Learn how to change the built and natural environments of the community to support health and well-being for all. Show
Atlanta, Georgia, is a city designed for automobile travel. An enormous multi-lane highway called the Downtown Connector divides the east and west sides of the city, creating a gulf that’s largely impassable for anyone not in a car. Originally, the highway separated midtown, on the east, from the Atlantic Steel Mill. Once the city’s largest employer, the mill was shut down in the 1980s. When private developers bought the steel mill site, they faced both environmental and access problems. They planned a complex of residences, retail stores, hotels, restaurants, and office space, all of which would be inaccessible from the east except by car. Both the developers and the city found this unacceptable, and their solution was the 17th St. Bridge. A bright-yellow steel construction that spans the Downtown Connector, the bridge leads directly to Atlantic Station, the new development. The bridge not only provides direct driving access to Atlantic Station as well as public transportation, bike lanes, and wide sidewalks, with a canopy to shade walkers from the hot sun. In building Atlantic Station, the developers removed thousands of tons of polluted soil, capped other deposits of metals and pollutants, and created what is widely recognized as a “green” development, one that puts as little strain as possible on the environment. It includes white roofs to reduce the heat island effect and air conditioner use, green space and native-species plantings, water conservation methods, and electric shuttle buses that serve the whole complex and carry people to the nearest subway station, minimizing automobile usage. By changing the physical structure of the Atlantic Steel site, the Atlantic Station developers and their partners in the city, state, and federal governments addressed environmental concerns (the clean-up of a polluted site, conservation of water and fossil fuels), transportation needs (bridging the Downtown Connector, reduction of automobile use and traffic), and individual health (encouragement of walking and bicycling instead of driving), as well as economic development and housing needs. This section introduces the concept of using changes in physical structure to create a healthy community. We’ll discuss what that means and follow-up with some different ways to achieve it. What do we mean by changing the physical structure of the community?While people are not the only animals that alter their environment – think of beavers or termites – we tend to do it in much more -drastic and permanent ways. New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, once wild places thinly populated by hunter-gatherers, farmers, and fishermen, now are covered in concrete and rise with buildings hundreds of meters tall. The residents of those cities have certainly changed the physical structure of their communities over the past centuries in countless ways. What kinds of physical changes can you make in your community that steer people’s behavior in healthy directions, improve their lives, and will continue to maintain a high quality of life for new generations? Changing the physical structure of a community can refer to a broad range of activities. At the most basic level, it means building or installing or creating something new, altering something that already exists, or eliminating or destroying something in the community:
As you can see, the physical structure of a community includes elements of the built environment and the natural environment. In changing the physical structure of the community, we -often replace the natural environment with the built environment, and occasionally we do the opposite. We may clean up the site of a strip mine or landfill and turn it into a park, for instance, or plant trees where there was once a pile of rubble or a parking lot.
A change in one community’s physical structure will have effects in faraway places. When factories in the central U.S. built their smokestacks higher to avoid polluting their direct communities, the prevailing winds carried their pollution all the way to the East Coast, where it caused acid rain in New England. We can’t discuss changing the physical structure of the community without thinking about the global consequences of our actions for all living things. Changes in physical structure can be relatively minor – the addition of curb cuts and crosswalks to make street-crossing easier for walkers and people with disabilities – or enormous – the construction of hundreds of units of environmentally-friendly mixed-income housing on a reclaimed industrial site, as in the case of Atlantic Station. They may be aimed at goals as different as simple physical comfort – planting shade trees to provide relief from summer heat, for example – and economic development. As a community activist or advocate, you or your organization can make changes yourself, or you can help community members to do so. For larger changes, such as building commercial developments, you can collaborate with or influence those who might: the federal, state, and local governments; corporations; developers; etc. Through advocacy, public education, and the ballot, you can persuade policy makers, the media, and the public to back changes that will contribute to the development of a healthy community.
So now that you’re thinking about changing the physical structure of your community, what are your goals? Why might you want to make those changes? Why would you change the physical structure of the community?
When would you try to change the physical structure of the community?Changes to the physical structure of a community can readily occur whenever there’s opportunity and a need.
Who should be involved in changing the physical structure of the community?Changes of any kind are typically enacted by community members or policy makers though there are often other players involved.
How do you change the physical structure of the community?What are we actually referring to when we talk about changing the physical structure of the community? There are clearly many possibilities, each with its own conditions and its own consequences. Let’s examine some of the specific changes that can be made.
