Potential members must ride with the group for a probationary period of 45 days so that members can assess the extent to which that person will enhance the group and follow the rules, particularly when out on the road with the group. Once the period has passed and the person is approved, they can begin to invest in building up their bikes. The group is still a work in progress, says manager Shuntain Thomas. They are set in their mission of building bridges between health and kids, but are still strategizing on the best way to accomplish that goal.

In the meanwhile, they can be found at Exposition Park on Saturdays or riding in parades. Next up: the Black History Parade in Pasadena on Feb. 18 at 10 a.m.

Apparently California is a good place to grow oranges. Photo:Budget Travel Adventures

Orange empire

Los Angeles grew up around three discoveries of what the local soil was good for. First, the ground harbored petroleum. Second, and probably more significantly, it was good for growing citrus at a time when a confluence of plant breeding and the completion of transcontinental railroad links with refrigerated cars made it possible to grow fruit here and ship the produce eastwards.  Third – linked to the second by way of picturesque citrus crate labels that advertized a pleasant life in the sun –  the land was good for subdividing.

As a result, the L.A. region boomed first as an agricultural zone and then as a population center.  In 1910 there were 8000 farms in Los Angeles County and the county was the most economically productive ag county in the state, probably number one in the country as well, with 1.7 million orange trees and more than 7000 ‘backyard’ cows not on farms but kept for milk like someone might have a chicken nowadays.

The population of Los Angeles County rose by 1197 percent between 1900-1930, the golden years of local agriculture, followed by a second demographic jump in the 40s and 50s and a third in the 90s. Groves and fields were converted to houses, businesses, asphalt.  Today, there are approximately 90 farms left in L.A. County, now ranked the 28th leading agricultural county in the state.

Regional food hubs

There is still productive farmland in surrounding counties and the Central Valley of California is one of the world’s leading producers of fruits and vegetables.  The challenge is how to expand distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables and other local agricultural products to underserved neighborhoods while also enhancing the incomes of remaining small and medium size farmers. When we were conducting the Food and Transportation in South Los Angeles project that I have written about, local residents noted the irony that it was hard to find good quality produce in areas that were, in some cases, just dozens of blocks from the terminal produce market, food warehouses, and the highways that serviced these storage facilities. How did a mismatch arise between California’s massive production of produce and parts of Los Angeles where it is hard to buy fresh fruits and vegetables?

According to a 2010 report by my colleague Sharon Cech at UEPI and other members of the Regional food Hub Advisory Council, the rise of industrial scale agriculture hollowed out the infrastructure that used to allow local food to be distributed, processed, stored and sold in the region.

“The once vast array of mid‐scale food businesses such as packinghouses, independent processors, and regional grocery stores are feeling the effects of the trend of consolidation occurring in the food industry… The mainstream food system, which increasingly favors large‐scale production–mega grocery chains contracting directly with mega growers– has undercut the terminal market system and the independent grocery stores that they supply… Mid‐size wholesale customers are critical for mid‐size growers who are not big enough to sell to large grocery chains or institutions but cannot afford the transaction costs of selling their entire production at farmers’ markets. There is significantly less labor involved in selling a single 1,000‐pound order of oranges than in selling the same oranges to 500 customers, two pounds at a time.”

Their solution is to promote regional food hubs as a way to aggregate food from small and medium farmers in a manner that can reach wholesale, retail and other distribution channels.  You can think of a regional food hub as a warehouse where food from multiple farmers is aggregated together so that there are sufficient quantities to interest mid to large scale buyers. The hub would be different from existing produce markets in also selling food at the retail scale through a permanent farmers market or on-site stores. There could also be commercial kitchens for use by small scale food enterprises and cooking classes; office space for community organizations or meetings; refrigerated trucks to source from local farms; and possibly a commissary with a fleet of fruit carts and/or grocery trucks to sell in different neighborhoods.

The wholesale warehouse + retail/ farmers market model isn’t the only form that a food hub could take. Regional food hubs could be developed by commercial food distributors who focus on local products, by farmers cooperatives, or even by one some of the region’s larger farmers markets (where restaurants and small distributors already shop). Information technologies that match farmers and buyers or that allow farmers to coordinate deliveries can also fulfill some of the functions of a food hub while a physical hub is being planned. The regional food hub report has case studies of multiple models of hubs.

Ideally, a regional food hub or hubs in Los Angeles could be at the center of distribution channels for local and healthy food. Farmers’ markets or food stores can operate mobile or satellite markets, taking vans or stands to different underserved areas. Cargo bikes could deliver food between wholesale markets and farmers markets and restaurants and food stores. Social marketing and promotional campaigns can expand demand for locally grown food at new outlets like WIC only stores. Produce trucks and fruit carts that sell in low income areas could source from a food hub. Excess produce from local farms and backyard orchards can be picked and donated to food banks such as California Food Banks and Food Forward.

A greener warehouse

If a regional food hub occupied warehouse space, there is also potential to demonstrate how a wholesale distribution business can be more friendly to surrounding communities. Large warehouses abound in the Los Angeles region, linked especially to the storage and transshipment of products imported into the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The trucks and trains that carry freight to be warehoused (and trucks idling their engines at or near warehouse sites) pollute by emitting small toxic particles called particulate matter (PM) into the air. Particulate emissions from diesel vehicles and equipment contribute to health risks that include cardiovascular problems, cancer, asthma, decreased lung function and capacity, reproductive health problems, possibly brain tumors and premature death.

Trucks servicing warehouses also sometime park and idle on public streets when facilities do not provide adequate on-site parking. Warehouses are aimed at distant points: factories in china, railyards near the port, big box stores in Arizona, rather than connected to the fabric of life in the communities in which they are located. But a regional food hub with retail shops, a farmers market and other space open to the public could ‘reinvent the warehouse’ to make it a community asset. Warehouses could be electrified so that arriving delivery vehicles plug in rather than idle their polluting diesel engines. In the mid to long term all new trucks should have electric rather than internal combustion engines.

Street food in Echo Park

Having written about food & transit last week , I want to share some thoughts (and a poll) on street food.  Street and mobile food are important determinants of the food environment in Los Angeles.  They are also critical elements of more vibrant streets. But they have enemies and most of the policy activity in the city and region in recent years has been to restrict rather than support street food. I think street advocates should consider whether and how to push in the opposite direction, for legal and healthy street food.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The rules

Street and mobile food are common in the Los Angeles region, especially in low-income, immigrant neighborhoods. Meals, snacks, drinks and groceries are sold from trucks and  push carts; from  strollers and grocery carts jury-rigged for vending; from grills, tables and tarps temporarily placed along streets and sidewalks; and by vendors carrying food on foot.

Despite its reputation as a hotbed of street food, Los Angeles, is, in fact, the only one of the ten biggest cities in the United States without legal sidewalk vending of food.  Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 42(b) prohibits sale of any products, including food, on sidewalks. “No person, except as otherwise permitted by this section, shall on any sidewalk or street offer for sale, solicit the sale of, announce by any means the availability of, or have in his or her possession, control or custody, whether upon his or her person or upon some other animate or inanimate object, any goods, wares or merchandise which the public may purchase at any time.”

