steals time, choice, and proximity to others--not just open space. We are not only farther away from schools and shops, from friends and neighbors, from fields and woods; more and more of each day is given over to a tense, effortful, unnourishing, and for now unavoidable in- between-ness. This townless, countryless, road- bound running around stretches us thin; our bodies are in motion-but what is there around us to anchor our hearts and minds?

Click here for more information 

free and open to the public, donation suggested, beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!

Come by early and browse the new Institute for Human Centered Design showroom! 

The showroom is a fantastic place to explore the field of Human Centered Design. Manufacturers on the cutting edge of the field, some household names and some unfamiliar to American audiences, exhibit their actual products as well as demonstrating products via DVD. 



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