How to Fight for Walkable Neighborhoods

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What can you do to bring walkable streets to your neighborhood?

Follow the example of Nicolas Rivard and Allison Hu.

Rivard and Hu, urban designers in San Antonio, noticed that a road construction project in a largely Latino neighborhood was lacking shade, trees, and other walkable streetscape elements because of cost issues.

So they organized a multi-pronged effort with neighbors, business partnerships, storytelling, petitions, and more to mobilize support and suggest design-specific elements that could improve the road’s walkability—an effort that paid off when the city agreed to add street trees, separated sidewalks, and other streetscape elements to the road.

Their work is featured in a new Rivard Report article and Salud Heroes story by Amanda Merck of Salud America!, a national Latino childhood obesity prevention network based at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Rivard and Hu call their effort “Place Changing,” a concept that intimately looks at how history, culture, people, the built environment, and public investment influence the urban space surrounding an individual neighborhood in San Antonio.

The goal is to build urban literacy and equip residents with strategies to talk about and get involved in city planning and development projects that affect their neighborhood.

“During the design research process, we are all able to be advocates for changes to the built environment or to the social structure of the neighborhood that we think will make it a healthier overall dynamic for everybody,” Rivard said.

Merck’s article is part of a new series to highlight challenges and solutions to Latino health and obesity by online The Rivard Report and Salud America!.

Check out past articles in the series:

• Salud America!: Keeping Latino Children Fit and Healthy
• Salud America!: How to Make Space for Physical Activity

Stay tuned for more articles!

And learn more about healthy changes happening in your community!