BuildingsMost communities contain various types of buildings, and changes to each have their own consequences. In general, communities can try to assure, either through regulations or persuasion, that new buildings, restorations, and renovations are environmentally friendly (i.e., that they are designed to conserve energy and water, to minimize waste, to avoid the use of toxic materials in their construction and interiors, and to preserve as much open space as possible), that they encourage human interaction and street life (by locating benches and walkways in strategic places, for example, and/or by incorporating storefronts where they meet the street), and that their design and construction make them safe and comfortable (earthquake-proof, for instance, or simply having operable windows). Housing and residential development. Where, and under what conditions, people live in a community can influence their behavior, their health, their attitudes, and their economic situation. There are several ways in which changes involving housing can improve conditions:
Commercial buildings and development. The location, appearance, and nature of commercial businesses can add to (or detract from) the quality of community life. Furthermore, commercial development brings jobs, often entry-level jobs that people need to get started or back on their feet. Building or establishing neighborhood stores in street-level storefronts and cafes with outdoor seating can encourage street life and neighborhood pride.
Industrial buildings and development. Where industries are located, especially in relation to housing, how factories are built and how much they pollute, and the amount of noise and traffic they produce are all influential in determining the health of a community and its quality of life. And again, industries bring jobs – often high-paying jobs. The ability of people to get to the sites of those jobs can determine the economic health of a community.
Office and government buildings. The design and location of these buildings has health and social consequences both for those who work in them and for those who must use them as clients, customers, or constituents. Cultural centers. Theaters, museums, concert halls, auditoriums, and libraries add greatly to the life of the community. Their construction, design, and location can send clear messages about the community’s attitudes toward them and toward various populations. Recreation and entertainment complexes. Much the same as for cultural centers, the availability of and access to movie theaters, sports stadiums, amusement parks, and the like can both improve residents’ lives and create opportunities for building community. Historic buildings and monuments. How well a community decides to preserve and maintain its historic buildings and monuments makes a statement about its attitude toward its own history. It may also sometimes be most meaningful to tear down statues that no longer represent the values of a community, such as the controversial removal of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s statue in Charlottesville, VA. As part of the 2017 Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movement, this political unrest has resulted in bloody riots, lawsuits and overt racism that will surely define this time in history.
Educational facilities. The number, appearance, condition, and influence of schools, colleges, and universities can shape assumptions and expectations about education. The architectural design of schools can also greatly influence the shape of the learning that goes on within them. Separate classrooms off a long corridor imply a different kind of educational style than a school with many common spaces where learning takes place. A school with an outdoor campus allows for different experiences than one hemmed in by other buildings. A school housed within another facility such as a museum or an office building may be able to offer students more varied resources than a stand-alone school could.
Public spacesWhere these spaces are, how well they’re maintained, how welcoming they are to the public, how easy they are to get to, how safe, and how often they are used are all relevant to building a healthy community. Public spaces include the areas around buildings, parks, squares, outdoor malls, waterfronts, etc. Spaces around buildings. Plantings, decorative stone- or brickwork, sculpture, benches, fountains, etc. outside office and commercial buildings make the street more attractive and the buildings themselves more inviting. Parks. Urban parks can sometimes feel unsafe. They can also be inviting spaces that are filled with people and activity and offer respite from the concrete and noise of the city. Pedestrian areas. Designating certain streets as pedestrians-only can change the character of an area, as well as lead to more business activity, improve opportunities for diversity, and greater improve public safety.
Waterfronts. A number of American communities (from such large cities as San Francisco and New York to small towns along rivers and lakes) have made their waterfronts into pleasant pedestrian spaces where residents come to cool off in summer, attend a concert, eat street food and browse local artisan vendor displays. Once largely occupied by working boats, industry, and warehouses, as well as seedy bars the waterfronts have transformed from areas of high crime to hip, safe and coveted areas for development.
Neighborhood spaces. The safety of people walking the streets, particularly at night, can be a major issue in many cities. Some changes in physical structure can help reduce violent crime – assault, armed robbery, rape, murder – by improving street lighting, integrating police call boxes, and rehabilitating abandoned buildings. Encouraging more people to be on the street at night by improving safety and adding businesses, restaurants, sports facilities, etc., in high-crime neighborhoods also may reduce violence. Vacant lots. More than one social movement has started with a neighborhood clean-up. Vacant urban lots often attract trash. A citizen-led clean-up and maintenance program that turns an unused lot into a pocket park or a safe, clean place for kids to play can change the attitude of a neighborhood and start residents on a path of renewal. Public art. Works of art, whether in the form of a mural painted by local youth or a monumental sculpture by a world-famous artist, can bolster community pride, add beauty and interest to an area, and make a statement about both the philosophy of the artist and the community. When the women striking for higher pay and humane working conditions in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912 demanded bread and roses, they meant that they needed not only enough money to live, but beauty and dignity in their lives. Public art can enhance both.
