Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Quality of Life

First Lady’s Childhood Obesity Task Force Calls For Transportation Reform

By Elana Schor | May 11, 2010 | 4 Comments

(Chart: LetsMove.gov) 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. […]

Detroit Residents Press EPA for Stronger Air Pollution Monitoring

By Elana Schor | Apr 19, 2010

In Washington, "grassroots lobbying" is more often associated with industry-funded issue campaigns than ground-up local advocacy. But residents of Detroit’s industrial southwest neighborhoods took the term back to its roots on Friday, getting a personal visit from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials after a groundswell of complaints about decaying air quality. Cyclists in southwest Detroit. […]

Gillibrand Offers $1B Plan Backing Up White House on Local Food Outlets

By Elana Schor | Apr 14, 2010 | 8 Comments

Her approval rating on the rise amid a difficult election battle, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) joined the president’s campaign against childhood obesity this week by proposing $1 billion in loans and grants to build healthier neighborhood grocery stores and farmers’ markets. The view from one type of "food desert." (Photo: Springfield Institute) Gillibrand’s legislation, co-sponsored […]

EPA Declares Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal a Superfund Site

By Elana Schor | Mar 2, 2010

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today named Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal a Superfund site, putting the waterway on the list of the nation’s most polluted waste areas and paving the way for a years-long cleanup process that could upend city officals’ plans to redevelop the neighborhood. Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, now a federal Superfund site. (Photo: NYT) […]

D.C., VA, MD to Apply for Federal Aid as Snow Eats Into Transport Budgets

By Elana Schor | Feb 11, 2010 | 2 Comments

The scene in D.C. this week. (Photo: thisisbossi via Flickr) Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia are set to apply for federal disaster aid to offset the costs of cleanup from this month’s record-breaking mid-Atlantic blizzards, according to the Washington Post reports today. But the so-called Snowpocalypse could dent more than just worker productivity — already […]

White House Pitches $400M for Healthier Neighborhood Food Outlets

By Elana Schor | Feb 3, 2010 | 2 Comments

The connection between walkable development and grocery shopping may not seem immediately apparent — until you consider studies conducted in cities from Austin to Seattle that showed the share of trips taken by foot or by transit rises as local food outlets move closer to residential areas. The White House budget envisions a new investment […]

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