Section 42 (m) of the Municipal Code allows for the “Establishment and Regulation of Special Sidewalk Vending Districts.” Complicated regulations, including a requirement that 20 percent of surrounding landowners and residents sign the application in favor of a new district and assignment of vendors to specified, fixed locations make it difficult to  establish and maintain vending districts. Only one vending zone, in McArthur Park, was ever created, and it failed.

Food trucks operating in the streets are legal under California Vehicle Code section 22455 but often subject to shifting restrictions on parking. Food trucks and sidewalk vendors are also subject to state and county health codes.

Reasons for the rules

Mobile and street food have been barred or restricted in Los Angeles due to efforts by fixed location stores and restaurants to restrict competition; a narrow definition of what streets and sidewalks are for (unimpeded flow of cars and pedestrians respectively); concerns with food safety; and a ‘suburban’ vision of what a city should look like (a fear of crowds, ethnic diversity, poor people, density etc.) If you are interested in a history of vending, check out Alfonso Morales and Gregg Kettles. “Healthy Food Outside: Farmers Markets, Taco Trucks, and Sidewalk Fruit Vendors. 26 J. Contemp. Health L. & Pol’y 20. Fall 2009; and  Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Renia Ehrenfeucht. Sidewalks: Conflict and Negotiation over Public Space. MIT Press, 2009

Scattered enforcement of municipal and County regulations, low entry costs for sidewalk food vendors, and the demand for street food creates an odd juxtaposition in which street food is forbidden but ubiquitous. Vendors themselves are highly visible magnets for activity on the streets, celebrated in popular culture, persecuted by the law, but largely invisible in policy debates about the future of the city.

A snapshot of street vending in South Los Angeles

A street food vendor in Eagle Rock

For our recent project on trasnportation and food access in South Los Angeles with CRA/LA and Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, promatoras from Esperanza interviewed 45 street vendors who were selling food in the project area using every kind of vehicle from improvised push carts to trailors pulled behind cars. Of those interviewed, only 30.2% reported being aware of any laws governing street or mobile vending. 34.9% reported having had encounters with law enforcement in the past. If a legal permit were available, 50% of vendors surveyed said they would pay up to $100 for a permit.  16% of surveyed vendors said they would pay for a permit ‘no matter its cost’. Only 4% said they would not pay for a permit.

Vendors were selling a range of items, with snacks and drinks the most common, but a quarter of vendors sold fruits and vegetables, highlighting the possibility that mobile vending could be a source of healthy food in underserved areas.

Foods Availability by Mobile Vendors

Changing the Rules

Since most street vendors are interested in being able to sell legally and because street food should be a valued part of a diverse and healthy city, it’s worth considering some models for changing the law to allow food to be sold on sidewalks in the City of Los Angeles. I’ll summarize four options: a legalize and regulate model; a greencarts model, a private land model, and a ‘benign neglect’ model.

1. Legalize sidewalk vending and support and regulate mobile food vending. The City of Los Angeles should allow permitted sale of food on city sidewalks. A legal permitting process would recognize the value of street and mobile vending, create opportunities for entrepreneurship in the legal economy, and allow the City to regulate and influence street food to make it healthier. This option, which is the recommendation of our food and transportation in South LA project, would have a few components:
1. Legalize sidewalk vending -  without onerous and expensive requirements. The more restrictions that are placed on vendors such as limits on where they can operate, needing permission from adjacent stores/ restaurants, mandatory dimensions or aesthetics for carts, etc, the harder it will be for vendors to afford or comply with permits. There are some specific recommendations on the what/ where / who/ how of sidewalk vending on pages 22-23 of our food and transportation report.  Los Angeles County Department of Public Health will have to be actively engaged in figuring out ways to make health regulations easy to understand and to comply with.
2. Incentivize vending of healthy items. The City should use incentives and disincentives to encourage more vending of healthy items by produce trucks, food carts and other mobile vendors. The mobile food task force of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council is working on a point system for rating vended food that could be the basis for definitions of healthfulness. Incentives could include lower price permits for vendors of healthier items, priority access to private or public sector loans/ grants, permission to sell at a broader range of zones or priority in receiving permits to sell at desirable spots, waiver of requirements to store carts at commissaries, etc.
3. Maintain and enforce restrictions on unhealthy vending near schools. With LAUSD improving the nutrition of school food, vendors of junk food and snacks setting up near school campuses have become a major source of bad food for students. To support schools as healthy places to learn and oases from the junk and fast food that characterize many neighborhoods, the City should maintain and enforce a ban on unhealthy food vending near schools.

2. Legalize ‘green carts’ that sell only healthy food. An alternative to legalizing vending of all food on sidelwalks is to just legalize the sale of healthy items. Cities such as New York have created a separate class of green cart vending permits for sales of fruits and vegetables.l Los Angeles County is exploring whether they can start a pilot project of green carts in unincorproated regions of the County.

3. Focus on privately owned space near sidewalks as sites for vending.  In some cities like Portland, Oregon (where it is legal to sell on sidewalks), most food carts are located on privately owned lots just off the sidewalks. http://www.foodcartsportland.com/maps/ If it proves too difficult to legalize or regulate sales of food on sidewalks in Los Angeles, a fall back position could be to ensure that zoning laws governing private land allow siting of food carts and sales of food.

4. Encourage regulators to treat healthy street food with ‘benign neglect.’ Advocates for health could work with vendors and regulators so that policie and health inspectors do not target sellers of fruits, vegetables, and healthy meals. There is some evidence that current enforcement already follows this pattern, with hotdog vendors more likely to be sited than sellers of cut fruit. 

Happy Halloween, transit riders. All charts via: Transit Civil Rights & Economic Survival in Los Angeles

Yesterday afternoon, the Bus Rider’s Union and thirteen allied organizations released “Transit Civil Rights & Economic Survival in Los Angeles: A Case for Federal Intervention in LA Metro,” a report detailing how service cuts and fare hikes have devastated working class families in the past four years.  Since the expiration of a court ordered consent decree which mandated levels of service, Metro slashed 12% of its bus service hours while approving a series of fare increases.

“The tragedy of the MTA policies over the last four years is that they roll back almost all of the transit improvements – namely more buses, more bus lines, and lower fares – that MTA implemented under federal court order in response to the BRU’s civil rights lawsuit and 10-year federal consent decree,” states Barbara Lott-Holand, the co-chair of the Bus Riders Union and a transit rider herself for the last 35 years.

Metro and the BRU are awaiting the results of a Civil Rights Audit conducted by the Federal Transit Administration at the request of the Bus Riders earlier this year.  Only transit agencies in Atlanta and Los Angeles underwent this review in the past year.

A lot of the facts and figures found in the report won’t be new to regular readers of Streetsblog and others familiar with recent Metro policy, but it’s still striking to see some of the figures laid out, showing the cumulative impact of the service cuts and fare hikes that have been a major part of Metro’s bus planning since 2007.  The BRU also rejects Metro’s argument that the cuts are about increasing efficiency noting that Metro’s buses carry more passengers per mile than any bus fleet in America except New York City’s.

The report goes on to argue that the cuts and hikes have a disproportionate impact on struggling minority communities noting the higher rates of unemployment and poverty facing many bus riders.  90% of all bus riders are from minority communities and over 70% of all transit riders are minorities in Los Angeles.  In Los Angeles county alone, African Americans are facing a 19% unemployment rate while Latinos face 14% unemployment.

