Had an interesting time at the Fit City/Fat City dialogue the other week. As a result of the event and suddenly realizing that it’s the 5 year anniversary of Building Up (the Canada25 report on cities) I thought I would dedicate this week’s posts to public policy ideas for creating healthy cities.

Idea #5: Sport Leagues: Health Engine and Social Lubricant

I’m a big fan of small, simple and easy to implement ideas. Here’s one. While living in Ottawa one thing that really impressed me about the city was the breadth and quality of the organized sports leagues. It seemed everyone in the city belonged to a volleyball, ultimate frisbee, basketball or floor hockey team. In addition to promoting physical exercise it was also a great way to make friends. Most importantly, the city’s willingness to rent out the school’s gyms was instrumental to making these leagues possible. Want a healthy city? Let some young entrepreneur rent out your empty school gyms at night to run a sports league.