Cities as Exercise Machines - w/ Avi Friedman and Alexandra Pollock

Geoff Capelle: The built environment is on track to double in size by 2060.

It’ll be like we’re adding another New York City to the planet every month for the next forty years.

As a population, we dedicate a lot of airtime to breaking down the economic and biological impacts of expanding the built environment.

But there’s a completely separate set of physical and social needs that we should consider as well.

Like what happens when our bodies stop working the way they used to?

When it comes to aging in place and acquired disabilities, how can we make sure the built environment of the future won’t be stuck in the past?

Alexandra Pollock: As vision declines or as cognitive function declines, having places to go in your neighborhood that maybe don't require driving and that are easily accessible to you, allow you to maintain social connections later in your life, which can be really essential.

Geoff Capelle: This is Alexandra Pollock.

Alexandra Pollock: I'm a landscape designer and planner at Design Workshop, which is a landscape architecture and urban planning firm.

Geoff Capelle: When Alexandra was a student at McGill University's School Architecture a few years ago, she took a class with Dr. Avi Friedman.

Avi Friedman: I'm a professor at McGill University and I am teaching a course on sustainability and direct the Affordable Homes Research Group.

Geoff Capelle: Avi was teaching a course on sustainability.

Avi Friedman: We are living in what one may call a perfect storm of environmental challenges. We are now facing a climate emergency. The highest temperature in the world was recorded in British Columbia. It's hard to believe.

Geoff Capelle: But sustainability isn't just about renewable energy, public transportation, or green roofs. It's also about public health.

Avi Friedman: There is even a saying, “Tell me your city code, and I will tell you how healthy you are.”

Geoff Capelle: The built environment can impact human health in a major way.

Avi Friedman: If cities are designed correctly, the city can eventually be an exercise machine.

Geoff Capelle: Avi and Alexandra believe that cities are the tool for unlocking better health for everyone — regardless of age or economic status.

So they wrote a book about it: Fundamentals of Planning Cities for Healthy Living, which came out last year on Anthem Press.

Alexandra Pollock: Thinking about access to green space and all of the benefits of just being around trees, having fresh air to breathe, being able to spend time outside. The way that public parks, tree planting, and any of these urban design elements that bring living things into, you know, what sometimes can be kind of a gray developed environment, can have such a powerful impact and are equally shared by anybody who uses that space, regardless of their background or where they're coming from.

Geoff Capelle: And it's not just physical health.

Avi Friedman: The Surgeon General in the United States identified isolation as illness. And I believe that creating these hubs, these parks, squares in which people can gather is extremely important.

Geoff Capelle: So what are we waiting for?

Avi Friedman: We know the elements that can create a healthy city. Be them how to create spaces, how to educate people, how to grow food. We are living in a time of change, and this provides opportunity.

Geoff Capelle: This is Building Good. I’m Geoff Capelle, and today, I’m talking with Avi and Alexandra about how cities can keep their new years resolutions and start hitting the gym.

Geoff Capelle: Looking at the current built environment, what existing factors contribute to poor health?

Alexandra Pollock: I think a main pattern that came up time and time again through our research is urban sprawl. And the construction of cities that require you to travel long distances in your car to reach basic services, work, family, friends, outdoor spaces. This reliance on the car, I think we're all familiar with the connection between that, sedentary lifestyle, pollution, time spent commuting and the contribution to feelings of stress and the poor impacts on mental health. I think another really interesting piece that relates to this pattern of really spread out cities is its impact on the social function of cities and its tendency to isolate us from one another, literally in our cars when, being on the subway may not always feel like the most positive social experience, but it is an experience that puts you in proximity with people in the city and builds feelings of trust and knowing one another. Similarly, dense urban centers where you're exposed to a diversity of people and experiences are really good for your mental health compared to the patterns that we often of driving, isolated land uses, a residential uses separated from businesses, offices and things like that, that really just section off our lives and have impacts on physical and mental well being.

Avi Friedman: I may add that a concept that is now being advocated is 15 minute cities, and in order to be both functional and livable, planners suggest that you need to have all your amenities ideally, within 15 minutes walk.