Some of the numbers in the report are a result of timing.  Much of the increase in Metro’s budget comes from Measure R, the half-cent sales tax passed by L.A. County voters in 2008 to fund transit and road improvements.  While most of the funds in these projects are “locked in” to certain projects and can’t be readily moved to fund transit operations, other sales taxes dedicated to Metro are more fluid.  One of the reports arguments is that some of those funds that are going towards rail expansion ought to be used instead to protect bus service and fare costs.

The result of all these cuts and increases is reduced ridership in an era where people have less disposable income to spend.  As a result, people’s ability to care for their families is reduced or their dependency on an expensive automobile is increased.

“When bus service cuts make it hard for people to get to medical appointments, jobs that feed their families, and schools, it’s an attack on their health and their rights,” explains Martha Arguello, Director of the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. ”And in the worst-polluted city in the US, Metro’s policies have driven down mass transit use, and the health effects of more cars on the road are devastating for low income children and families. ”

The report concludes with a series of potential fixes to the bus cuts/fare hikes crisis outlined in the report.

• Reinvest resources in the bus system and keep resources in neighborhoods: Any changes to the bus systems made in the name of efficiency should be invested 100% back into the bus system.
• Open an honest debate about Metro’s funding allocation decisions based on transparent accounting of the availability
• of operation eligible funds.
• Decisions about service changes should protect civil rights and be based on fair and balanced analysis of modes and
• efficient use of resources.
• Ensure minimum impact of service changes through strict standards for alternative service.

Joining the Bus Riders Union in the release of the report are the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Communities for a Better Environment, East Los Angeles Community Corporation, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, Los Angeles Community Action Network, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles, Public Advocates Inc., Restaurant Opportunities Center – Los Angeles, SEIU-United Service Workers West, SEIU-United Long Term Care Workers, Southeast Asian Community Alliance, Strategic Action for a Just Economy, and Urban Habitat.

A view of Bodger Street during a visit to Arceo Walk on July 7 of this year.

Martha Sera likes walking.  A former high school track star, Sera regularly goes for mile-long walks with her husband, father and children, ages two and five.  That Sera has found a way to walk for a living is just a bonus.

Sera is one of a handful of organizers for the City of El Monte Walking Club, an innovative attempt by the city to increase the physical activity of its residents.  Participants in the club show up at an assigned location, either a public park or school, stretch and go for a walk.  Upon completion of the mile walk, they receive a ticket that can be turned in for a prize.  Five tickets earns a pedometer; 15 tickets, a t-shirt.

“You should try and take 10,000 steps a day to have a healthy lifestyle,” Sera notes.  According to her pedometer, Sera takes 1,400 steps per mile.

It's ok to tread on me. Messages on the sidewalk encourage people to walk...

When I met Sera, she was sitting under a tree with a sign-in sheet for the first of two walking club meetings last Saturday morning at 8:30 at Arceo Park.  After a brief introduction, the two of us took off on a walk around the park, looking for more club members than the handful who had shown up.  An hour later, we were at Columbia Middle School, less than a half mile away for the second meeting.

Every community that’s taken part in the PLACE program, a 2008 public health grant program sponsored by L.A. County to improve communities’ overall health through better transportation planning,  benefits from unintended consequences.  Creating a walking club for adults wasn’t part of the initial PLACE grant from the City of El Monte, but the hundreds of adults and their children who have taken to walking to improve their health because of the program is an unintended, but happy, consequence of their new transportation vision.

The idea for the club is simple.  El Monte residents have a higher-than-average rate of obesity and asthma, and the easiest solution to these related issues is to increase their activity.  More than two-thirds (66.8%) of adults in El Monte were either obese or overweight in 2007, more than that of adults in LA County (58.1%) and the state as a whole (61.3%.)  Nearly half (47.7%) of El Monte’s children are either obese or overweight.  On top of that, 9.8% of adults in El Monte were diagnosed with asthma compared to 6.5% of adults in Los Angeles County. In that same year, 4.1% of adults and children in both the El Monte Health District and LA County as a whole had been diagnosed with chronic respiratory conditions.

While attendance at the park was sparse this particular weekend, Sera had more success at Columbia Middle School.  More than 60 participants, many of them parents with their children, attended one of the three “meetings” over the course of the week.  Saturdays tend to be more lightly attended, so we had two parent-child combos, both of whom first heard about the program through the school.  At the park, walkers could walk around the park or on the Arceo Walk route (more on that later) that stretches east from the Park to Santa Anita Boulevard and back.  At Columbia, they walk on a track.

The walking club just began its third year last month.  The club runs for nine months and has traditionally centered around the three parks Arceo, Lambert and Mountain View Parks.  This year a new partnership with local school districts has expanded the program to Columbia Middle School and Mira Monte School.  Both are now allowing students and adults to use school grounds on certain days.  At Columbia Middle School, Sera leads stretches and walks every Tuesday and Thursday evening and Saturday morning.

A handful of Saturday walkers at Columbia's track last Saturday.

“I like it here,” Sera says of the track.  ”When we’re at the schools we have more kids.  A lot of parents bring their kids with them.”

On Saturday, there are two kids among the dozen club members at the Columbia track this Saturday morning.  ”Edgar” and his mother “Jenny” are two of the first three people to arrive.  Edgar has asthma and takes part in the walking club to get exercise.  Sera is familiar with his exercise habits noting that last Thursday he was able to run for much of the track, but today he chose to walk next to his mother.

The walking club is a family affair for adults and their parents as well.  Carmen Arambula started her third year in the walking club.  ”Walking helped me a lot, I had high blood pressure,” she began. “My dad too, last year I made him join us for the walks.”

But for many participants, the club provides one of the few ways that people can safely go for a walk.  Sporting an “El Monte Walking Club t-shirt” Adrianna Esquirrel complained that the grocery store is too far away and there aren’t enough sidewalks to walk regularly.  The distance also prevents making daily trips, so when the shopper does go to the store he or she has to bring so many bags that walking home would be difficult.

Over 400 people are on the Healthy El Monte email list that receives updates on the program, but Sera thinks that word of mouth and promotion through the schools has been the most effective way to get the word out.  Half of the people attending Saturday’s event at Columbia Middle School has joined the club in the past month.  All but one had heard about the walk through the Middle School.  The other woman was brought by Esquirrel.

El Monte’s walking club program is sponsored by the Center for Civic Partnerships, California Healthy Cities and Communities.  For more information about the club, visit the Healthy El Monte website.

Photo: Randy Hi

Apparently I was wrong.

Just watching the excellent Consumer Watchdog segment aired September 1st on ABC News confirmed for me what I had always suspected about researchers who take money from the soda industry and use the patina of their university affiliation to veil their paycheck-inspired research findings.  The University of Alabama must be very proud to have David Allison, AKA Joe Cola, on its faculty.

What’s refreshing in a Madison Avenue soda ad sort of way about this mainstream media piece is it is just that.  A mainstream media piece on a news broadcast not known for its heavy lifting.  And what’s more ABC News is where most Americans get their news.  Scratch that.  Most Americans get their news from Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, but ABC is an actual news broadcast rather than a late night comedy hour.  What moved the network to run the piece.  Who knows?  Perhaps the boys and girls at ABC News were watching Mad Men and had a sudden pang of guilt about the industry spokesman statements they too often take as gospel.

