Re: [CPEO-BIF] "Health Centers Find Opportunity in Brownfields"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

[Note the term "Healthfields." - LS]

Transforming Brownfields into 'Healthfields'

By Miles Ballogg
Brownfield Renewal
December ?, 2012

A brownfields-related movement, whose roots are arguably traced to  
one woman’s foresight and passion in 1997, is beginning to accelerate  
after years of grassroots and individual program efforts. In  
hindsight, the initiative that's been billed as "Transforming  
Brownfields to Healthfields," makes perfect sense - take abandoned  
and blighted properties and, using coordinated funding and community- 
based mechanisms, turn them into thriving economic developments that  
also improve access to healthy lifestyle choices for all.

Willa Carson, a retired nurse, started simply enough in Clearwater,  
Fla., providing basic medical assistance to friends and neighbors who  
lacked health insurance and a means to travel the more than 10 miles  
to the nearest hospital. Shortly thereafter, beginning in two  
apartments, Carson founded the North Greenwood Health Resource Center  
in 1997. When the City of Clearwater designated the Greenwood area  
Brownfields Redevelopment Area in 1998, it was her vision to take an  
abandoned gas station site and turn it into the stand-alone facility  
now called Willa Carson Health & Wellness Center.

...

For the entire article, see
See also http://www.brownfieldrenewal.com/news- 
transforming_brownfields_into__healthfields_-280.html.


On Dec 11, 2012, at 11:49 PM, Lenny Siegel wrote:

> Health Centers Find Opportunity in Brownfields
>
> By RONDA KAYSEN
> New York Times
> December 12, 2012
>
> PHILADELPHIA - The community health center rising on a derelict  
> corner here in West Philadelphia never would have broken ground if  
> not for the asbestos inside the building that was demolished to  
> make way for it. Because of the contamination, Spectrum Health  
> Services received a $2 million federal cleanup grant, the first  
> piece of a $14 million construction financing puzzle.
>
> When complete, the 36,000-square-foot building will provide a new  
> home for a health center that has been squeezed into a  
> deteriorating strip mall nearby for decades. It will also be the  
> latest in a nationwide trend to replace contaminated tracts in  
> distressed neighborhoods with health centers, in essence taking a  
> potential source of health problems for a community and turning it  
> into a place for health care. In recent years, health care  
> facilities have been built on cleaned-up sites in Florida,  
> Colorado, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Oregon and California.
>
> "These health care providers are getting good at it," said  
> Elizabeth Schilling, policy manager for Smart Growth America, an  
> advocacy group. "They have internalized the idea that this is an  
> opportunity for them."
>
> ...
>
> For the entire article, see
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/realestate/commercial/health- 
> centers-find-opportunity-in-brownfields.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
>
> --
>
> Lenny Siegel
> Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
> a project of the Pacific Studies Center
> 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
> Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
> Fax: 650/961-8918
> <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
> http://www.cpeo.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Brownfields mailing list
> Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org
> http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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