So yesterday I tweet Mayor Daley and ask him when Chicago will get this. Lo and behold, today 'he' responds with this link. Sweet!

One fascinating paper shows that crime rates are also strongly affected by vegetation. In housing projects in Chicago with equal levels of poverty, taking account of factors such as size of buildings and vacancy rates, there's a clear association between the absence of greenery and both property crime and violent crime.

Another set of studies demonstrates a relationship between urban planning and body mass index. Where settlements are dense – and therefore able to support public transport – and close to shops, workplaces and recreation places, people are more likely to walk and cycle and less likely to be fat. One paper shows that women living in mixed places, where houses and amenities are close together, have a risk of coronary heart disease 20% lower than women living in areas which contain only houses. Suburban sprawl is partly to blame for obesity. (The references for all these papers are on my website).

Build loose suburbs carved up by busy roads and without green spaces and you help to create a population of fat, lonely people plagued by criminals. Build dense, leafy settlements with mixed uses, protected from traffic, and you help to create safe, fit and friendly communities.

This is a great opinion piece on how urban planning affects our lives. It reminds me of one of the patterns in Alexander's "A Pattern Language" book: City - Country Fingers, talking of the need for green space in urban environments.

Hmm, where to live? Where to live?

The secret to longevity, as I see it, has less to do with diet, or even exercise, and more to do with the environment in which a person lives: social and physical. What do I mean by this? They live rewardingly inconvenient lives. They walk to the store and to their friends' homes and they live in houses set up with opportunities to move mindlessly. They do their own yard work, hand-knead their own bread dough, and, in the case of Okinawa, get up and down off the floor several dozen times a day.

A good reminder of good habits for us all to reinforce in this new year.

Awesome stuff from #citycamp. Wish this boy had crashed it, but biz travel during the week and sick kids over the weekend kept me away.