Ideas on integrating fitness in Cebu’s urban life
Last week, I wrote about why cities and countries invest in their citizens by planning fitness into urban centers. You have parks for various forms of exercise, lots of stairs and a design for walking. I’ve been playing around with various ideas as to how we can integrate exercise into the Urban Cebu lifestyle:
Be serious about pollution. I do not have any idea as to how truthful our emission testing is. All I know is we tend to see plenty vehicles that seem to be putting out too much smoke. No matter how fit we are, if what we’re inhaling is all smoke then it still is not healthy.
Clear the sidewalks or make better ones.
Where do we walk in Cebu? Do we walk on the road or on the sidewalks? Sidewalks are meant for people not for vendors, cars, motorcycles or extensions of people’s houses. Only with functional sidewalks is it going to be possible for us to have people who can actually walk in this city. Now, it’s not impossible though as private developments do have sidewalks. I guess it’s time for the city to do something.
Get people to walk by enforcing jeepney stops.
If jeepneys actually followed where they are supposed to stop, all of us would be getting more mileage with walking. And traffic flow would actually improve as we wouldn’t have to brake every 25 meters.
We used to hike up Kalunasan and Buhisan when we were in high school. Perhaps, a maintained trail would improve tourism and encourage the constituents to get out and about and explore the natural surroundings of our city. Fresh air is good for our health, while nature is good for the soul.
Maintain trails around the city.
This is something that I tell people. If most of your family is sick, that creates an undue burden on healthy family members and decreases the family’s productivity. It’s the same way with a city and its people: We want our city to be healthy, not sick. Healthy people are happy people, and happy people are more creative, and work better. When we work better our city’s economic health improves. And that’s good for all of us!
Here’s hoping for a healthy Cebu!
Have a long-term vision with health.