Childhood Obesity: No Place to Play

it's dinnertime and leave meaningless elkhart went to twelve year olds are practicing soccer field at bergen washington middle school kids did the two freeway along the sideline some older boys ran the ball which eventually sales into the game one of the ways that we seem to miss a girl says they were just trying to sneak in a little practice is far more effective like my favorite records have to say it was a member of the un a while youth soccer association which sponsors a hundred ten soccer teams in northeast la raul mercy has founded the association to help kids get exercise stay out of gangs and become better citizens more so the fields with no problem in the distance jordan placed a legacy as his kids and their parents pressure politicians and one a new state park a nearby sniper support they also forced school and state officials to build this

field and keep it open after school kids aren't alone in eating places to play a recent ucla survey found a quarter of teens in california say they don't have a safe parking walking distance of their homes urban kids without access to safe parks were the most likely to report getting no physical activity less than ten minutes total in a given week fourteen percent of them said they got no exercise sentences park poor there are fewer acres of parks are a thousand residents compared to any major city in the country robert garcia of the center for law in the public interest children of color living in poverty with no access to a car have the worst access to parks recreation and in a cruel irony that you portray white relatively wealthy people with fewer children in the county average have the best access to parks recreation so the people who need the most have the least the center for law in the public interest compared park acreage per person in la county assembly district's it

found a third of an acre per thousand residents in south central la compared with sixteen acres per thousand people in parts of the san fernando valley growing awareness of the problem as helped bring park bond money into la county since its founding six years ago the local rivers and mountains conservancy has tapped sixty million dollars to upgrade existing parks and created new ones including lash brook park in el monte on a recent morning eight el monte mother's stroll among young oak trees on the two acre site live to your mom knows of the nonprofit amigos de los rios they really love the trees and other factories even plants they like to shane who unlike though the walking path and the bus designed to spark and is helping the mother's plan one in their el monte neighborhood the mother say they have only one tiny mini bar and it's been taken over by gangs and drunks the school playground is closed after school also says maria but there's many of the kids can't play around their homes and apartments so i remember rightly

so the kids wrote letters to the city asking for a car and el monte purchased an abandoned industrial site your mom when your says amigos asked the kids what they wanted in a park and all of them drew little houses for the birds they want a place for birds and butterflies and girls to be saying parks not only help kids stay fit physically but a growing body of research shows they can help kids mentally one study found daycare kids who played outside every day or more able to concentrate than kids that didn't another concluded access to green outdoor spaces relieve symptoms of attention deficit disorder el monte still needs to raise the money to build the mother's park and state bond money is drying up but your mom when your seventy goes de los rios says they hope to keep the cost down by using community volunteers the mothers including francisco morales fidel plant trees paint and patrol the park during the campaign the party will join pleasure in

watching her children and grandchildren plane and being outside of their homes has been locked up in their homes the one source and the other lane enjoying the fresh air you know monty bills is that they go at nine point three kpcc