Map images ©2007 Google – Imagery ©2007 Digital Globe, Sanborn, Map data ©2007 NAVTEC™
The links below point to publicly available resources that might be of interest, including items of general interest as well as of specific relevance to Baltimore City — home of the workshop and the Health & the City group. A short description of each item accompanies each link.
If you have additional resources that you think might be useful, please feel free to email links and descriptions for them.
Health & the City
Integrating Urban Planning & Public Health: December 7, 2007
Click the play button in the control panel below to listen to an audio recording of the morning workshop:
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General Resources
City Repair Project and the Sunnyside Piazza
The City Repair Project was formed out of a grassroots neighborhood initiative in Portland, Oregon, in 1996. It focuses on localization and sustainability in its efforts to to transform urban spaces into community-oriented places. The Sunnyside Piazza was a collaborative project of the City Repair Project and the residents surrounding an inner Portland street intersection.
The intersection of urban planning, art, and public health: The Sunnyside Piazza (password protected)
A 2003 article published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Public Health, Volume 19, Number 9, pages 1439-1441, written by Jan C. Semenza.
Community-initiated urban development: An ecological intervention (password protected)
A 2006 article published in the Journal of Urban Health, Volume 84, Number 1, pages 8-20, evaluating an intervention implemented in coordination with the City Repair Project. Authored by Jan Semenza, Tanya L. March, and Brian D. Bontempo.
Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning
In addition to its eponymous efforts, the Coalition provides national technical assistance to cities throughout the United States (including Baltimore), the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and several states on Healthy Homes Developments.
Funded by the social innovation outfit Tides Center, the Berkeley, California-based HIP focuses on health impact assessments designed to judge how land use projects and policies affect health outcomes. Their site includes access to a health impact assessment toolkit for community-based planning, among other tools.
International Society for Urban Health (ISUH)
Currently run out of the New York Academy of Medicine, this organization manages the peer-reviewed Journal of Urban Health, as well as the annual International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH). The sixth ICUH took place in Baltimore, October 31-November 2, 2007; the seventh will be in Vancouver from October 29-31, 2008.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)® Rating Systems
An initiative of the non-profit United States Green Building Council, LEED® is intended to foster adoption of universal standards for sustainable building and development efforts.
National Association for County & City Health Officials (NACCHO)
NACCHO's website features a section on Community Design/Land Use Planning that links to partners, research, and other resources. Of special note is the listing of monthly technical assistance calls cosponsored with the American Planning Association (APA). The calls take place on the last Thursday of the month from 3.30 through 5.00
pm
ES(D)T. The next talk (More on Data: Bringing the Health Evidence to the Planning Table) is April 24, 2008.
The Root Shock Institute is a project of the Community Research Group of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
“Worldchanging” is an online blog-cum-review of tools, models, ideas, and trends aimed at making the world (and, in this section, specifically its cities) a better place.
Baltimore Resources
Baltimore City Health Department
Website of the Baltimore City Health Department, headed up by Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein.
Baltimore City Master Comprehensive Plan
The Baltimore City Department of Planning’s new (2006) Master Comprehensive Plan, the first for the city in more than 30 years.
The Johns Hopkins University Urban Health Institute (UHI)
A university-wide center created in 2000, designed to serve as an interface between the Johns Hopkins University and the Baltimore community — especially East Baltimore.
Baltimore's New EastSide project
“Baltimore’s NewEastside” is the name given to a biotech/re-development project situated north of the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus in East Baltimore, and spearheaded by East Baltimore Development, Inc. (EBDI).
By Charles Cohen, a 2003 article on Baltimore’s New EastSide project, from the City Paper.
And the Walls Came Tumbling Down
Lionel Foster’s June 2007 article from Baltimore’s monthly magazine The Urbanite, also on the New EastSide project.
Baltimore Inclusionary Housing Ordinance
On June 11, 2007, the Baltimore City City Council passed an Inclusionary Housing Bill, requiring developers to devote a proportion of residential projects to affordable housing units. The regulations vary by size and category of project (e.g., those backed by a “major public subsidy” are subject to a specific set of rules).
City of Baltimore Ordinance 07-474: An Ordinance Concerning Inclusionary Housing
The ordinance itself, as passed by the City Council.
Proposed Regulations: Inclusionary Housing
Draft regulations for implementation of the ordinance; as noted, comments are due on the law by December 3, 2007.
“Audacious Ideas” is a blog sponsored by the Open Society Institute (OSI)-Baltimore, presenting contributions by (to-date) 11 featured authors.
From Baltimore’s daily newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, an interactive map plotting the geographic location of homicides in Baltimore City along with selected demographic information and links to associated news articles.
Baltimore: The Next 30 Years...and Beyond
A look ahead, from the 2007 “Best of Baltimore” edition of Baltimore’s weekly City Paper.
The award-winning series from cable channel HBO, created largely by ex-Sun journalist David Simon and former Baltimore City police detective and school teacher Ed Burns.
Edited by Elizabeth Fee, Linda Shopes, and Linda Zeiman, this book presents a fascinating critical modern history of the city. David Harvey’s “A View from Federal Hill” is one of many standout chapters.
From Mobtown to Charm City: New Perspectives on Baltimore's Past
A somewhat tricky-to-find collection of 13 essays from the Baltimore History Conference; Joseph Arnold’s “Thinking Big About a Big City: Baltimore, 1729-1999” and Deborah Weiner’s “New Deal Promise to Post-Modern Defeat” should be of particular interest.
Baltimore-based research by faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, from a database hosted by the Urban Health Institute.