Now, if you don't have those amenities next to you, you need to have transportation, transit, that allow you to get there.

If you can create better walkable streets, if you can create shared streets, if you are to visit countries, Scandinavian countries, you will be amazed that there are no neighborhoods today that are designed with regular, conventional, car-used streets.

All of them are shared streets where people are encouraged to walk. In Sweden, for example, in one of our case studies, we noted that even at the side of the road, the side of the walkable road, the water that comes from the roof go in a canal in which plants are being planted and so on. So the idea is to make walkability very appealing.

 And other things that need to be changed is density. You cannot achieve walkability in cities that have four to seven units per acre. In other words, you cannot afford to have in such low density corner stores. In other words, once you raise the density, say, to over twenty-five units per acre, there is sufficient population to justify these type of activities. And then there are many things that go beyond the planning, Geoff, and I believe that one of them is that we need to completely revise the way we educate the public. In other words, I commonly see beautiful parks in Montreal, but in them there is nothing. I believe that encouraging activities, play spaces that encourage kids to participate, all the elements of the vocabulary that eventually will get people more engaged in those places.

And this perhaps required that we will look at the traditional amount of space that we allocate to open spaces. We are now mandating 10%, but I believe that maybe it should be more. Maybe some of these open spaces can include urban agriculture in which people can grow nutritional food, something that we are not doing today.

Geoff Capelle: In your book, you talk about cities as “exercise machines.” Can you explain this?

Avi Friedman: It reflects a mindset that in order to exercise, you need to go to a gym, or you need to buy a treadmill, or stairmasters, and so on. I believe that you can replace the need for this type of machines in order to keep yourself fit.

For example, I'm taking the metro daily to my workplace and I see a point of decision when I step out of the metro and this is what type of stairs the people will take. Some will opt to use the escalators, and others may use the stairs, the regular stairs. Conventional stairs are known to be the best cardio activity that you can ever have.

Now, so, if you take the stairs and you avoid elevators and so on, the city can become an exercise machine, can replace all this other stuff. And I believe that this goes to other aspects, but, the immediate effect is that being active daily, and keep this routine and habits and lifestyle will spare you problems in the future.

Geoff Capelle: And how does the built environment affect the population at different times in their life?

Alexandra Pollock: One of the chapters in the book focuses on aging in particular, and I think that is one age group that just sort of demonstrates the different purposes the city can have throughout your life. There's evidence to support how being active throughout your life allows you to stay active later.

and it's through these sorts of routine movements that Avi is talking about, taking the stairs, carrying your groceries home, being able to lift that amount of weight and walk a few blocks can be a really positive contributor for healthy aging. I also think as vision declines or as cognitive function declines, having places to go in your neighborhood that maybe don't require driving and that are easily accessible to you, allow you to maintain social connections later in your life, which can be really essential.

Avi Friedman: The Surgeon General in the United States identified isolation as an illness. And I believe that creating these hubs, these places, these parks, squares, in which people can gather is extremely important and contribute to the better mental state.

In my neighborhood, I live in a neighborhood called Notre Dame des Graces in Montreal, the mayor took one of the parks and turned it into an entertainment hub. Every Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday and Sunday, there are activities. It is like you come to a place like a fair, and there are music and dancing and so on. And people started to move there and come and visit, not only from the neighborhood and other places. I have no doubt that the mental effect on such activity. When I go there, I feel inspired. I hear wonderful music, you get to meet other people, so on. 

Geoff Capelle: Avi, you're talking about Montreal, and I think some of these ideas are really relevant for Canadian cities. How can cities in colder climates overcome challenges to create year round accessible outdoor spaces?

Avi Friedman: There are many strategies, mostly that has to do with planning. Let me take you to a place in Sweden called Västra hamnen. It is a district that is located near the sea. If you were to walk there on a winter day, you will see, you will not feel wind because it was planned with taller building surrounding lower one near the sea.

The point is, many decisions, planning decisions, can affect how we feel in places. Say, the height of buildings, assessing wind direction and planting trees to block strong winds, providing benches, near tree in summertime, and so on. So there are many planning interventions that can affect how we feel in places, winter and summer.

