Editor's Note:This excerpt from Are We There Yet? discusses the importance of quality childcare and preschools in transit-rich environments and the need for safe routes to school. Together these underscore that complete communities provide the elements that people need to thrive because they also provide the nexus where people can come together in a web of supportive relationships that enhance learning and promote an understanding and acceptance of diversity.
Visit the Are We There Yet? home Early childhood education is also identified as a key factor in setting children up for success. Quality preschools and daycare facilities in high-access locations have proven to be a real benefit to harried parents dropping kids off on their way to work. A study by Local Investment in Child Care, a California nonprofit organization, finds that locating childcare facilities within a third of a mile of transit results in high…

Editor's Note: School quality is only one measure of complete communities. This week's excerpt from Are We There Yet? looks at the non-school factors – neighborhood quality and safety, the availability of affordable transportation, and access to healthcare, after-school programs, open space and cultural assets, and parental involvement – that impact the opportunities of children to succeed.
Visit the Are We There Yet? home Test scores have become the most common method used to assess school quality, even though decades of social science research suggest there are other critical factors that will help determine whether a child succeeds. “The quality of schools can explain about one-third of the variation in student achievement whereas two-thirds is due to ‘non-school’ factors such as neighborhood quality and safety, the availability of affordable transportation, and access to healthcare, after-school programs,…

Editor's Note: In a knowledge-based economy, schools, early childhood education and quality childcare are important measures of complete communities. This week's excerpt from Are We There Yet? explores the correlation between quality education and future economic security and some of the steps communities are taking to ensure the prosperity of all residents.
Visit the Are We There Yet? home Access to good schools, early childhood education and quality childcare are integral to the idea of complete communities. The effect of education was monetized in the Low Income Investment Fund report “Coming Out As a Human Capitalist” cited at the beginning of this chapter. “There is broad consensus that education is the key that unlocks a child’s future,” write the authors. “A high school graduate will earn $270,000 more over his/her lifetime than a high school dropout. College graduates earn nearly twice (177 percent)…

Editor's Note: As awareness of the need to improve access to healthy food grows, communities are making urban farming a key strategy in their sustainability plans. This week's excerpt from Are We There Yet? explores urban farming and other creative ways communities are addressing the lack of access to healthy food.
Visit the Are We There Yet? home In urban neighborhoods, the interest in moving away from corporate farms and stores and toward local, organic food sources has boosted interest in urban farms. Cities across the country are changing ordinances to permit the sales of home-grown produce — and even allowing the raising of farm animals — as residents demand access to high-quality food and greater connection to the source of that food. Baltimore’s urban agriculture movement, for example, has taken root with a cadre of small-time entrepreneurs launching urban farms and rooftop gardens with the support of local…

Editor's Note: The health effects of air pollution and the need to take action are well understood. Not as well understood is the impact of healthy food options on the well-being of Americans. This week's excerpt from Are We There Yet? looks at the need to put the ratio of fast food outlets to healthy food options as a priority community concern.
Visit the Are We There Yet? home It’s ironic that rural communities – which often are surrounded by farmland —rank so high on the list of food deserts. The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found in 2008 that in California — where agriculture is a major industry — the average California adult lives near four times as many fast-food restaurants and convenience stores as grocery stores and produce vendors. This ratio of “fast food to healthy food” is becoming a benchmark used to assess the need for change in communities. See graphic below: Top 10 regions with…

Editor's Note: The importance of access to fresh fruits and vegetables and the impact of food deserts on the health of Americans is the subject of this week's excerpt from Are We There Yet?
Visit the Are We There Yet? home Healthy food is as important as exercise to improving the health of Americans. For many Americans, a fast food outlet is easier to get to than a market selling fresh produce, and a child’s meal costs less than broccoli and carrots — largely the result of federal subsidies for commodity crops such as corn and soybeans that are the building blocks of a fast food meal. (The corn provides cheap sugar and the soybeans cheap fat.) As a result, more and more communities are exploring ways to make it easier and cheaper for people to get good food — from urban farms and rooftop gardens, to convenience stores offering fresh produce and mobile food trucks selling organic collard greens, mangos and heirloom…

Editor's Note: Lack of open space and of resources for new parks and public spaces has given rise to “tactical urbanism.” This week's excerpt from Are We There Yet? looks at the quick, cheap, often temporary interventions staged in order to make neighborhoods more lively and enjoyable.
Visit the Are We There Yet? home The cost of creating the average community park can run into millions of dollars, and finding new park land in existing communities, especially urban neighborhoods, is particularly tough. As a result, new parks and especially small “pocket parks” are sprouting up in unlikely places, including landfills, rooftops, reservoirs and even cemeteries. The new park that everyone has been talking about is in the most improbable of places. New York City’s High Line park is built on an abandoned elevated rail line that once brought freight cars into the factories and warehouses that lined the streets of…

Editor's Note: The power of parks and gardens to transform opportunity areas into complete communities while battling obesity and other health issues and even improving academic achievement is the topic of this week's excerpt from Are We There Yet?
Visit the Are We There Yet? home Proximity to parks and gardens can help turn opportunity areas into complete communities by providing possiblities for exercise, play and social interaction, as well as access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Opportunity areas that have access to parks are one step closer to becoming complete communities. See list on page 72: Top 10 regions with park rich opportunity areas. They are especially important to neighborhoods with high rates of obesity and other health problems. Moreover, trees, grass and plants return significant amounts of oxygen to the atmosphere and help filter out air and water pollutants while also countering the “heat island…