The ABC piece carefully lays out the evidence against Professor Allison’s bias thoroughly discrediting him and the shameless industry that pays his mortgage, flies him first class to conferences and funds the so called “research” he conducts on the connection between obesity and soda consumption.  Manufactured facts I call them because that is what they are.

These are tough times, and we all need to make a living.  But shilling for the soda industry on an issue as important as America’s diabetes and obesity epidemic is beyond the pale.

ABC’s outing of Professor Allison is a welcome development for a medium not known for pushing hard against lies and the hired guns who get paid handsomely to utter them.  Thanks to the network for taking a hard look at Allison and the industry that relies on shills like him.

Joel Epstein is a Los Angeles-based strategic communications consultant focused on transportation, public health and other critical urban issues.  Visit joelepstein.com

to learn more.

The above map shows Long Beach broken down geographically by census data and racial diversity. The lighter the dot, the higher the percentage of residents are Caucasian. The Vista Street Bike Boulevard, 3rd and Broadway Segregated Bike Paths and 2nd Street Green Sharrow are in the South Central and Southwest parts of the city, leading to charges that Long Beach’s bike boldness has been about servicing well-to-do caucasian areas and not the rest of the city.

During the past three years, Long Beach has shown a commitment to pushing the envelope when it comes to promoting clean and green transportation options.  However, the purpose of this article and last week’s series is to examine if the city has lived up to its agreement with the L.A. County Public Health Department to fulfill its Policies for Livable and Active Communities and Environment (PLACE) Grant the city was awarded in 2008.

The other four communities that received a PLACE Grant used their funds to bring in experts and planners to create master plans.  Long Beach used most of their grant to hire Charlie Gandy, a leader in the field of transportaion infrastructure and a spokesman that oozes charisma, but by his own admission “isn’t much of a master plan guy.”

As a result, the other four communities provided me with hundreds of pages of documents prepared as part of their grant.  Long Beach provided quite a bit less, although what they did provide is part of a Master Plan update that is planned for later this year.  But for now, Long Beach is in first place among the five cities that received PLACE Grants, but they’re in fifth as far as the planning portion of the grant.

That’s the bad news.  The good news is it appears that based on the information available, Long Beach is on the right track.  In the long-run, the content of the final document is what’s most important, not what month it is passed in.

While Long Beach city staff have worked on updating their mobility element, much of the city’s attention has been drawn to the innovative measures bicycle projects and that’s by design.

“We wanted to show people what was possible,” explains Derek Bunham from the city’s planning department.  ”It can be hard for the public, hard for the decision makers, to see the policy on a large scale.  So we decided to show them what can be done with demonstration projects.”

Many of these pilot projects have been in business districts and the well-to-do community along Vista Street, where the first Bike Boulevard was put in earlier this year.  Four different people commented to me, all on background, that Long Beach was “putting in the most for the people that need it least” with its progressive programming.

Longtime Long Beach resident Alan Allesio was not one of those people.  Alessio refers to the much-praised infrastructure as “kind of a tease” to the rest of the city and “There are certain areas that got a lot, and if you happen to live in that area, then you can really dig what’s going on.  I don’t live in one of those areas.”

For their part, city staff understands their issues and says that better bike projects are on their way for the entire city soon.  “When you build demand, you start with the early adopters, the neighborhoods that get it and want to go first,” Gandy explains.  ”We were funded for fifteen miles of bike boulevards, and we’ve just begun with 1.5 miles.  The rest will happen, and they won’t happen on streets that look like this one.”

In other words, the city is hearing complaints about equity but when the funded projects are completed, the projects that will most likely get done barring something unforeseen happening, then the equity issue will vanish.  Rather than just take city staff at their word, we created this map to test their claims.

You can view the full map at GeoCommons.

The above map breaks Long Beach up in to its different census tracts.  Inside each tract is a small circle which shows what percent of the residents living inside the tract are minorities and how many are Caucasian.  Clicking on the dot will give you that data.  The red, orange and white lines show bike projects that will be completed in the short-term.  Clicking on the line will tell you what street, the length of the project, and whether the project will be a bike lane, bike boulevard, or something else.

The map demonstrates that the city, if it follows through on the short-term and funded projects in the map, that the city will create a network that serves communities of all races and will provide residential connections to the beaches, the Downtown, the new transit plaza and those Bike Business Districts that are proving so popular.

But that’s not to say that existing bicycle infrastructure, even the new ones in the upper-class, mostly Caucasian neighborhoods or business districts are for everyone.

“There’s our indicator species,” Gandy remarked during our bike tour, gesturing to a Latina woman and two tween-age children on beach cruisers heading down Broadway on a trip to the beach.  ”She feels comfortable enough in a separated bike lane to ride in normal clothes, without a helmet.  That trip is probably made in a car without that lane.”  Don’t worry, the kids were wearing bike helmets.

Later on our ride, we followed a family of five, all Latino, and their neighbor from next door, who was riding to the beach path from Pacific Avenue across town.  When we chatted with the family.  In the words of the father, “No way we would have tried this a couple of years ago.  No way.”

Or, as former Long Beach resident and founder of the L.A. County Bike Coaliton Joe Linton put it, “Long Beach is the most bike friendly city in Southern California.  All that new infrastructure is used by everyone, regardless of where they live.”

But while Long Beach has tripled its infrastructure of bicyclists in the last three years, the city has also been working on an update to the circulation element to its Master Plan.  As Bunham put it, “the policy is going to catch up the infrastructure.”

The city has done outreach to create an element that incorporates both traditional and new facilities for cyclists and pedestrians.  While the plan hasn’t been revealed to the public, a twenty-page document entitled “Principles for Active Living and Complete Streets” that outlines the goals that Long Beach’s transportation and circulation element should meet when it comes to the City Council in the fall or early winter.

“If you look at our existing Mobility Element, you see a lot about road widenings about moving cars,” Dunham explains, “Now we want to focus more on people than cars.  Focus on pedestrian, bike ant transit travel  This is such a big shift, we wanted to create a public document that showed the principles so that people can see what we’re talking about.”

“We’re not trying to play a zero sum game, or declare war on the car or anything like that.  We’re trying to link modes together not get rid of one.”

So what does “Principles for Active Living and Complete Streets” promise Long Beach?  It outlines the principles that Long Beach should follow.

• Balance the Needs of all Modes of Travel
• Promote Walking
• Promote Bicycling
• Promote Transit
• Create Dynamic and Context Sensitive Streets
• Protect and Enhance the Environment
• Build Healthy and Active Neighbors
• Create Transit Oriented Development Along Transit Routes
• Ensure Connectivity to Active Routes and Other Modes

“Our big focus has been on shifting short trips,” explains Ira Brown, who is working on the Master Plan update with the planning department. “People would usually take the car to go to the laundromat, go to the store, and that trip can be made on a bike or by foot. We want to help people make that decision.”

Which isn’t to say that there’s nothing for advocates to do in Long Beach.  While the principles and maps released are a great start, there are always things that can go wrong in a couple of months.  When Long Beach does release its Draft Master Plan this fall, Streetsblog will update its Long Beach series.

Damien Newton wrote this story while participating in The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, a program of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

It’s the stuff of nightmares.  As people grow older, they face the fear that as their body ages, they will have fewer and fewer options to help them get from one place to another.  Denied this basic right, they eventually find themselves isolated in their homes, with few options to interact with other people on a daily basis.  According to a new report from Transportation for America, by 2015 over 15.5 million people over the age of 65, including 17% of senior Angelenos, will face this dilemma.

