On Tuesday 14 May, the Southgate Institute hosted a policy club ‘How can we best plan for healthy cities?’ . The event showcased the urban planning and health research the Southgate Institute, and its academic status member A/Prof Kenn Fisher, have conducted.

A/Prof Fisher, an academic at the University of Melbourne and a consultant, presented on his work on healthy learning environments. He highlighted issues in urban planning in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, particularly highlighting how the densification of cities was increasing the population without a concomitant increase in public spaces.

Dr. Michael McGreevy, from the Southgate Institute, Flinders University, discussed how our car-centric urban planning had created suburbs that are “fragmented, diffused, unbounded, and stretched”. He argued how they needed to be retrofitted to create public spaces, parks, walking and cycling opportunities, and local small-scale commerce.

Jane Fitzgerald was unfortunately ill on the night, but provided a written policy brief on the topic to hand out instead.

A recording of the two presentations and the following question and answer session is available at: http://video.flinders.edu.au/events/Southgate_Policy_Club_2019.cfm
(Note: due to a technical glitch, the recording starts 5 minutes into A/Prof Fisher’s presentation).