Roads and other infrastructureCity streets. Besides keeping violence off the streets, there are many simple means to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers on the road, including more traffic lights, crosswalks, designated bike lanes, and better signage. Placement and maintenance of roads and train tracks. The Downtown Connector in Atlanta has been mentioned as a road that effectively divides the city. Many cities, and even smaller towns, have something similar – a highway or railway that cuts one part of the city off from another. Changing the placement of these roads and tracks, building pedestrian or pedestrian-friendly bridges or underpasses over or under them, and planning new roads carefully can avoid splitting communities or help to bring them back together. The placement of rural roads may also be an issue. Avoiding building roads through unspoiled areas may help to keep them unspoiled. Keeping the rural character of a small-town road may be important to maintaining the nature and history of the community. The interruption of wildlife routes may also be a concern.
Another concern is whether all neighborhoods or communities are treated equally in the matter of road maintenance. In the American South, up to the late 20th Century, it was common to see well-paved roads with sidewalks and sewers in the white, more affluent section of a town, and dirt streets with water running in roadside ditches in the African-American, lower-income neighborhoods. A race- or class-based system of road maintenance is not unknown in other parts of the U.S. (and the rest of the world) as well. Changing the physical structure in this case is a matter of equal rights, and involves changing attitudes as well as road service schedules. Public transportation. The construction or establishment of public transportation lines can mean less congestion and air pollution, energy conservation, safer streets, and better health for community residents who walk or bike to a bus or train stop, rather than driving door to door. As with roads, the question of fairness has to be considered here: public transportation routes should be, to the extent possible, distributed among all neighborhoods and areas of the community, so that everyone has relatively equal access to them. The creation of walking and bike trails. Walking and bike trails, cross-country ski trails, and roller blading and jogging paths encourage exercise, which in turn promotes good health, and also afford opportunities for social interaction and relaxation. They might, as they do in San Francisco, for example, also provide scenic vistas, and/or pass by points of cultural, historic, or natural interest. Walking and bike trails actually can take you almost anywhere in some cities, thus minimizing pollution and conserving energy resources.
Electricity, telephone, water, and gas lines. Improving old lines – replacing 100-year-old lead water pipe, repairing or replacing dangerously leaky gas pipe, adding fiber optic cable – can have major consequences for community health and safety, as well as providing access to technology to underserved communities or neighborhoods. Burying lines can improve the appearance of a community and eliminate many service problems. The natural environmentOpen space preservation. Open space preservation prevents, rather than creates, physical change in the community. Many communities – typically smaller ones, but some large cities as well – contain large areas of open space, or even wilderness, within their boundaries. These areas can provide recreation, fresh air, and appreciation for the natural world In an era of urban sprawl, cities tend to spread horizontally consuming the land around them, putting even unique landscapes of great natural beauty or value at risk.
Reclamation of environmentally damaged areas. Some industries change a natural site, exploiting it for resources, and then leave it severely damaged or ruined when it’s no longer useful. Quarries, mines – particularly strip mines – oil and gas fields, and timber operations, among others, all have the potential to leave behind torn-up landscapes, heaps of waste material (some of which may be toxic), abandoned buildings, and rusting machinery. Many in these industries make – or can be required to make, by regulations or legislation – a good-faith effort to clean up after themselves by restoring landscapes (replanting trees, filling pits and planting grass, etc.), trucking out and properly disposing of waste material, and clearing the site of any evidence of their work. When that doesn’t happen, either because the damage was done long ago or because there are no laws or regulations to mandate restoration, the community may have to step in to do the job. Prevention of pollution. This may involve cleaning the environment of pollutants before they enter the ecosystem such as with the construction of a sewage treatment plant or it may entail trapping pollutants before they are released into the environment, such as with chimney filters or outflow pipes from industrial plants. It may also mean careful consideration of siting industrial plants, and about whether potential polluters will be allowed to build or locate in the community at all. Another aspect of pollution prevention occurs at the residential level rather than with industrial operations. The repair of leaking or blocked sewer lines, for instance, may be necessary to prevent sewage leaking into the ground and eventually fouling water or bubbling to the surface. In rural areas, the placement and construction of septic systems is imperative. Correction of pollution problems. Often it is difficult to draw the line between prevention and correction of pollution problems. Physical changes aimed at cleaning up existing pollution might, yet again, involve the construction of a treatment plant, or the installation of filters in chimneys and outflow pipes. It could force the excavation of a site where toxic materials were dumped, or the clean-up of a whole neighborhood, as in the case of Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York. It could even make it necessary to tear down an industrial plant or a number of houses. Identifying opportunities for improving your community through changes to the physical environment is the first step in creating a healthier and more sustainable community. And once you have started down the path of improvement, remember that all physical structures require maintenance – buildings have to be kept up, lots kept clean, streetlight bulbs changed, roads and trails maintained, murals retouched in order to sustain a healthier community and a better life for its members. In SummaryThe built and natural environments