Toward Healthy Cities. People, Places, the Politics of Urban Planning and Power

Abstract

Toward the Healthy City by Jason Coburn offers an interesting journey through the history of planning and public health in the United States, by examining the common ground of health and social justice, as well as the forces and circumstances responsible for the disconnect between the fields during the 20th century. The book provides concrete evidence for the need to reconnect the fields to address the systemic failure and health crises in today’s cities. The author suggests a new decision-making framework and explores how public health and planning agencies along with community-based coalitions in the San Francisco Bay Area are currently redefining environmental health policies to improve the health of both people and places. The book herewith moves beyond much contemporary research that tends to document problems in cities, and in particular in poor neighborhoods and communities, without examining the political and administrative changes in municipal government and governance. Chapter 1 is introductory and explains the challenges for “healthy city planning.” The starting point is the understanding of urban places and city planning processes as critical determinants of population health. The author explains that recent efforts to reconnect the fields of public health and urban planning in the United States have focused on a very limited conception of healthy planning, and suggests a new and more comprehensive decision-making framework: “healthy city planning.” Chapter 2 critically reviews the practices of US city planning and public health from the late 19th century to the start of the 21st century. Chapter 3 then considers how city planning processes fail to address the social determinants of health and contribute to the perpetuation of health inequity in cities. Chapter 4 specifically considers alternative issue framings that include considerations of population health, a relational view of place, processes of governance, and relations of power. The author applies this conceptual framework in the analysis of three case studies (2004–2008) of healthy city planning in San Francisco and across the Bay Area: the reframing of environmental health practice, healthy urban development, and using health impact assessment for urban and regional planning. These cases, described in chapters 5–7, clearly illustrate how planning can return to its health and