The following edited excerpt is from a journal article submitted for W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Digest of Community Development. It was written by Nikita Buckhoy, Todd Scott, and Myra Tetteh, members of the Physical Activity Workgroup (formerly Built Environment Workgroup) of the Detroit Food & Fitness Collaborative.

The paper addressed how complete streets and greenways are solutions to Detroiter’s  concerns around safety, health and economy. In February we published an excerpt on safety; this article addresses how complete streets have the potential for improved community health.

Detroit residents suffer from chronic diseases and obesity at an alarming rate. Much of this can be avoided with better nutrition and increased physical activity. However, Detroiters lack availability and access to walkable and bikeable communities. The Physical Activity Workgroup is working diligently to improve the access to safe spaces to physically active in Detroit.

Our workgroup leads the Detroit Complete Streets Coalition, which has a three-pronged purpose: 1) to build and sustain a coalition, 2) to educate the community on complete streets, and 3) to lead the effort to pass a complete streets ordinance. The complete streets ordinance will encourage the planning and implementation of complete streets infrastructure in the community.

These changes are in line with the Institute of Medicine, which recommends fighting childhood obesity by establishing ordinances to encourage the construction of sidewalks, bikeways, and other places for physical activity, like those suggested with complete streets policies. (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2011)

Residents are 65 percent more likely to walk in a neighborhood with sidewalks, which is a method of making a street a complete street. (Giles-Corti & Donovan, 2002)

Additionally, the planning and construction of greenways in communities increase the opportunities for residents to be physically active. Forty-three percent of people with safe places to walk within ten minutes of home met recommended activity levels; among those without safe places to walk just 27 percent met the recommendation. (Powell, Martin, & Chowdhury, 2003)

The Dequindre Cut in Detroit is a shining example of a greenway that increases the opportunities for residents to be physically active. Located in Downtown Detroit, the Dequindre Cut gives access to residents and visitors alike to walk and bike on an off-road facility. The city of Detroit was the recipient of a $10,000,000 grant through Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) II funding. This will extend the Dequindre Cut to Eastern Market, a six-block market selling healthy, fresh foods to residents at affordable rates.

Walking Against Blight, sponsored by Warren/Conner Development Coalition and the Detroit Food & Fitness Collaborative, seeks to dually promote the well-being of its participants and improvement of their neighborhoods. This program is designed to assist residents with healthy lifestyle education to better both their health and the built environment. WAB also acts as a tool to assist lower eastside communities with documenting and tracking blighted locations in their neighborhoods and developing action and advocacy strategies to address them.

The 2012 WAB program season saw two programs stem from one. The WAB program sprouted the “Walking Against Blight Walking Club” which addressed healthy lifestyle education and the “Mobile Mapping Project” which tracked and recorded blight.

The Walking Against Blight Walking Club had 29 registered members. The club members walked more than 550 miles, 1.4 million steps and burned more than 20 pounds collectively from September 2012 to December 2012.

In November 2012, 12 residents from two eastside pilot areas used mobile technology to walk through their neighborhoods and record instances of blight – vacant buildings, illegal dumping, abandoned vehicles, etc. Warren/Conner Development Coalition conducted the training and facilitated the data collection.

The surveyors recorded over 2000 instances of blight.  There was a 63% increase in the number of incidents recorded in 2012 compared to the 1200 incidents in 2011. A photograph was taken of each occurrence and the location was recorded, ultimately creating a database and Google Earth based map. The Google Earth Map is much more comprehensive and user-friendly than previous maps done for this project.

Moving forward, our goal is to be able to continue to update the database while also expanding to other neighborhoods within Detroit city limits to create a larger database of blight that can be targeted for remediation while empowering residents and youth to implement blight remediation efforts. Ultimately, we hope to be able to create safer, more walkable communities that promote better public and physical health.

Contact Darnell Adams for more information at 313-571-2800 x 3202 or dadams@warrenconner.org.

Join the Detroit Food Policy Council for our third annual summit on April 4-6, 2013 at Focus: HOPE. The theme of the Detroit Food 2013 is “What’s on Your Plate?” and will feature speakers, workshops and of course, local food!  The Detroit Food & Fitness Collaborative is co-hosting this event.

Workshops will focus on four topics: Food and Nutrition Education, Sourcing Food Locally, The Politics of Food, and The Future of Detroit’s Food. Watch the Detroit Food Policy Council’s website and Facebook page for a program schedule to be published soon.

