featured community spotlights
Orlando, FL
about
Get Active Orlando represents a model for municipal governments that are interested in improving a downtown and surrounding neighborhoods for active living. For example, the lead partner, the City of Orlando Planning Department, now requires design elements that support active living when approving new commercial development in the downtown business district. The partnership complements these types of improvements with promotional efforts that encourage physical activity. Activate Orlando!'s vision is to establish and brand downtown Orlando and its adjacent neighborhoods as an "Active Living District," with residents, employees, and others in the downtown area routinely making the active choices in an environment that encourages safe physical activity. To this end, Activate Orlando! conducted a large-scale assessment process in which residents, students, and professionals evaluated the walkability and bikeability of 620 acres of downtown neighborhood streets. The data collected for this pedestrian and bicycle "level of service" analysis was used in a communitywide visioning process and will ultimately help shape the downtown transportation master plan and capital improvements in the district.
Plans for the Activate Orlando! partnership include developing and implementing a social marketing campaign that focuses on the importance of daily active living and developing a "Point of Choice" campaign which educates people that they have the choice to take stairs over elevators. Activate Orlando! will also take a role in evaluating parks within the downtown Orlando district, advising on active living improvements and in evaluating bicycle parking infrastructure.
In addition to the City of Orlando Planning Department, Activate Orlando! involves the Orange County Health Department, Orlando Regional Healthcare, florida Hospital, University of Central florida, Orlando Neighborhood Improvement Center, Metroplan Orlando, Rippe Health Assessment, City of Orlando – Families, Parks and Recreation and Leu Gardens, and others. The partners are involved in strategic planning, developing promotions and programs, assessing neighborhoods, and implementation. They also promote the active living message to their own staff and employees. This partner board will soon become an official advisory council to the Mayor of Orlando on active living principles within the downtown Orlando area, stressing the importance of making the environment conducive to daily active living.
our story
Tim Baker has been an architect in Central florida for 19 years. With influence from the City of Orlando Planning Department, Baker is now a believer in active living by design and thinks about the built environment and how it affects physical activity in his daily efforts. As a result of the City's vision of creating an "Active Living District," he and other designers and developers have had to prioritize the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists in new projects.
Baker has worked with the City on the redesign of the Premiere Trade Center, located in Downtown Orlando. The intersection is located near Orange Avenue and Church Street and serves as a major connection for commuters and residents. Following the City's direction, Baker designed the new structure pulled back from the street with a pedestrian courtyard in the middle of the building. Today the intersection is an example of how good design can balance the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists. In fact, Baker now thinks first of his designs supporting active living mainly because, he says, "It's the right thing to do". He now starts his designs with ideas of wider sidewalks and the adoption of pedestrian corridors in mind. He has applied these concepts to work outside of the City of Orlando in other florida cities such as Tampa and Jacksonville.
It is not just the architect that must believe in the concept of active living by design. Architects like Baker have to demonstrate to developers how designing structures to support physical activity can benefit them. It is the developers, after all, who often begin the process. Baker knows that it's not a hard sell to developers, but he does have to open their minds to the concept and present it to them in a way that promotes understanding. "The key ingredient," he says, "is bringing people." As people begin to focus more and more on their own wellbeing, the idea of daily physical activity becomes a reality through architects such as Baker, developers and planners.
opportunities
The Orlando region is well known as a vacation destination, but the downtown Community Redevelopment Area (CRA), which serves as the Activate Orlando! project area, is also home to diverse urban neighborhoods and a thriving business district. The partnership's project area covers 1,620 acres, including the commercial downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods of Parramore, Lake Eola, and Uptown. These neighborhoods have a total population of 15,000, encompassing a range of incomes and ethnicities.
Although the climate is temperate and supports outdoor physical activities for much of the year, Orlando's past reputation as an unsafe environment for pedestrians and bicyclists poses a challenge to encouraging active choices. The City of Orlando's highly-developed road infrastructure with streets designed for motor vehicles inhibit use by pedestrians and bicyclists. In addition, crime and limited facilities for physical activity make it difficult for residents in places like Parramore, a low-income neighborhood, to incorporate physical activity into their daily routines. finally, Activate Orlando! faces the challenge of helping Orlando residents see active living as a viable option. This change requires overcoming communication barriers to use messages that all residents can understand.
Activate Orlando! seeks to highlight the existing and emerging opportunities for active living through targeted marketing and community- appropriate programs and by building on the City of Orlando's commitment to improving the streetscapes and public spaces in the downtown and neighborhoods.
accomplishments
In Action