If you’ve ridden a Metro bus in Greater Los Angeles, you’ve seen them.  Those weird tv’s which either seem to be stuck at a blasting volume or completely muted, playing a mix of mind numbing trivia, local public interest news, or advertisements.  Purchasing some time on TransitTV is a pretty cost effective way to get out a message, when you consider that 2 million people ride Metro buses every day.  But most Metro riders find the televisions to be a waste of space at best, noise pollution at worst.

Thanks to a new art video series, “Out the Window” is seeking to change that.  Instead of streaming the odd mix of paid programming, Transit TV will devote some time to streaming video art.

From June 13 through the 17th, the films will run once an hour, but on the 18th and 19th, the films will run for 45 out of every 60 minutes.  All of the showings on Transit TV are being donated by the company.

The videos were produced by a team of 75 local high school students working with artists and teachers at Echo Park Film Center and with Public Matters at East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy and Pilipino Workers Center; coordinated by Freewaves with the conceptual and technical direction of UCLA REMAP.

Heidi Zeller, with Freewaves, explains how the video series is actually an interactive art experience. “Out the Window adds a little something different to the bus riding experience in LA. Some of the videos share poetic visions of the city while others offer insightful critiques. All of them end with questions that viewers can respond to via text. We want to get a citywide dialogue going! What are the possibilities for LA? To participate in this conversation just ride the bus armed with a cell phone. Answers will be posted on our blog.”

The above video is part of a series called “Have You Noticed” which has posted three videos to Vimeo already.  Students from the East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy created the series with Public Matters around healthy food access issues in their community?  As you can see, the videos aren’t heavy on conversation, but focus the viewers attention on the screens with some reading of printed text and a donated by compelling soundtrack.

In addition to “Have You Noticed How Far You Have to Go to Get to a Supermarket,” you can also view “Have You Noticed How Much Junk Food We Eat” and “Have You Noticed How Often We Eat Fast Food” at Vimeo.

Other video series that will be running include Hidden Hi Fi, students’ lives in Filipinotown including experiences with migration and immigration and The Sound We See: A Los Angeles City Symphony, an exploration of the “urban symphony” of sound in Los Angeles.

“Place is the new identity politics. The youth in Out the Window examine this subject anew hopefully in
dialogue with fellow commuters, 91% of who say they like art,” says Anne Bray, Executive Director of
Freewaves, LA’s public media arts organization.

If you don’t ride the bus, or don’t ride it enough, and want to catch all of the films, there will be a public screening on Sunday June 12, 3 pm at Inner City Arts, followed by a reception at 720 Kohler St in downtown LA near Central and 7th Streets.

For more on food deserts and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's RENEW project aimed at reducing childhood obesity and diabetes, visit: publichealthadvocacy.org/ Photo: How Stuff Works

But a food desert is also not my image of the sun beating down on the arid land in Twenty Nine Palms or Mojave.  In reality it is a common sight here in Los Angeles County.  Often a neighborhood and sometimes an entire city, a food desert is a place where you can’t easily find healthy foods because there is little to be had.  The good stuff’s not there for a variety of reasons including an absence of stores that carry quality fresh fruit and vegetables at a fair price.

If you want to find the food deserts in L.A. just follow the trash in any of the County’s junk food districts.  You can find the desert next to or even inside many South LA convenience stores or at the To Go window at a fast food restaurant in a Baldwin Park or San Fernando mini mall.  The soda bottles, candy wrappers, Styrofoam containers and empty chip bags are the telltale signs of the food desert.  Like the tumbleweed, shell casings and tin cans of the real desert, junk food containers betray the food wasteland.  And they are one big reason why more and more Angelenos young and old alike are struggling today with obesity and diabetes.

(It would be tempting to say that food deserts are brought to you and caused by the people who brought you “The Real Thing.”  And in many ways they are, because soda is often the cash cow in fast food establishments.  But Coke, Pepsi and Sunkist don’t just want to sell their products in lieu of food in the food desert.  They of course want to sell their junk everywhere.)

Whatever the cause or combination of causes, the challenge now is making the food desert bloom with large and small stores that offer quality fruits and vegetables at good prices.   The fact is it is often not easy to attract quality markets to poor communities.  Sure there is still redlining (the practice by banks of writing off parts of the city to business investment) but sometimes the resistance comes from the small independent storeowners who fear a loss of their livelihood in the arrival of the big players.  Acknowledging these concerns and that buying power means everything to a small store owner, if they’re not offering healthy food in their establishments then perhaps they don’t deserve the community’s patronage.

As has been proven in some parts of L.A., the food desert doesn’t have to be our fate forever.  Large supermarkets like Food For Less have long demonstrated that poor and working class people will flock to a market that gives them quality at a fair price.  And Fresh & Easy, a new arrival in South LA and elsewhere, is demonstrating that healthy markets and the community can coexist.

Farmers markets are another important solution.  And best of all, they bring the produce to the community, so you can often walk or bike to them.

These open-air street marts, ideal for the LA climate, create a direct connection between growers and vendors and their customers.  So what’s it going to be, another Coke or some fresh fruit picked this morning?  Now that’s something we can all call the real thing.

Joel Epstein is a Westside resident, Metro customer, and strategic communications consultant focused on transportation and other critical urban issues.  Visit joelepstein.com to learn more.

One slide from TransForm's Stuart Cohen's presentation yesterday. You can download the entire presentation here.

Streetsblog readers are likely at least somewhat familiar with many of the  connections between health and transportation; conference speakers explored those connections, with an emphasis on their impacts on underserved communities of color. This equity/transportation/health dialog was then tied into calls for action on local, state and federal campaigns.

After an introduction from CPEHN’s Ruben Cantu, speakers got underway with a presentation from TransForm‘s Stuart Cohen. TransForm is the kind of San Francisco Bay Area group that Los Angeles’ livability advocates should be jealous of - and should emulate. TransForm advocates for transit, walking, biking – focusing from local to regional to statewide. Cohen outlined trasportation/health connections, including somewhat familiar statistics: rising rates of obesity nationwide, declining rates of walking and biking to school. And some not as familiar: inadequate transit as a healthcare access issue (folks miss their clinic appointments when it’s difficult to walk or take transit to get there – more info here.)

Cohen expressed optimism over current initiatives from the Great Communities Collaborative to SB375 (CA’s greenhouse gas legislation), but stressed that strong coalitions, centered on health and equity, will be critical to success. Cohen also stressed that respected health professionals can be key in selling livability: when an environmentalist testifies about greenhouse gases, it’s generally not as effective as when a physician or nurse testifies about childhood obesity.

Next was a “panel of fierce women” (Ohland’s description) featuring Los Angeles based efforts toward transportation, equity and health – all of which have been covered at L.A. Streetsblog. Panelists included:

• Allison Mannos of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition – presenting on multiple bike advocacy campaigns, emphasizing the coalition’s innovative award-winning City of Lights program that organizes immigrant day-laborer cyclists, and how that program dovetailed with campaigns for planning and prioritizing bike facilities in Los Angeles’ immigrant neighborhoods.
• SunYoung Yang of the Bus Riders Union – presenting on BRU’s organizing successes in preserving and enhancing Metro clean-fuel bus service, and further campaigns for Bus-Only Lanes, Clean Air, and Climate Justice.
• Jocelyn Vivar Ramirez of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (and the L.A. Streetsblog board of directors) – presenting on EYCEJ’s coalition and community organizing work to combat the community impacts from international goods movement: from port pollution to 710 Freeway expansion to unsafe eastside streets.
• Gloria Ohland of Move L.A. (and occasional L.A. Streetsblog writer) – presenting on Move L.A.’s support of bus and rail and complete streets and complete neighborhoods.

