Hippie Mecca, Live Music Capital of the World, emerging tech city, outdoor paradise.
Among the words used to describe Austin, Texas, fit is definitely on the list. Austin has been branded one of the healthiest cities in America, and it's obvious on a Saturday morning at crowded Town Lake trails that Austinites pride themselves on their fitness and health.
On Forbes’ list of fittest cities in 2009-2010, Austin comes in at number nine, behind cities like Washington D.C., Denver, Seattle and San Francisco. Austin was congratulated on its citizens eating lots of fruits and vegetables (thanks in part to our highly vegetarian and vegan populations), low rates of cardiovascular disease, and more acres of parkland per capita, but was criticized for lower number of primary health care providers, lower percent using public transportation to commute to work, and fewer recreation centers per capita.
For places like Birmingham and Detroit (numbers 45 and 44 on the list), being named tenth fittest city in the nation sounds like quite an accomplishment. Austin easily beat out other large Texas cities, with Houston at 41, San Antonio at 39 and Dallas at 35.
But for former Austin Mayor Will Wynn, just ranking wasn’t enough.
In 2004, Mayor Wynn introduced the Mayor’s Fitness Council to improve nutrition and physical activity in Austin, with an ultimate goal of being the fittest city in America. The council offers free fitness classes, online nutritional information, recipes, health and fitness organizations and health assessment tools for those looking to slim down and shape up.
“Fundamentally, your health is your wealth,” said Wynn in a 2004 KLRU video on the council's website. “If you don't have your health, not many other things matter much to you.” The former mayor also noted that if employee health improved by 10 percent, $8 million in taxes would be saved on health benefits, a figure that surely did not go unnoticed by the city financial officer.
A Mayoral Proclamation
Austin’s surprising lack of health didn’t escape First Lady Julie Byers, either.
By adopting First lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign, Austin’s own first lady hopes to encourage health and fitness by supporting each of the campaign’s four pillars through her Let’s Move Austin initiative to end childhood obesity:
1. Help parents make healthy choices
2. Create healthy schools
3. Provide access to healthy and affordable food
4. Promote physical activity
“Austin has long been hailed as a fit city, but the truth is that our city is not as healthy as we’d like to think. I believe it’s our responsibility as a community to try to help change that,” said Byers on the Let’s Move Austin! website.
Current Austin Mayor Leffingwell supported his wife’s campaign and proclaimed 2011 as Austin’s “Let’s Move” Year, beginning with the Mayoral Resolution Run on Jan. 3, 2011. Three hundred walkers and joggers showed up to the run, a good start to the mayor's resolution.
Photo from Let's Move Austin's website.
If you’d like more information on getting in shape in Austin, here’s a list of useful links:
Have some more info on fitness in Austin? Want to know more? I’m open to comments and suggestions!
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