This Week at Walk21: Urban Planning Meets Public Health

11:23 AM EDT on October 5, 2009

The Walk21 Conference is coming up in a few days, and there's no shortage of interesting sessions to attend. One of the great parts of the conference is that it tackles issues shared by all cities, and with participants coming in from around the world, it'll be a good chance to talk about what works, what doesn't, and combine that into urban planning strategies that can be exported worldwide.

Improving pedestrian space: Montreal's Place Jean-Paul Riopelle features sculpture installations and an 88-tree urban forest. Photo: Wallyg via flickr

For folks interested in looking at ways to improve the pedestrian culture of our often car-crazy continent, there's Improving North American City Centers for Pedestrians (Wed. Oct. 7, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Room 802, NYU Kimmel Center), featuring urban planning officials from Mexico City, Montreal, and New York discussing ambitious plans to improve pedestrian spaces and featuring New York City's recent transformation of Times Square. The panel will be moderated by Sarah Gaventa, the Director of the UK's CABE Space.

Later in the day, there's going to be a workshop on "nutritional deserts." No, not "nutritional desserts." This panel takes an urban planning approach to neighborhoods lacking affordable, healthy food options. How Retail Food Availability Shapes Walking Patterns (Wed. Oct. 7, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm, Room 406, NYU Kimmel Center) is all about how cities can help out there neighborhoods by encouraging greenmarkets, community food gardens, and supermarkets. The workshop will be moderated by Kelly Williams of New York's Project for Public Spaces and will discuss how advocates and cities can shift zoning and land use policies to support access to healthy food in urban environments.

The Walk21 Conference takes place at NYU's Kimmel Center from October 7-9. You can register for the conference here.

Mathew Katz

Mathew Katz is a Canadian freelance reporter/producer living in New York City. His writing has appeared in The Toronto Star, The Village Voice, Torontoist, The Huffington Post, and NPR.org. He's also had radio pieces appear on National Public Radio and the BBC World Service. Mathew graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is 2009, and before that completed a B.A. at the University of Toronto. He's an avid baker, and rides a worn-down hybrid bike around the city.

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