Wednesday marked a series of 50th anniversary celebrations held by Algoma Public Health (APH).
Among the day’s events was a motivational speech delivered to a packed audience of APH employees by Gil Penalosa, 8 80 Cities founder and chair, at the APH office at 294 Willow Ave.
8 80 Cities is a Toronto-based non-profit organization focused on creating better communities for people from children to seniors (hence the title 8 to 80).
Penalosa, a native of Colombia who has lived and worked in Canada for the past 19 years, on his second visit to Sault Ste. Marie Wednesday, has toured over 350 communities all over the world, large and small, from Mexico City to smaller northern Ontario cities such as Timmins.
Penalosa appealed for more physical activity among all ages, including bicycling in all seasons, improved parks, regularly scheduled downtown events in which streets are closed to vehicular traffic (allowing people to walk and socialize with each other) and more comfortable public benches, encouraging the public to approach municipal politicians in developing and maintaining such ideas.
These things have been accomplished in other cities, Penalosa said.
Based on what he has seen in his worldwide travels, how does the Sault compare to what Penalosa sees as the ideal?
“I’ve been on the (John Rowswell) Hub Trail. I think it’s a good example of a trail which could be complemented very, very nicely if it had at least one trail going east to west and another north to south so you don’t have to do a loop of 23 kilometres. You could do a loop of five kilometres in one place and five in another,” Penalosa said, speaking to SooToday.
“Algoma has a huge problem in public health,” Penalosa said.
“The magic pill is walkability.”
“We need people to walk as a normal part of everyday life. It’s not about doing marathons. Adults can walk 30 minutes a day, and if they can do 15 minutes in the morning and another 15 in the evening, if people can park a little farther away from work and they walk 15 minutes and another 15 in the evening, then they’ve done it. We need people to be much more active because it’s good for physical, mental and emotional health.”
Penalosa, in his speech to Wednesday’s APH audience, told of other cities which have opened up their downtown districts once a week to the public, encouraging them to get out and walk about and socialize with each other for better physical and mental health.
“It can’t just be once a year, like Canada Day.”
“It has to have continuity. Let’s do it weekly from May to September at least.”
Penalosa visits Elliot Lake Thursday, then returns to the Sault Friday for another public speaking event, to be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at The Grand Gardens Downtown at 68 Dennis St., focusing on age-friendly cities and walkability, before heading off to Poland for presentations Saturday.
Held by Future: Sault Ste. Marie, admission to Friday’s event is free and open to the public.
“I like many things in many cities. Each city has different possibilities. Here you have the magnificent riverfront and the trail.”
Penalosa said he is especially impressed by how many cities in Spain have improved themselves for the sake of public health.