Geoff Capelle: Alexandra, any winter cities that you've seen that’ve really done a great job?

Alexandra Pollock: I think that Canadians are ahead of Americans on this, but I attended the American Planning Association, Illinois Chapter, the state conference this past year, and I attended a session on winter cities.

And what I was struck by was the very basic or essential piece for planning for winter cities that I think a lot of American cities, even cold American cities are just catching up to. It’s that you have to want to do it and you have to be aware that expecting people to essentially stay in their homes all winter is not how you're going to keep people happy and healthy and so I think about, in Montreal, even events like Igloo Fest, and things of that nature that encourage people to get outside and just enjoy life in the winter. The river in Ottawa and the recreational opportunities there, things like that. I think just that basic shift in how a city approaches that time of year as something that can be programmed and active and fun is something I think a lot of cities need to get some buy-in on, publicly.

How can I convince, not even the general public, but even the people I work with in the planning department at my city to think about this? I think that there's a tendency to shut down when we think about winter and it's dark and it's cold and it's difficult.

We all know that many people really struggle in the winter and I think there's some work to be done in just raising awareness of the importance of planning for winter cities and the importance of doing, spending time and resources to make public spaces more inviting for people to actually gather and use them in the winter.

Avi Friedman: Two cities that come to mind is Winnipeg and Edmonton. These are classic winter cities, and Winnipeg known for its harsh winter. It seems to me that the planners and the leaders of this city introduced so many activities. Like building structures and so on in the winter that takes people out.

In Edmonton, one of the noticeable aspects in urban planning, urban design is most of the public buildings have atriums. And they're all connected. So when you come to your office, say at lunchtime, if you want to walk, you can walk several blocks above ground, to atrium that are full of trees and sun and so on. I was amazed when I was there how comfortable was it to walk from place to place, in an enclosed space.

Alexandra Pollock:   I have to say the winter cities chapter in the book was one of my favorites, I think, to research and write. I think the question of winter is so major in Canada and in the north in general, and it's so important for cities to really take a look at what they have as far as outdoor infrastructure and think, how can we get people there? What sorts of programming and events can we do? And I think a lot of winter sports are associated with a pretty high barrier to entry.

So skiing, ice skating. Things like that don't feel accessible to everyone, particularly, I think, potentially immigrant groups to Canada, where this environment is so foreign, the winter is so foreign, these sports that for many Canadians, you're doing it from such a young age, it's just, it's not going to be your first thought of getting outside in the winter, and I think cities have a responsibility to do more to make those things more accessible to everyone financially, physically and yeah, just try to drum up excitement and joy around the winter and not just an indoor time.

Geoff Capelle: We’ll be back with Avi and Alexandra after this.

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Geoff Capelle: Your chapter on socialising in the city begins by describing the fleeting yet meaningful social interactions that happen within urban spaces. The kind of meetings that happen all the time in big cities. Why are these interactions vital for healthy life within cities?

Alexandra Pollock: There are a lot of wonderful examples in Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg, which we referenced throughout that chapter and throughout the book. One that's really stayed with me is experience of a young mother in New York City who was feeling really isolated, really struggling with mental health postpartum and found just a wealth of community resources at her public library. An outdoor space for her children to play and was a casual opportunity for her to meet other mothers and find support and resources for what she was going through and I think that example is so great because it shows how a public resource that already has this, you know, essential role to play in society of, you know, providing books and educational opportunities was also starting point for her to break out of the isolation and loneliness she felt, improve her mental health and through the network of women she met, be connected to other resources and places throughout the city that were sort of similar meeting spots.

In some cities, there are missed partnership opportunities between whatever entity is managing libraries, schools, community centers, and parks. And depending on the current sort of system of how those are run and how programming is advertised and even where children are bused to after school, if there are after school programs, I think there's more that can be done in some cases to really integrate all of that and have it all be part of a functioning city rather than one entity or organization that might be doing great work, but if you're not involved with them already, maybe you're unaware of the entire network.

Avi Friedman: In recent years libraries stopped to be a place where you go to borrow a book. There are places that became cultural hubs, performance arts center, places in which you take your kids for reading and so on. And this is where you get community information. And I believe that this is again a very fundamental transformation that happened in many places.