A fierce panel: Ohland, Vivar-Ramirez, Mannos and Yang. Photo: Joe Linton

Break-out sessions followed, with a focus on how health, equity and transportation issues can inform legislative campaigns, including these current State Assembly bills:

• AB 441 (ensuring that health and equity are part of planning developent decisions)
• AB516 (ensuring state Safe Routes to School grants prioritize disadvantaged communities)

Conference details, including presentations, are available on-line at the CPEHN website.

(Note: this post also appears at Reporting On Health. – DN)

In the summer of 2008, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health awarded five Policies for Livable, Active Communities and Environments (PLACE) grants to communities throughout Los Angeles County.  The goal of the PLACE Grants is to change the character of the community plans to encourage more walking, bicycling and active lifestyles.  The grant program is the first attempt to try and link transportation policy and the creation of healthy communities that support active lifestyles with the public health of the community’s residents.

Many of the changes to Long Beach's streets are a result of the PLACE Grants. Photo: Russ Roca Photography

As part of a California Endowment Health Journalism Mini-Fellowship , I’ll be looking at the five communities that were awarded PLACE Grants to see how their programs are proceeding and how the communities have changed as a result of the grants.  In some cases, Streetsblog has already covered part a portion of the PLACE program in the community, and in other places we’ll be giving the communities a first look.  Each PLACE Grantee is expected to create progressive updates to their Master Plans or other planning documents, bring about some sort of physical change and program promotional events designed to encourage more active lifestyles.

In each case, our coverage will include a site visit, Streetsblog articles and a mini-series of audio and visual interviews.  The video won’t rise to the level of a Streetfilm, but will allow participants to speak in their own words with their own voice about how the PLACE program is proceeding.

The easiest of the PLACE Grants for Streetsblog to cover will probably be the City of Long Beach’s Vision Plan.  The ultimate goal of the plan is to change The International City in to the “Most Bike Friendly City in America.”  Streetsblog has already provided some coverage of the exciting changes occurring in Long Beach, including stories by myself, Drew Reed and Joe Linton.  As a matter of fact, Linton will publish a story on Long Beach’s new separated bike lanes later this week.

For the purposes of our grant, we’ll be looking beyond the interesting and fun infrastructure improvements in Long Beach to examine whether they’re actually making a difference in the overall public health of the city.

While the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition was the recipient of the PLACE Grant, it’s the City of Glendale that will reap the rewards from the work of Grant Coordinator/LACBC staff member Colin Bogart in creating and promoting the Glendale Safe and Healthy Streets Plan.  While Glendale hasn’t seen the dramatic changes that Long Beach has, Bogart and City staff have programmed a series of events to encourage residents to explore their city outside and move around the city without their cars.  Meanwhile, the Bike Master Plan that was partially funded by the PLACE Grant will be voted on by the City Council on April 28.

Culver City received a grant to create the “Culver City Bicycle and Pedestrian Initiative.”  The goals of the initiative are to create a city where residents, workers, businesses, schools/colleges, transit systems are interconnected, for residents of all ages to walk and bicycle safely and comfortably in their community and  to make walking, bicycling, and transit everyday modes of transportation.  The PLACE Grant funded the creation of the first Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan for Culver City.  While the City completed an exhaustive public outreach for the Master Plan, parts of the bike portion of the plan proved too controversial for some residents and politicians who tried to remove some of the more progressive parts of the plan. The Council vote on rescinding a portion of the Master Plan was scheduled for late March, but has been postponed until further notice.

Upgrading signage along the Arceo Walk is one change that's made El Monte a more inviting place to be outside.

The City of El Monte used their PLACE funds to undertake changes to their general plan designed to promote healthy, active lifestyles.  El Monte is focusing both on encouraging healthy eating as well as active living.  The changes to the general plan include creation of “complete streets” policies as well as new policies to encourage schools to use their open space to get children outside when class isn’t in session.  As for physical changes, the City recently upgraded the signage and quality of its signature walking trail.

The last grantee we’ll be covering is Pacoima Beautiful.  PB is a non-profit community-based organization dedicated to environmental health and justice, the mission of which is to empower community members through programs that provide environmental education, advocacy, and local leadership in order to foster a healthy and safe environment.  PB and its partners are developing a vision plan for the section of the Pacoima Wash (a tributary to the Tujunga Wash which is in turn tributary to the Los Angeles River) located within Los Angeles city limits, in the communities of Pacoima and Sylmar.  One of the main goals of the project is to create a series of greenways along the wash to provide places for residents and families to play (or just be) outside.

Each of these grants are different from the others in many ways and it will be a new challenge for Streetsblog to cover them.  In the cases of Pacoima and El Monte, Streetsblog has never actually reported on the communities meaning we’ll have to learn on our feet as our coverage of the PLACE Grants continues.  If anyone has any suggestions on things we should be looking for as we begin our summer series, please leave a comment below or drop me an email at damien@streetsblog.org.

Does transportation have an impact on public health? What do you think? Photo: Wikimedia

(The following article is by Ruben Cantu, the program director for the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network.  This month, they’re holding a series of community convenings throughout California to discuss the public health impacts of our transportation decisions on our communities.  Los Angeles’ convening will be at the California Endowment Building one week from today from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M.  To register, click here. – DN)

From the air that we breathe to getting to school safely, the ways we move around impact our health and the wellbeing of our communities. That’s why the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network is hosting a series of regional community convenings, The Road to Health: Improving Community Wellbeing Through Transportation, to address the many ways that transportation impacts us.

A statewide health advocacy organization, CPEHN’s mission is to eliminate health disparities by advocating for public policies and sufficient resources to address the health needs of communities of color. While many know us for our work on ensuring access to affordable, quality care and fighting budget cuts, our fight has increasingly moved toward addressing the environmental and social factors that impact our everyday lives. As we canvassed community stakeholders about the issues on which we should focus, transportation rose to the surface.

We know there are many benefits to healthy transportation planning. Safe streets for pedestrians and bicyclists encourage a more active lifestyle for residents of all ages. Quality transit increases access to parks, healthy food, and other neighborhood services. The right focus in planning can help reduce the number of injuries and fatalities from collisions. All of these are reasons for us to get involved in local planning efforts.

Join us on April 27 for The Road to Health, held at the California Endowment at 1000 N. Alameda from 10 am to 2 pm, the event promises to provide insight into how to we can work together to build healthier, more robust neighborhoods. We’ll feature a presentation from TransForm, a leading transportation advocacy organization, and a panel of local advocates, including the LA Bus Riders Union, the LA County Bicycle Coalition, and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, who will share their efforts to ensure cleaner air, safer streets, and access to public transport. We’ll also talk about opportunities for you to be involved in local, statewide, and federal efforts to influence transportation policy and planning, including a CPEHN-sponsored bill, AB 441 (Monning) , which would incorporate health and equity considerations in state general plan and regional transportation plan guidance.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Rep. John Mica, and Sen. Barbara Boxer at the podium, at the recent field hearing in LA on transportation. Photo: Darrell Clarke

Dr. Richard J. Jackson is Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Science in the UCLA School of Public Health. We’re happy to host opinion pieces from academic and other community leaders. Contact damien@streetsblog.org if you’re interested.

