Welcome!

Welcome to "231 Sycamore St.", the new blog for the City of Decatur's Active Living Division. 231 Sycamore St. is the address for the Decatur Recreation Center, which turned 50 years old this year! All of our staff members will be posting news, notes and topics for discussion on this blog. The Decatur Rec. Center phone number is 404-377-0494, and the Glenlake Tennis Center phone number is 404-377-7231.

The Active Living Division, formerly the Recreation Division aka "Decatur Rec", falls under the city's Community & Economic Development Department. All of the traditonal parks & recreation programming, such as youth baseball, adult softball and seniors fitness classes will continue, of course. But we will also be emphasizing "active living" concepts, such as bicycle usage & safety, and other forms of physical activity, such as walking, running, Safe Routes to School, even gardening, etc.

The Health Impact Assessment from the city's Community Transportation Plan is the guiding resource to developing the Active Living Division. Here is an excerpt from the Health Impact Assessment on Active Living principles:

The following principles have been developed by Active Living by Design, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation administered by the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, to promote and increase physical activity through interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Physical activity is a behavior that can favorably improve health and quality of life.
- Everyone, regardless of age, gender, language, ethnicity, economic status or ability, should have safe, convenient and affordable choices for physical activity.
- Places should be designed to provide a variety of opportunities for physical activity and should accommodate a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.
- Development patterns should encourage mixed uses, compact design, and a variety of transportation choices.
- Buildings should be designed and oriented to promote opportunities for active living, especially active transportation.
- Transportation systems, including transit, should provide safe, convenient and affordable access to housing, worksites, schools and community services.
- Parks and green space, including trails, should be safe, accessible and part of a transportation network that connects destinations of interest, such as housing, worksites, schools, community services and other places with high population density.
- Municipalities and other governing bodies should plan for ongoing interdisciplinary
collaboration, promotion of facilities, behavioral supports, policies that institutionalize the vision of active living, and routine maintenance that ensures continued safety, quality and attractiveness of the physical infrastructure.
- Community governing and planning processes should address the multiple impacts of the built environment and transportation choices on residents' ability to be physically active.


But we also want to hear from you! Please leave a post with your comments, thoughts, complaints, ideas, etc. on "Active Living" here in the City of Decatur, Georgia, USA.
Thanks,
Dan Magee
Director, City of Decatur Active Living