Public Health, Urban Planning, and Public Policy Coming Together to Create Change in Urban Environments

As the city of Detroit works to rediscover its greatness, the Detroit Food and Fitness Collaborative (DFFC) participates in the progress towards building a better city and stronger region.  Part of the DFFC work includes the creation and passage of a complete streets ordinance. 

We will discuss the process of creating the ordinance, which started with bringing together a coalition representing multiple disciplines, including elected officials, and experts in public works, urban planning, and public health to determine the components of an ordinance.  Furthermore, we will discuss how we worked within the confines of the changing landscape of the city of Detroit as it was experiencing other significant concerns requiring immediate attention, namely safety, service provision, and employment.  We will share our lessons learned during the process and how we used the John Kingdon Framework for Policy Analysis, which includes the problem definition, proposed policy solutions, building political receptivity, and identification of predictable policy windows all to get the ordinance passed.  Lastly, we will discuss how urban communities experiencing disinvestment can best frame a complete streets ordinance for their community to make it part of the revitalization process all while improving health of the residents.

We will share stories of Detroit residents who have utilized built environment amenities and have reduced their dependence on medication to manage chronic conditions. We will discuss how a coalition’s focus can evolve to better meet community needs. We will describe how to accomplish built environment-related health policies in the context of pressing community issues.