On February 23, Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative John Mica held a congressional hearing here in Los Angeles to discuss the federal transportation bill. The dominant theme of the hearing was expanding and establishing federal financing programs to provide capital for major infrastructure projects such as Los Angeles’s 30/10 plan, an initiative to build 12 major transit projects in 10 years. The elected leaders and assembled experts lauded the proposed programs for their potential to rapidly stimulate job creation and economic growth. Very little was mentioned, however, about the need for transportation investments to also be guided by other objectives, such as reducing air pollution, investing in biking and walking networks, and improving safety – all critical elements for improving the economy and public health. Transportation has immense impacts on human health, both positive and negative. Current policies fail to consider and value these impacts, but they must.

Traditionally, federal transportation funds have been given to states according to formula and with little accountability for how they are used. In Los Angeles the results are staggering. The annual health impacts from air pollution in our region alone are conservatively estimated at $22 billion, or $1,250 per person per year. Also, while pedestrians or cyclists account for 12 percent of all trips, they suffer 25 percent of all traffic fatalities. And as we have become more dependent on cars as a way to get to our jobs, to the store, to our doctors’ offices, and to every place else, our physical activity has declined, and coronary heart disease has become the number one killer of LA County residents.

To the credit of many public health leaders, elected officials, local policymakers, and engaged citizens, cities throughout the region are investing in biking and walking infrastructure to address these issues, revitalize local economies, and increase the effectiveness of transit systems. Planners in numerous cities — including Pasadena, Long Beach, Culver City, Glendale, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles — are setting strategic long-term goals and formulating plans to expand biking and walking networks, make them safer, and integrate them into existing and future public transit networks.

California is moving forward with its SB 375 law to reduce emissions by focusing on the communities we build and the types of transportation we use. This landmark law has initiated a process where planners, regulators, and the public have come together to set long-term goals and plan to achieve them. One purpose of this law is to comprehensively evaluate how different projects — including public transit, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, car-pool lanes, and roads — contribute collectively to achieving these goals.

But federal transportation bills have not set these strategic goals. As a result, despite continuous increases in federal funding, public health has not been a major factor as transportation projects are selected. Los Angeles, for example, has seen its air quality improve significantly but not as a result of more public transportation or communities where people can bike and walk safely and efficiently, but rather because cars are cleaner. At the same time, sprawl has continued to increase to a point where, in Los Angeles alone, we spend 490 million hours annually stuck in traffic. The combined weight of the health impacts from air pollution, traffic accidents, and lack of physical activity along with the costs of wasted fuel and time is a collective drag on our health and economy.

To address these issues, our next federal transportation bill should contain long-term goals, measure progress toward achieving them, and provide the funding needed to do so. Such goals should include measuring whether infrastructure investments contribute towards achieving needed public health improvements, such as: improving air quality to healthy levels; improving traffic safety for all users regardless of whether they walk, ride, or bike; increasing biking and walking trips; and improving and expanding public transit, as well as fixing the infrastructure we have.

During the worst and most prolonged economic downturn in many decades, it is critical for the health of our economy and our public health that we get the most bang for every transportation dollar we have available. As Senator Boxer and Representative Mica return to Washington to write the next federal transportation bill, we ask them to focus on a bill that will set these goals and provide funding to build the projects needed to achieve them.

Dr. Richard J. Jackson is Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Science in the UCLA School of Public Health. He has done extensive work on the impact of the environment on health, particularly relating to children.

The
White House’s inter-agency task force on childhood obesity, developed
under the stewardship of First Lady Michelle Obama, today released a 124-page report
recommending dozens of policy shifts in health care, community
development, and transportation that it estimates can bring down
obesity rates among kids by 5 percent over the next 20 years.

During the February launch
of the task force, Mrs. Obama noted the public health benefits of
promoting biking and walking among U.S. kids, but today’s report goes
into far more detail about the link between non-motorized
transportation, local land use, and children’s rate of physical
exercise. Among the task force’s recommendations are an addition of "complete streets" design rules to the next long-term federal transportation bill and expanding the Safe Routes to School (SRtS) program to include high schools.

"Children’s
ability to be physically active in their community depends on whether
the community is safe and walkable, with good sidewalks and reasonable
distances between destinations," the report states in a section
entitled ‘The Built Environment’ that got an early plug from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

A chart featured in the White House report, viewable above, mirrors the assessment of a recent SRtS release
that found ample opportunities for families to transition their
children from school commutes via auto to trips by foot or bicycle.

The
task force also encourages local governments to conduct "Health Impact
Assessments," or HIAs, before building new developments. The HIA
concept, similar to environmental reviews
of federally funded transport projects that are currently mandated by
law, would evaluate the effect of construction and land-use decisions
on the physical activity of community residents.

The first
lady’s group also took a notably holistic approach to the effect of
neighborhood quality on children’s health. In a lengthy section on the
findings of a recent socioeconomic study published in the journal Health Affairs, today’s report states:

• Children
  living in unsafe neighborhoods or those characterized by poor housing
  and the presence of garbage and litter on streets had an approximately
  30-60% higher chance of being obese or overweight than children living
  in better conditions;
• Children with low neighborhood
  amenities or those lacking neighborhood access to sidewalks or walking
  paths, parks or playgrounds, or recreation or community centers had
  20-45% higher odds of becoming obese or overweight compared to children
  who had access to these amenities;
• The impact of the
  built environment was particularly strong for younger children (ages
  10-11) and for girls. Girls ages 10-11 living in neighborhoods with the
  fewest amenities had 121-276% higher adjusted odds of being obese or
  overweight than those living in neighborhoods with the most amenities

As a standard to measure the success of its proposed policy shifts, the
task force suggested aiming for a 50 percent increase in the share of
children walking or biking to school over the next five years.

"We
don’t need new discoveries or new inventions to reverse this
trend" of obesity that has manifested in an estimated one out of every
three American children, Mrs. Obama told reporters today. "Again, we
have the tools at our disposal to reverse it. All we
need is the motivation, the opportunity and the willpower to do what
needs to be done."

