Imagine that every time you go for a walk around the block or run errands in your neighborhood, half the people you pass make an unwanted comment about the way you look, walk or dress. It doesn’t matter if it is meant to be a compliment or not, you feel on display. It doesn’t matter […]
Monthly Archives: September 2015
What should we do with vaccine deniers? A mother named Kristen, interviewed by Saul Gonzalez for Which Way LA says that she’ll leave the state if she is forced to vaccinate her child in accordance with California’s new law. She and many others like her have deeply held beliefs, equally deeply at odds with current science. To […]
Sandra Bland died in custody after failing to signal a turn. Walter Scott was shot in the back by a police officer after a routine traffic stop for a broken taillight. Samuel DuBose lost his life over a missing front license plate. Maybe you thought racial profiling in police stops was only for New […]
Anne-Marie Slaughter laments excessive workplace demands. She’s right to raise the issue, and generally raises the right issues. The problem is especially severe for those at the bottom and the top of the wage gamut. At the bottom: When an abundance of overly rigid workplaces causes 42 million American citizens to live day to day […]
Can you take your dog for a walk and feel safe? Are there sidewalks to keep you from dodging cars as you walk? How walkable is your community? When people think about living healthy lifestyles that include daily physical activity, the layout of their neighborhood doesn’t always immediately come to mind. However, the design […]
Incarceration rates in Illinois have ballooned since the 1990s, with a prison population 50% higher today than in 1992, despite declining crime levels. In 2015, Illinois committed $1.4 billion to the Department of Corrections, an amount deemed ineffective and costly by researchers behind an initiative titled Chicago’s Million Dollar Blocks. The Million Dollar Blocks project […]
The LA Times reports on resident dissatisfaction with the road diet on Rowena Avenue in Silver Lake. It’s a great article on an important change, balanced and with lots of perspectives. But one irony jumped out at me. After 24-year-old Ashley Sandau was killed crossing Rowena, momentum for changes to the street accelerated. It’s […]
California is trying to decide how—and in fact whether—to adequately fund the huge backlog of overdue road repairs and investment in transit. California Democrats in the legislature have proposed an increase in the gas tax by 12 cents a gallon. With Republicans digging in their heels against any tax, Jerry Brown has proposed a compromise—a […]
In 2007, Richmond, California was the 9th most dangerous city in America facing an epidemic of homicides. But now, 5 years later, the number of homicides has been cut in half. Homicides are one of the leading causes of years of lost life, so a halving of the homicide rate is an amazing public […]
This is a blog for those interested in finding public health in unexpected places. An American maize researcher in Mexico is working with New York chefs to get specialty strains of maize into restaurant use. Activists in Indianapolis are transforming a public square from car-dominated to people-friendly. After-school music education programs in New York […]