I gotta say…I kind of really love Mayor Bloomberg and his push for health and wellness in NYC. I don’t think I realized just how much he has done for the city until reading THIS article which outlines how he wants to make taking the stairs a more inviting and easy option. The article briefly touched on other initiatives that Bloomberg has worked on such as improving the bike program, banning smoking in restaurants (thank goodness I’m from Iowa which is a smoke free state!) as well as his fairly infamous initiative to reduce soft drink cup sizes.
Anyway, Bloomberg essentially wants to make taking the stairs an easier option for New Yorkers by making the stairs more visible and less of that “am I going to be murdered and no one will find me for 50 years in here” feeling. I love this! I can’t tell you how many times I have walked into a building and been searching for the stairs and I can’t find them or they are locked and I have to take the elevator. And then I feel like a complete goob because I’m taking the elevator to the 3rd floor or something.
I think my favorite part of this article (besides absolutely every single sentence) was when a reporter asked if Bloomberg took the stairs in his 5 story building. And all 71 years of Bloomberg (in my mind smiled knowlingly) and said that there is a nice elevator in his building, but he takes the stairs.
What are your thoughts on this new initiative? He mentioned in the article about what they would be doing to make sure that having the stairways was still compliant with fire code (having the doors that will shut if the fire alarms go off and having fire escape windows in the stairwell), but are there other things that he needs to take into consideration? How would this type of initiative go over where you live? Would people be supportive of this or resist this change? Sometimes I think I get so excited to hear about a great health/wellness initiative that I forget that people don’t necessarily want to change the way the live… For example, when Iowa because smoke free, a large number of people in my hometown were completely outraged. Whereas I was like, “it’s about time!”
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PS: I just wanted to share this picture quickly w/ ya’ll! I went up to the mountains yesterday!
WELLNESS 