Over the past decade, the "Healthy Communities" movement has steadily gained momentum within the urban planning profession and won some significant policy victories. Since 2006, the County's Department of Public Health has had a dedicated unit to promote the integration of community health considerations into the planning and design of the built environment. In March 2015, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously adopted a new "Health and Wellness" Element as part of the City's General Plan. Developers have also come onboard, incorporating fitness-oriented amenities such as walking paths into master-planned communities and generally marketing active lifestyles to prospective buyers.

The Healthy Communities movement may seem a logical and long-overdue response to LA's auto-centric neighborhoods and rising obesity rates, but it is not without its (healthy) skeptics. Do people who live in walkable communities really get more physical exercise on a daily basis than those who do not? How do we reliably measure the impacts of planning interventions when so many factors influence individual health? Is it possible to engineer better health outcomes through the design of the built environment? Join us for a spirited discussion of these issues and what the Healthy Communities movement means for Southern California.   

 
PANELISTS

Jean Armbruster, Director, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health PLACE Program

Clare De Briere, Chief Operating Officer, The Ratkovich Company 

Sahra Sulaiman, Communities Editor, Streetsblog Los Angeles

MODERATOR

Fred Zimmerman, Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

CM Credit - This activity is pending approval by the AICP in the amount of 1 hour

**First-time WUF attendees who ride a bicycle to this event receive a special rate of $25. Please email [email protected] by Wednesday, September 16, 2015, to reserve this rate. Please feel free to dress accordingly, and bring your helmet to show your cycling spirit. 

**WUF offers a special, discounted rate for those involved in land use, planning, and development issues on a grass roots and neighborhood level. This discounted rate is for individuals who are involved in our community on an unpaid basis but are not employed in real estate, land use, planning, development, or related fields. The discount is available to five guests per month. The number of discount tickets per year for any individual is limited. If you are interested in attending this WUF breakfast with a discounted rate, please send your request to [email protected] with your contact information and description of your neighborhood level activities prior to September 16, 2015. This special rate is not available after pre-registration closes.

The Olympic Collection
11301 Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90064
7am-9am

7:00am Registration
7:30am Breakfast 
8:00am Panel Discussion

$40 members
$55 nonmembers
$10 student members 
$15 student nonmembers

Pre-registration closes on Wednesday, September 16, 2015.  After September 16, 2015 and at onsite registration the cost will be an additional $10.00.  No refunds or credits will be provided after this date.