The city of Richmond, California was one of the first cities in the country to develop a comprehensive general plan element that addresses the link between public health and community design.
In Escondido, California, an Interim Land-Use Policy has helped to support urban agriculture, increase access to fresh food, and create a community that supports healthy eating.
With an alarming amount of vacant lots present within their city, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), along with other community and municipal partners, have developed a program to clean, green, and maintain these vacant lots in order to improve their community and health. In order to provide evidence that improvement of these vacant lots has positive effects on the community and health, PHS began a 10-year long longitudinal study comparing vacant lots against treated lots.
Slavic Village Development (SVD) is a community development corporation located in Cleveland, Ohio that works with the Broadway neighborhood. With a population consisting of mostly working class, middle to lower income families, Slavic Village Development was faced with the challenge of improving a community that undergoing increasing foreclosures and perceptions of a lack of safety. In 2003, SVD received a grant from the Active Living by Design program to begin an initiative to rebrand Broadway as "a community on the move."
A pilot program to Prevent Violence and Promote Healthy Eating and Active Living focuses on influencing infrastructure and landscaping improvements to improve the health and safety for all residents.
In 2007 the Holyoke Food & Fitness Policy Council (HFFPC), with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, set out to create a more healthy and vibrant Holyoke by developing policies and system changes that improve opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity.
In 2004, the Food Trust in Philadelphia, PA, in partnership with The Reinvestment Fund and the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, identified a strong need for government investment to finance supermarkets, grocery stores, and other healthy food retailers in underserved communities. This led to the first statewide fresh food financing initiative.
Believed to be the first ordinance of its kind, Chicago's legislation to limit restrictive land-use covenants prevents supermarkets and drugstores from restricting future use of vacated property in the event of store closures. This ordinance holds great promise to prevent neighborhood blight and promote residents' continued access to fresh, healthy food retailers.
In 1990, the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA) began to redevelop Diggs Town, a large low-income public housing project in Norfolk, Virginia. The Diggs Town Public Housing Redevelopment Project improved public safety, fostered a sense of pride in common spaces, and integrated social services into the community.
Concerned about high pedestrian injury rates, residents of Cutler and Orosi in Tulare County, California identified and implemented solutions through a series of community wide forums, focus groups, and workshops.
