November 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 44

Bike Plan as Community
Health Conversation
Planners Don Kostelec and Chris Danley have facilitated exactly those kinds of discussions. The
park and recreation departments of North Carolina's Haywood and Buncombe Counties hired the
two consultants to manage their respective HIAs
for improving biking and walking infrastructure.
In Haywood County, where the park and recreation agency sought to develop a comprehensive
bike plan in 2011, HIA participants included representatives from the county health department,
the local school district, a regional air-quality ofﬁce, the social services department, the sustainability office of the local community college, and
a bike advocacy group. Kostelec relates a discussion in which the county social services director

Tools and Resources
By what criteria does a pediatrician rate a park? What does a
research-based walking program look like? What policy language
have communities successfully adopted for their tobacco-free
parks? The resources below offer examples of tools communities
are using to connect parks to enhanced public health.

Park Prescriptions
Online and print-ready versions of the park rating tool used by Dr.
Robert Zarr and his team of volunteers can be accessed through
the homepage of the D.C. Chapter of the American Academy of
Pediatrics: www.aapdc.org.

Tobacco-Free Parks
Policy language samples, park sign graphics, and suggestions for
involving youth in making parks smoke-free are available through
the Tobacco-Free Youth Recreation website:
www.tobaccofreeparks.org.

Community Walking Programs
Information on the Arthritis Foundation's research-based Walk with
Ease Program-including a link for ordering the starter kit-can be
found on the organization's home page: www.arthritis.org.

Health Impact Assessments
Full information on the Haywood, North Carolina, bike master
plan-including the completed Health Impact Assessment by the
professional consultants hired by Haywood Parks and Recreation-
is online at www.bicyclehaywoodnc.org/BikePlan.html.

Recreation Deserts
Dr. Andrew Mowen's Allentown Park Renovation Study report-
which includes a summary of Allentown's master plan for its park
renovations-is available through the Pennsylvania Recreation and
Park Society website: www.prps.org/resources/documents/
AllentownParkRenovationStudyReport.pdf.

Parks & Recreation

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commented that he could reimburse expenses
for a client's vehicle repairs but not for a bicycle.
" Right there, we had identiﬁed a policy barrier-
and one that was not just about physical health
but...about mental health and autonomy. "
In other discussions that identiﬁed trail-adjacent parking facilities and bike racks as needs,
community college representatives offered resources. In one instance, the college provided
parking facilities as part of a " park and pedal " trail
access solution. And in another, the college's metal shop provided bike racks as a student project.
But the most dramatic example of how the
health conversation steered Haywood County's
bike plan came in the form of data the school district provided-data Danley says ended up being
" pivotal in prioritizing improvements. "
" One elementary school had gone in a ﬁve-year
time span from 19 percent of its students with a
BMI [body mass index] of overweight or obese
to 40 percent, " Kostelec says. " When we started to cross-tabulate that with other Census data
that are indicators of poor health, such as lower
income, rental housing, and density, [that area]
ﬂagged across the board. That's when we said,
'Okay, we've found health priority number one.' "
The consultants are now applying lessons
learned from Haywood County to an HIA for an
ambitious greenways and trails master plan in
adjacent Buncombe County. Kostelec says they
often hear from park and recreation departments
the frustration that " if I build that park or I build
that greenway, that doesn't cure diabetes. " But
from the consultants' perspective, an HIA lends
structure to the kind of holistic project that can
help cure and prevent chronic illnesses-while
enriching a local culture of health.

Turning Recreation
Deserts into
Community Oases

TREND

As U.S. obesity rates accelerate-
particularly among those with
limited access to recreational opportunities-the drive to eliminate " recreation deserts "
has also gained momentum. Addressing this notion of recreational impoverishment is, perhaps,
where public health priority most tangibly intersects with social equity ethics.
The term " recreation desert " may bring to mind
visions of a dilapidated playground half-hidden in

November 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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