THE HEALTH OF CITIES/SUBURBS. A few days ago, Badler took aim at the pro-sprawl activists, and their bizarre contentions that there are no health benefits to dense, walkable communities. There are. A growing body of literature shows walkability is biologically and psychologically helpful, especially for older Americans. What I haven't seen are larger studies that seek to disaggregate socio-economic and age issues from city and suburb living. So walkability helps cities, but noise pollutions hurts them. Safety helps suburbs, but traffic accidents hurt them. Anyone know of epidemiological studies conducted on this scale? --Ezra Klein
