California data for tracking healthy places

An innovative non-profit out of Los Angeles http://www.healthycity.org/ is releasing the next iteration of their Healthy Cities database and mapping program.  These new data will enable users to analyze a wealth of information across California, not just LA County as the previous web portal allows.  This is a major opportunity for comparative analyses and development of healthy city indicators, something this State and all metropolitan areas desperately need.
While the new system launches March 3rd, I had a chance to preview it at beta.healthycity.org.
 I searched the Iron Triangle neighborhood in Richmond, CA, using zip code 94801. I selected environmental facilities and health clinics, then added asthma rates to produce this map:

I know the map is hard to read, but there are some nice features, such as the ability to redefine shading colors and breaks in quintiles.  One can add a range of demographic, housing, economic and health data. One major piece that I couldn't find was an an export function that would allow for more complex comparative analyses using statistical software.  Yet, one great feature is that everything is geocoded with Lat/Long coordinates, so hopefully eventually exporting into GIS, Google Earth or some other mapping program should be seamless.  This project is very similar to InfoShare, http://www.infoshare.org/, in New York City, which I have used for many years.  The interface with Healthy City is much more user friendly, but with any data and mapping portal, it will take you some time to get exactly what you are looking for. 

Green Urban Innovation? Lacks a racial & social justice lens

Prospect Magazine has just published "How Slums Can Save the Planet" http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2010/01/how-slums-can-save-the-planet/.
What the article argues is that living in dense environments requires and inspires green innovations; from intense recycling to urban agriculture, like these folks in Nairobi growing food staples in sacks of soil
http://allafrica.com/stories/201002180809.html
Yet, this article fails miserably because it give scant attention to the reasons WHY folks are living in slums in the first place and why they must innovate - namely a lack of planning for urban migration, global trade that has exploited resources and ravaged local economies, non-existent poverty and food programs and inadequate land rights and legal protections, among other issues. In other words, romanticizing urban poverty and slum-life will NOT save the planet for the poor; only the rich will benefit. This type of analysis also runs the risk of accepting slums or informal settlements as necessary, rather than working to organize residents to demand better planning and treatment from governments and multilateral agencies. Unfortunately, another elite 'green' white guy living in Marin County telling the world how 'those slum dwellers' can help him.