together make up the physical structure of a community. By changing that structure, you may be able to change community members’ attitudes, behaviors, prospects for health and well-being, economic opportunity, social interactions, and quality of life. It’s one of the ways to approach creating a healthy community. We encourage the reproduction of this material, but ask that you credit the Community Tool Box. Online Resources An abandoned rail line, the 606, in Chicago has been transformed into a multi-use recreational trail that promotes healthy physical activity, a sense of community, public art, and alternative transportation. New York City Active Design Guidelines outlines design methods for promoting physical activity and health through the built environment. Active Living story bank – examples of communities changing the built environment to encourage physical activity and health. Atlanta Station (Atlantic Steel Site Redevelopment Project) is a prime example of taking a damaged piece of land and transforming it into a community hub, and is a smart, environmentally driven development that reduces vehicular use, rainwater runoff, and pollution. Bridging The Gap (BTG) connects environment, economy, and community in Kansas City by providing both education and volunteer action that reduces litter, promotes recycling, plants trees, protects native ecosystems, and encourages energy efficiency and waste reduction in businesses. Boys Grow mentors Kansas City urban youth through agricultural entrepreneurship. The program instills pride, discipline, and business understanding in the participants and teaches good stewardship, improving the land and providing fresh, healthy foods in urban areas. CDI to the United Nations: Sustainable Development through Cooperative Development from Cooperative Development Institute explains how cooperatives help achieve sustainability and peace in the world. Development without Displacement Toolkit provides practical lessons, frameworks, and tools that advance equitable development without displacing residents and small businesses. The Fair Housing Act Design Manual provides a framework for constructing housing that meet the Fair Housing Act guidelines, protecting people from discrimination when renting, buying, or seeking financing for housing. Best Green Stormwater Infrastructure management practices for airports. Habitat for Humanity volunteers work to ensure everyone has a decent place to live. Historic Preservation designation of buildings through the National Parks Service protects important buildings in our communities and provide oversight when renovation and restoration occur. An NPS designation can save the life of a building. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a rating system to evaluate the environmental performance of a building and has laid the foundation for green building design in the United States. The Living Building Challenge is the most rigorous performance standard for measuring a building’s environmental impact. The goal of these buildings is to improve the environment, to give more than they take, and to have a positive impact on people and the environment, not just to minimize harm to it. Make It Right Foundation builds safe, sustainable homes, buildings, and communities for people in need, often following an unprecedented natural disaster or a long underserved population. Mid-America Regional Council is a nonprofit association working with the community and government of the Kansas City region to advance social, economic and environmental progress. National Institute of Justice Research article on if disorder and urban decay leads to crime in a neighborhood. Native plants are vital in restoring and preserving biodiversity, conserving water, and creating healthy and beautiful places for people to enjoy. Nurturing Healthy Neighborhoods: Communities Affect Health is a resource from the National Institutes of Health about how the environment around us influences our health. Passive House Institute US is a nonprofit whose mission is to develop and promote passive building standards in the United States for energy and resource conservation as well as environmental impact. Best storm water management practices examples on the PennState Brandywine campus. Permaculture is an ecological design system that encompasses how we live, the type of houses we build, how we farm, and the creation of ethical communities. A Police station designed by a progressive architect to be a community center and hub. Sick Building Syndrome is a direct health response to spending time in a poorly ventilated, polluted, and/or contaminant laden building. Avoiding creating such spaces in the built environment is imperative to the health of a community and addressing problems in existing buildings will require changes to the built environment. The WELL Building Standard provides design guidelines for the built environment to improve human health and well-being, and works in concert with LEED building certification. World Health Organization Conference on Health Promotion in 1986 outlines the prerequisites for health. Xeriscaping rather than grass yards in drought affected areas such as the desert saves resources and reduces pollution. Print Resources Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage, 1992. Maxfield, Michael G., Babbie, Earl R. Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology. California: Wadsworth Publishing, 2014, p. 133. Which theory explains how geographical location and features in that location affect crime?Environmental criminology is the study of crime as it occurs within a geographical area, and it's a positivist theory that suggests crime is influenced, if not caused, by a person's spatial environment.
What theory argues that the causes of crime are located in the social conditions of a society that empower the wealthy and disenfranchise the poor and others less fortunate?Anomie means what? What theory argues that the causes of crime are located in the social conditions of a society that empower the wealthy and disenfranchise the poor and others less fortunate? Merton's strain theory would have the most trouble explaining which crime?
Who suggested that a person's physical characteristics could predict whether they were criminal or not?One of the first instances when the "not guilty by reasons of insanity" defenses was used involved which defendant? Who suggested that a person's physical characteristics could predict whether they were criminal or not? Hans J. Eysenck in the 1960s argued that crime was related to what?
What is social sickness also called?Social anxiety disorder (social phobia)
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