1. Program Manager Regional Plan Association
Getting Food & Health into Regional Planning in the New York Metropolitan Region
Mandu Sen
Program Manager Regional Plan Association
Thank You.
I am here to give you some of the key findings from the State of the Region’s health. All in all, we New Yorkers live a lot longer than we used to, and our urban form supports walkability and other elements of healthy living. But we are also facing big health disparities, many of which are rooted in the built environment. And looking to the future, there’s a lot we need to do to ensure a healthy life for all.

2. New Yorkers now live longer than Americans overall
Life expectancy,
So how healthy is the region? On average, people in the New York region can expect to the age of eighty, two years longer than Americans at large.  This has not always been so: 20 years ago, people in the region lived less than the average American. Some of the drivers for this increase are the same as nation-wide: medical advances, especially around heart disease. But parts of the region did see a particularly sharp drop in deaths from HIV and homicides, which helps explain this big change.
Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation

3. New Yorkers report feeling unhealthy more often than residents of many other regions
Physically unhealthy days per adult per month, 2014
But we don’t do as well as we could when it comes to our quality of life. We report feeling unhealthy more often than residents of many other regions. And our urban environment can contribute to it: the heat on the subway on a summer day or the stress of making rent are specific quality of life issues that came up repeatedly in our research.
Source: 2016 County Health Rankings

4. The region’s urban form functions as a built-in gym
Share of workers using transit,
But our built environment does a lot of good to our health. We by far use more transit than anywhere else in the nation, which means we walk more, not only to the subway station but to the supermarket or the laundromat. So effectively, our urban environment serves as built-in gym. This can be of huge benefit because research suggests that exercise can be literally life-saving: moving an additional 10+ minutes a day could lengthen life by nearly two years according to one study.
Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation
Ed Yourdon

5. Where residents live is linked with how long they live
But there are also many big disparities in health outcomes in the region, and all too often, where you live, can predict how long you live. Many of these can be connected to urban planning policies, such as housing policies, made decades ago, that perpetuated segregation, and limited access to opportunity to many communities in the region.
So for example in Essex county in new jersey people typically live to age 78, five years less than in neighboring Bergen county.

6. Race and ethnicity are linked with health outcomes
Adult obesity, 2010
Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be obese than whites – in the region and nationwide. Obesity is a major risk factor to a variety of health conditions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Sources: The State of Obesity 2015, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

7. Children of color are more likely to live in low-performing public school districts
Share of children by public school performance, 2010
In the United States, college grads can expect to live at least five years longer than those without a college degree according to some studies.  But in the New York region, the opportunities of black and brown children to even get to college are severely limited by the fact that nearly one in five of them live in low performing school districts.  This, as opposed to less than one in ten white or asian children.
Source: Regional Plan Association

8. RPA’s Fourth Regional Plan
In the United States, college grads can expect to live at least five years longer than those without a college degree according to some studies.  But in the New York region, the opportunities of black and brown children to even get to college are severely limited by the fact that nearly one in five of them live in low performing school districts.  This, as opposed to less than one in ten white or asian children.

9. What will the region look like in 25 years?
What we know
We will have an older and more diverse region
Climate change will bring more heat, flooding and pollution
In the United States, college grads can expect to live at least five years longer than those without a college degree according to some studies.  But in the New York region, the opportunities of black and brown children to even get to college are severely limited by the fact that nearly one in five of them live in low performing school districts.  This, as opposed to less than one in ten white or asian children.

10. What will the region look like in 25 years?
What the risk is
Affordability crisis & digital divide may increase inequality
Aging infrastructure could bring the region to a halt
In the United States, college grads can expect to live at least five years longer than those without a college degree according to some studies.  But in the New York region, the opportunities of black and brown children to even get to college are severely limited by the fact that nearly one in five of them live in low performing school districts.  This, as opposed to less than one in ten white or asian children.

11. The Fourth Regional Plan will aim to explicitly incorporate health into its proposals. It will aim to preserve the region’s health success in terms of transit access, walkability, etc. and expand it as appropriate. It will seek to move the needle on the roots of many of our health inequalities through expanding access to opportunities in terms of housing and jobs.; and it will seek to incorporate health into our decision making by using health as an explicit criteria by which we evaluate our decision making.
Thank you, and I look forward to what our panel has to say.

12. How much growth should we plan for?
Vision
How much growth should we plan for?
Jobs today: 11.6 M
Population today: 22.9 M

13. What will the Fourth Regional Plan’s policy agenda look like?
Streamlined freight & industrial policy
Comprehensive approach to open space & farmland preservation
Reforming the process of planning
In the United States, college grads can expect to live at least five years longer than those without a college degree according to some studies.  But in the New York region, the opportunities of black and brown children to even get to college are severely limited by the fact that nearly one in five of them live in low performing school districts.  This, as opposed to less than one in ten white or asian children.

14. Streamlined freight & industrial policy
A more effective port authority which includes food movement as part of its mission
Acknowledge the many food systems – local, different cuisines and immigrant communities, etc.

15. Streamlined freight & industrial policy
Reduce congestion
Nighttime deliveries
Smaller delivery hubs in core areas
Acknowledge the many food systems – local, different cuisines and immigrant communities, etc.

16. Streamlined freight & industrial policy
Preservation of industrial land
Invest in food-centered transport hubs
Mixed use industrial to allow for food manufacturing
Acknowledge the many food systems – local, different cuisines and immigrant communities, etc.

17. Comprehensive approach to farmland preservation
Young farmer programs
Integrating local food into food hubs
Acknowledge the many food systems – local, different cuisines and immigrant communities, etc.

18. Place-based planning
Streamlined process of planning, with funding & accountability measures
Use process of planning + health assessments to do food marketing research in vulnerable areas
Acknowledge the many food systems – local, different cuisines and immigrant communities, etc.

19. Place based planning
Invest in markets across the region as catalysts for transformation & food sources
Leveraging purchasing power of unified school districts & other institutions
Acknowledge the many food systems – local, different cuisines and immigrant communities, etc.