Doug Holyday is just plain ignorant about the suburbs being a healthier place for kids.
He said, “Where will these children play? On King St.?” Holyday said in reaction to a push to have a condo developer include family-friendly, three-bedroom units in a proposed 47-storey tower at King and John Sts. “I mean, I could just see now: ‘Where’s little Ginny?’ ‘Well, she’s downstairs playing in the traffic on her way to the park!’ ”
Well guess what Doug? There's research that shows kids raised in the burbs are more likely to be overweight.
Taken from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Position Statement
Built Environment, physical activity, heart disease and strokeCOMMUNITY DESIGN, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, HEART DISEASE AND STROKE:
1) The risk of obesity has been shown to decline by 4.8% for each additional kilometre walked per day and can increase by 6% for each hour spent in a car per day.
2) A recent study compared rates of active transportation with obesity in Europe, North America and Australia and found that generally, the countries with higher rates of active transportation had lower levels of obesity.
3) Across Canada, only about 12% of trips to the grocery store, work, the library or school are made on foot or by bicycle. While this is higher than the 7% rate in the United States, it is much lower than in the Netherlands (46%) and Denmark (41%)
4) In major urban centres, 34% of residents report walking, biking, or taking public transit to get to work, while in smaller Canadian communities, this figure is 18%.7
5) In urban areas, neighbourhoods that have good street lighting, availability of continuous sidewalks, and a greater density and variety of shops, services, parks, schools and workplaces within walking distance of homes are often called “walkable” neighbourhoods. Canadian studies have shown that adolescents are more likely to walk or bike to school if the journey is short and takes place in a walkable environment with a variety of land uses and a high density of street trees.
6) A number of studies in the United States and Canada have shown that people who live in moderate to high density areas and in more walkable neighbourhoods make more trips on foot or by bicycle, spend less time driving, and are more likely to meet recommended levels of physical activity. 9,,10 People living in more walkable neighbourhoods are less likely to be overweight or obese than those living in rural areas or low density areas with a lack of shops, services and other amenities close by.
7) Users of public transit tend to have higher levels of physical activity.
Plus, even wikipedia states that:
The study found people that live in cities (Census Metropolitan Areas) had significantly lower obesity rates in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.
THE ONTARIO COLLEGE OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS, in their position paper "The Health Impacts of Urban Sprawl, Volume III" state the following
Spread-out suburban communities make car travel the fastest, most convenient, and sometimes the only, way to get around. The design of most sprawling communities makes it difficult for residents to walk or ride their bikes to carry out even the most basic errands, such as buying milk at a local store. The lack of daily physical activity is a factor in the growing rate of obesity among adults, teenagers and children across Canada. Obesity has been linked to serious health problems, including:
• diabetes
• high blood pressure
• heart disease
• some cancers
• osteoarthritis
Obesity is a growing public health crisis, so much so that it is often referred to as the “new tobacco”. The number of deaths in Canada related to obesity has almost doubled over the past 15 years, from 2,514 in 1985 to 4,321 in 2000.
I could spend the next few hours getting more statements or statistics from respectable organizations. But I won't. That's all the time in my life Doug Holyday deserves.
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