Alexandra and I, what we recognize that if we are to achieve many of these ideas or ideals, we need to create equity. In other words, there is a marked difference between places that have all these amenities and places that do not.

Geoff Capelle: How do we use planning policy to create more equitable cities?

Alexandra Pollock: This is just one piece of the puzzle, but something that I do a lot in my work is defining areas of the city that could benefit most from specific types of planning intervention. So it's often parks. It's often thinking about what neighborhoods are the most vulnerable to the health impacts of not having park access.

That typically involves spatial analysis using demographic variables, socioeconomic variables, public health related variables, so existing outcomes, and then environmental justice variables, like vulnerability to extreme heat, proximity to contaminated sites, flood risks, and things like that, and then directing cities to dedicate special attention to those areas in the city that are when we do this weighted overlay coming up with the highest vulnerability. This is similar to national measures, but it can be tailored to a smaller planning area to use a really specific set of variables that are relevant for that local condition.

I think that is one key piece, is finding a way for equity to be integrated empirically and quantitatively into the city's decision making process. I think another piece goes back to the conversation we had earlier around youth, using parks as an example, specifically. There's another layer of thoughtfulness the city needs to give when they're devoting resources based on equity and trying to improve outcomes in vulnerable communities is understanding what are the barriers to use that go beyond the built environment and including the built environment.

So are there safety concerns in the neighborhood where people aren't using green spaces are the roadways? Do those feel safe to cross? Are there enough crosswalks, but also are the parks offering the types of programs and activities that people in the neighborhood want to use. And if you're building a new park, what types of activities and amenities should you incorporate so that comes into play, I think, in some cases, more than others.

And one piece in particular might have to do with the immigrant population in that neighborhood. So I'm working now in a city with a large population of Indian immigrants. And we're doing some park design for them to think beyond maybe the standard was to include a soccer field and a baseball diamond, but based on what we've heard from the community, it's saying, let's make sure this is set up for cricket.

Geoff Capelle: How do you envision these kinds of conversations influencing urban planners, policymakers, and the public?

Alexandra Pollock: I think the other aspect is to encourage governments to codify what they can and set incentives and standards that will encourage private development that follows these best practices.

Encouraging the people who are writing those regulations to include provisions about open sidewalks, connectivity, and things of that nature so that the private and public sectors are incentivized or in some cases mandated to work together towards these goals.

I think something that a lot of cities struggle with is if they're introducing elements that are new, how might they track the function and the impact on people's lives and on their health.

I hope people are encouraged to think more creatively about cities and what cities can be. I hope that the idea that things we may be familiar with or take for granted in the way our cities are built and designed is not final, and our behavior is not final.

The changes that we described throughout the book are really major when you consider them all together, but even major changes often happen through the scale of the site.

If my role as a planner or a designer is one park, how can I take these principles that are at the level of the city and express them and communicate them through this one park or thing that's being constructed, and it's not going to impact everybody. It won't, but it might be the ripple effect that makes it the better park than one in a neighborhood over and can encourage similar design interventions throughout the city.

Avi Friedman: We are seeing a confluence of issues that drive the agenda. We now cannot separate climate change and planning. What we are now experiencing is a perfect storm of opportunity to rethink cities, to rethink their planning. And those issues go to the core of how planners work.

Design of public spaces, design of mobility systems, this is roads and bikes and so on, how we consider density in cities, how we connect between destination, how food is being distributed in city. Should trucks come all the way from far away countries? Or can we grow food locally? Should we have space allocated to farmers market?

So I believe that we are living in a very, very crucial time where all these pressures, be them demographic, economic, and environmental, make us think about future cities will look like.

Geoff Capelle: That was Avi Friedman and Alexandra Pollock.

Thanks for listening to Building Good. We’re having conversations about changing construction for the better, so if you want to be part of those conversations – stay subscribed on any podcast app.

Building Good is a Vocal Fry Studios production in partnership with Bird Construction and Chandos Construction.

The producers are Jay Cockburn and Katie Jensen, with production assistance from Jessica Loughlin and Joanne Hignett.

I’m Geoff Capelle. Thanks for listening.