President Obama, shown biking with his daughters — one of the CDC’s recommendations to enhance public health. (Photo: AP via Politico)

The
CDC brief, quietly released late last month, offers seven
recommendations aimed at making public health a greater priority for
transportation policymakers:

• Pass road safety laws, such as those requiring child safety harnesses and prohibiting texting behind the wheel;
• Increase funding for air quality improvement projects and clean diesel projects that limit vehicle emissions;
• Encourage more transit-oriented development and transit expansion;
• Require
  streetscapes to be designed for bicyclists and pedestrians as well as
  drivers, the principle known as "complete streets";
• Support local planning and zoning rules that promote mixed-use construction in denser neighborhoods;
• Revamp road design practices to minimize auto speeds and increase pedestrian and bicyclist safety;
• Increase data collection and research about the transportation-health relationship

In addition, the CDC outlines the grim consequences that can be expected from the nation’s transportation status quo:

• Physical activity and active transportation have declined
  compared to previous generations.  The lack of physical activity is a
  major contributor to the steady rise in rates of obesity, diabetes,
  heart disease, stroke and other chronic health conditions in the United
  States.
• Motor vehicle crashes continue to be the leading
  cause of injury-related death for many age groups.  Pedestrians and
  bicyclists are at an even greater risk of death from crashes than those
  who travel by motor vehicles.
• Many Americans view walking
  and bicycling within their communities as unsafe because of traffic and
  the lack of sidewalks, crosswalks, and bicycle facilities.
• Although
  using public transportation has historically been safer than highway
  travel in light duty vehicles, highway travel has grown more quickly
  than other modes of travel. 
• A lack of efficient
  alternatives to automobile travel disproportionately affects vulnerable
  populations such as the poor, the elderly, people who have disabilities
  and children by limiting access to jobs, health care, social
  interaction, and healthy foods.
• Although motor vehicle
  emissions have decreased significantly over the past three decades, air
  pollution from motor vehicles continues to contribute to the
  degradation of our environment and adverse respiratory and
  cardiovascular health effects.
• Transportation accounts for approximately one-third of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change.

The view from one type of "food desert." (Photo: Springfield Institute)

Gillibrand’s
legislation, co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY),
aligns with the $400 million healthy food plan included in
the 2011 White House budget. Both programs would follow the template of
Pennsylvania’s Healthy Food Financing Initiative by offering loans and
grants to help construct new grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and
other food outlets in historically under-served neighborhoods.

The bill aims to eradicate the growing phenomenon of "food deserts,"
the moniker advocates have bestowed on lower-income areas — in New
York and Chicago as well as in more rural areas — where the lack of
access to fresh food leaves residents dependent on sugary, fattening
fast-food alternatives.

Traveling outside a food desert is
often impossible without a car, an option out of reach for many of the
neighborhoods’ most needy residents.

Research on travel behavior conducted by the University of California-Davis’ Susan Handy found that
in areas where markets and other stores were one-fifth of a mile or
less from most homes, 87 percent of residents regularly walked to run
errands. When that average distance between home and market increased
to three-fifths of a mile, the share of even periodic foot travelers
dropped to one-third.

Gillibrand’s office also highlighted the job-creation potential of healthier food access, estimating in a release that the $1 billion grant program would create 200,000 new jobs nationwide and 26,000 in New York City.

Automakers are bracing for new fuel-efficiency standards more than any coming climate bill. (Photo: TreeHugger)

So with Congress weighing national emissions limits -- and potential fuel taxes -- as part of a climate change bill, and the Obama administration vowing to step in via new regulations if lawmakers do not act, it's worth asking which of the country's top carbon-generating companies are truly concerned that pollution caps would hurt their business.

Automakers, for the most part, foresee problems if the administration's recent move to raise U.S. fuel-efficiency standards is not extended beyond its current 2016 expiration date. Ford's year-end financial report openly fretted about the consequences of individual states, such as California, acting on their own to hike fuel standards in 2017 in the absence of another national agreement:

Compliance with [multiple fuel-efficiency] regimes would at best add enormous complexity to our planning processes, and at worst be virtually impossible.  If any of one these regulatory regimes, or a combination of them, impose and enforce extreme fuel economy or GHG standards, we likely would be forced to take various actions that could have substantial adverse effects on our sales volume and profits.

General Motors released its financial report today, declaring itself "committed to meeting or exceeding" the new fuel-efficiency minimums but warning that adverse consequences could result if consumers fail to embrace electric cars:

We expect that to comply with these standards we will be required to sell a significant volume of hybrid or electrically powered vehicles throughout the U.S., as well as implement new technologies for conventional internal combustion engines, all at increased cost levels. There is no assurance that we will be able to produce and sell vehicles that use such technologies at a competitive price, or that our customers will purchase such vehicles in the quantities necessary for us to comply with these regulatory programs.

The auto industry, however, expressed far less concern about the prospects of a congressional climate bill or federal emissions regulations, which are expected to focus largely on stationary sources such as power plants. When carmakers reference climate change in their communiques to investors, it is often to provide context for the growing interest in governmental limits on pollution.

Coal companies, by contrast -- generators of nearly half of the nation's electricity -- are warily watching on the "material adverse" consequences of climate action. Peabody, ranked No. 1 among U.S. coal producers, wrote in its 2009 annual report that:

The potential financial impact on us of future [emissions] laws or regulations will depend upon the degree to which any such laws or regulations forces electricity generators to diminish their reliance on coal as a fuel source.

More openly apprehensive of climate legislation was Massey, the coal company now facing blowback even on Wall Street after a fatal explosion Monday at one of its West Virginia mines. From Massey's annual report:

Further developments in connection with legislation, regulations or other limits on greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts from coal combustion, both in the United States and in other countries where we sell coal, could have a material adverse effect on our cash flows, results of operations or financial condition.

Safe Routes to School programs, such as this one, could see a boost from the health bill’s grant program. (Photo: CA DOT)

The process isn’t quite finished yet — the Senate still must take up a series of tweaks to its original bill under the filibuster-proof reconciliation framework for debate — but the meat of the upper chamber’s health proposal is set to become law by week’s end.

Once that occurs, a new pool of federal “Community Transformation” grants would be established, with local governments and nonprofit groups eligible for a share of the funding. As Streetsblog Capitol Hill noted back in November, the grants would go towards projects that support public health, including “activities to prevent chronic diseases” and “the infrastructure to support active living.”

In practice, that could result in new funding available for bike-ped improvements or programs that encourage safe transportation for young students, such as Safe Routes to School.

The Senate bill also recognizes transportation’s role in public health by giving the U.S. DOT a seat on a new National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council that would coordinate federal wellness policy.

The first lady visited "Sesame Street" last fall as part of her push to fight childhood obesity. (Photo: NYDN)

Mrs.
Obama appeared with six Cabinet members, the Surgeon General, and
several lawmakers and mayors to mark the president’s official creation
of a new Task Force on Childhood Obesity. As part of the first lady’s
new effort, the White House plans to expand the President’s Council on
Physical Fitness and Sports, while setting up a Safe and Healthy
Schools Fund during hte next reauthorization of federal elementary
education law.

In her remarks to the press this afternoon,
Mrs. Obama paid particular attention to the lifestyle shifts that have
led many kids to a more sedentary routine — and helped contribute to
obesity rates of 17 percent for children and teens, according to the
Journal of the American Medical Association. (The same study found that one of every three U.S. kids are oversight.)

The first lady said:

In my home, we weren’t rich. The foods we ate weren’t fancy. But
there was always a vegetable on the plate. And we managed to lead a
pretty healthy life.

Many kids today aren’t so fortunate. Urban sprawl and fears about safety often mean the only walking they do
is out their front door to a bus or a car. Cuts in recess and gym mean
a lot less running around during the school day, and lunchtime may mean
a school lunch heavy on calories and fat. For many kids, those
afternoons spent riding bikes and playing ball until dusk have been
replaced by afternoons inside with TV, the Internet, and video games.

Mrs. Obama highlighted the presidential budget proposal for
$400 million in financing to develop supermarkets and farmers’ markets
in neighborhoods that currently lack a walkable healthy food option,
but she did not directly mention Safe Routes to School, the federal program that helps carve out local routes for children to bike and walk from home to class every day.