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Date: June 11th 2010

“Welcome to Citiwire.net! The ’shape’ of 21st century America figures two ways in this week’s columns — mine on the growing efforts to reverse the troublesome obesity rate among America’s children, and Peter Katz’s on how the Obama administration ‘gets’ the imperative of restraining sprawl development patterns, an idea Peter suggests was first formulated for America by the Congress for the New Urbanism back in the days when he was its founding executive director. … Last week’s columns — mine on ‘livability’, Mark Muro and Robert Puentes’ on metros helping themselves, have both g enerated a range of spirited comments. Check for yourself! ”   -- Neal Peirce

Push to Cut Kids’ Obesity: Michelle Obama and her City Allies

By Neal Peirce

For Release Sunday, June 13, 2010
© 2010 Washington Post Writers Group

WASHINGTON — Can we really slim down the next generation of Americans, help our school children shed the extra pounds that could spell lifetimes with high prospects of type 2 diabetes or heart problems?

Michelle Obama is trying hard to reach parents with her “Let’s Move” campaign. Scientific evidence is being mustered. The link to America’s military preparedness is being made. As Sen. Mark Udall (Colo.) wrote recently to the First Lady, nearly a third of 17-to-24 year olds are unfit for military service due to their weight or lack of fitness.

But the national effort shouldn’t obscure individual cities’ efforts. And a surprise leader is the Nation’s Capital. The District of Columbia last month approved some of America’s strictest rules, aiming to curb the overweight and obese conditions that plague no less than 43 percent of its public school children — one of the nation’s highest rates.

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Thank You for Listening, Mr. Donovan

By Peter Katz

For Release Sunday, June 13, 2010
Citiwire.net

That’s what I would have said to Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development had I been able to reach the podium before he was whisked into a waiting car for a tour of Atlanta-area public housing sites. Donovan had just addressed the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU)’s annual gathering this May. CNU has been working tirelessly for the past two decades to find a new and better approach to community development in America.

Simply stated, CNU seeks to build strong, economically competitive regions woven from a fabric of walkable neighborhoods and districts, that offer beautiful, affordable places to live, work, learn and play. What CNU members dislike is the single-use development pattern known as suburban sprawl– the pattern prevalent in most places built over the past 50-60 years.

Apparently, Donovan dislikes sprawl too. He thanked CNU members for their part in changing “the way we think about our communities” and offered his critique of the suburban-edge housing boom that hindsight now tells us was a fool’s paradise:

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Our mission... to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.

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