On April 4^th, don’t miss our keynote speaker: Nikki Henderson, Executive Director, People’s Grocery in Oakland, California. Nikki began her work in social justice through the foster care system in Southern California, having been raised with seven older foster brothers, and later shifted into sustainability, developing course curriculum for the University of California system and advocating across the state for environmental justice and political ecology. She has worked closely with Van Jones and Phaedra Ellis Lamkins at Green for All, fighting for a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. She was also a part of Slow Food USA in Brooklyn, New York. In 2009, Nikki co-founded Live Real, a national collaborative of food movement organizations committed to strengthening and expanding the youth food movement in the United States. In 2010, Nikki was featured in ELLE magazine as a Gold Awardee. She has a master’s degree in African American Studies from UCLA, and is originally from Los Angeles.

Summit registration is $20 per person for all three days.  A limited number of scholarships are available. Register on our website at www.detroitfoodpc.org and call us at (313) 833-0396 for more information or to request a registration form in the mail.

Detroit has a rich agricultural history and is home to a vibrant community food system. Although Detroit has experienced decades of economic decline, there are many assets fueling the city’s future.

Detroit is a national model for urban agriculture initiatives, and community food partners have worked tirelessly to create an inclusive environment where everyone has access to good food. Other under-utilized assets include vacant land and buildings, direct access to fresh water, a busy international border crossing, and committed people who are passionate about revitalizing the city.

Because of the city’s history and its many assets, the Detroit Food & Fitness Collaborative (DFFC) will be conducting a study of Detroit’s food economy in 2013. A study of the local food economy in Detroit that documents both opportunities and gaps will help guide and inform future investments. This study will examine three major areas of interest:

Distribution- methods and/or systems currently utilized to distribute good food within the city of Detroit and SE Michigan

Localization- percentage of local purchasing resulting in the greatest economic benefit for the city of Detroit; proposed timeframe for reaching the local purchasing goal; and the infrastructure, methods, and consumer behaviors required to reach goal within designated timeframe

Workforce- employment opportunities currently available in the food system and future opportunities that may be available if the localization goal is achieved

An essential component of the study is community engagement that will include Detroit residents, local entrepreneurs, civic, and business leaders. Community focus groups will be conducted for feedback on design, the data collection process, and the development and dissemination of the final study.

DFFC is partnering with the Detroit Food Policy Council, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, and Detroit Future City on this project, and we look forward to providing updates on our progress throughout the year.

The following edited excerpt is from a journal article submitted for W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Digest of Community Development. It was written by Nikita Buckhoy, Todd Scott, and Myra Tetteh, members of the Physical Activity Workgroup (formerly Built Environment Workgroup) of the Detroit Food & Fitness Collaborative. The article addresses how complete streets and greenways are solutions to Detroiter’s concerns around safety, health and economy. Over the next few months, we’ll be publishing different parts of the article; this excerpt addresses the safety issue.

Far too often Detroit appears on lists declaring it as one of the most hazardous places to live because of safety, crime violence, and accidents. Safety concerns impede residents’ ability to be physically active.

During a focus group conducted by the Built Environment/Physical Activity (BE/PA) Workgroup, the residents detailed safety as a significant impediment to their physical activity. Concerns that impede residents’ ability to be physically active in their community include crime and violence and pedestrian-automobile crashes. Detroit has one of the highest rates for pedestrian crashes in the nation. (Michigan State Police, 2010).

In 2011, Detroit had 489 pedestrian and 109 bicycle crashes (Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, 2012). Pedestrian and bicycle crashes are a great concern for Detroit residents.  Implementing complete streets infrastructure including mid-block crossing, bike lanes, and pedestrian sanctuaries, improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Criminal violence also serves as a deterrent for physical activity, parents and schools limit physical activity access to youth to ensure they are kept safe. Built environment interventions can be used as a method to enhance neighborhood safety. More eyes and feet are on the pavement, similar to a neighborhood watch. This intervention makes criminals are less likely to engage in violence since they are aware that others are watching.

[T]he design of the built environment should not impede the propensity for walking and physical activity. The link between built-environment characteristics and safety from crime and/or traffic danger has been clearly established by researchers. Therefore, design and policy interventions aiming to enhance neighborhood safety are the necessary first steps for the encouragement of walking. (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2006)

Introducing built environment enhancements to a community with safety challenges can serve as a step in the right direction to reduce pedestrian-automobile crashes and decrease criminal activities.