“Where we live, learn, work, and play can have a greater impact on how long and how well we live than medical care.” I recently came across this claim in a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report and it caused me to think about the importance of Bonney Lake’s Metropolitan Park District (MPD) measure in an entirely new way.

Easy and ready access to parks, trails and recreation facilities make a real difference in the level of physical activity for all age groups. A recent study by Dr. Brian Saelens with the Seattle Children’s Research Institute at the University of Washington focused on what types of things make communities more conducive to being physically active. For adults, the most frequent form of physical activity, nearly 60%, was walking and the single factor most likely to influence the amount of walking was whether there was a safe and pleasant place for walking in the community. For kids their immediate neighborhood and outdoor parks, playgrounds and sports fields were the environments where they engaged in physically active play.

Dr. Saelens then looked at child obesity rates based on two factors; the type of neighborhood and nutritious eating. He found that living in a neighborhood with safe and available places for outdoor play had an even greater determination on childhood obesity rates than access to nutritious foods. Of course, the lowest rates of obesity were found where kids had both safe places for outdoor play and a nutritious diet.

The 17,000 plus residents of Bonney Lake currently have about 52 acres of developed park lands and zero miles of trails. According to the National Recreation and Parks Association, a city our size should have at least 134 more acres of developed parks and 6.2 miles of trails to adequately serve our population. Obviously, we have some catching up to do.

If our society is going to be successful in reversing the epidemic of obesity among both adults and children, it will require changing our communities and making them into places friendly for being physically active. Driving down rates of obesity is critical as it is a cause of diabetes and heart disease and other chronic conditions that are the prime drivers of our staggering medical care costs.

A YES vote for the establishing a MPD is a big step towards making Bonney Lake a healthier and more attractive place to live. It is also an investment that will pay-off in the form of better health and less costly medical bills down the road.