For those of you whose New Year?s resolution includes more physical activity, www.seattle.gov/walking may provide a little incentive.
Aging and Disability Services, a division of the Seattle Human Services Department, collaborated with the city?s Department of Information Technology to promote walking organizations, events, and resources for older adults. The page includes links to local walks and hikes, neighborhood walking maps, and volunteer opportunities like shelter dog walking as well as a selection of 5Ks and 10Ks by month.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 33.8 percent of U.S. adults and 17 percent of children and youth are obese, a growing trend. In King County, 54 percent of adults are overweight or obese, 20 percent are obese, and 5.4 percent have been diagnosed with diabetes.
Aging and Disability Services and the Seattle Department of Information Technology created Encore three years ago to give boomers 24/7 access to information about programs and services that interest them, both within city departments and the community at large. The portal provides older adults with access to thousands of resources, under broad headings such as Work & Money, Arts & Recreation, and Health & Fitness. For more information, visit www.seattle.gov/encore.
Aging and Disability Services is designated by the State of Washington as the Area Agency on Aging for King County. For more information, visit www.agingkingcounty.gov.
Good to see our tax dollars being intelligently put to work – citizens certainly wouldn’t know how to walk without help from a website paid for by the City (sarcasm).
I enjoy bitter sarcasm as much as the next person, but this is largely aimed at disabled and elderly, as well as interested volunteer dog walkers who probably wouldn’t even think of such an activity unless it were mentioned.? Easy and pleasant walking paths aren’t always obvious, especially when there aren’t always sidewalks.
First of all, our government shouldn’t spend taxpayer money to market existing resources available on the web.? These services already exist and this taxpayer funded aggregation is redundant to private websites that help would-be walkers find these resources (try searching “walking website” on Bing or Google for a start).? This project is just stupid and the person authorizing funding for things like this should be fired.
Second, our government shouldn’t try to solve every problem.? We just don’t have enough money to do so.? They should be finding ways to cut spending and non-essential services rather than spend money on “nice-to-haves.”? And the City admits as much, “based on current projections, the City?s General Fund is facing a $6.8 million shortfall in the 2013-2014 biennium? [ed: which assumes that the revenue projections aren’t overly optimistic].? This projected shortfall is in addition to the need to identify funding for necessary capital investments such as the North Precinct and the South Park Bridge, as well as major maintenance obligations. As a result of these anticipated financial pressures, it is essential that all City departments continue the work begun this year to identify operational efficiencies in order to address these future challenges. Work is underway on many fronts, including reviewing the City personnel system; how human resources functions are delivered
across departments; and operational efficiencies and partnership opportunities for the Parks department, just to name a few.”? I don’t see that this website is consistent with these “essential” facts.