Most important players and partners

Question 1
The most important players and partners in these cities were the big companies and organizations such as the Elgin Watch Company and the community around them. The leadership of the two cities succeeded at the time by making the best out of the companies. This was achieved by lobbying for employment opportunities for the inhabitants while also creating various opportunities for investment. They ultimately failed by allowing themselves to be overly dependent on the companies. This led to the failure of the cities when the companies were later closed down since a major part of the city was depending on the well-being of the companies CITATION Boe08 l 1033 (Boer, Zheng, Overton, Ridgeway, & Cohen, 2008).

Midland is a town in Texas, which is currently a big petroleum producer. Initially, it had a low-income level since it was mainly associated with the transport industry due to the development encouraged by the leadership. The main error by the leadership is the fact that they did not plan for the future and did not involve the community in developing policies and development plans. This led to the city recording the lowest employment rate in the country. The leadership later consulted with the community and in the 1920’s they started doing oil explorations in the town and this lead to the development and blossoming of the town into a good economy.

The long-term goal for Elgin was to make their brand their model in order to create an attraction to investors and people from other places and to recover their river, industrial land that was being wasted and create new attractions such as parks out of them CITATION Boe08 l 1033 (Boer, Zheng, Overton, Ridgeway, & Cohen, 2008).

Charleston and Elgin were great, and its leadership failed them during a time that they would have developed a better way of making a living and a source of income for its people. The leadership would have developed a system in conjunction with the local community to be able to generate income and create wealth and sustainability for the locals CITATION And13 l 1033 (Kitsinger, 2013).

Question 2
The neighborhood I reside in allows for people to walk around freely. Since it is a gated community with its own auxiliary service points, there are sidewalks that make it easy for pedestrians to move from one point to another CITATION New12 l 1033 (NewPublicHealth, 2012). It is a neighborhood that is also very bike-friendly since there are good roads with speed limits that are observed carefully while there also are sidewalks that could be shared by the cyclists and the pedestrians. A major number of the cyclists in the neighborhoods are kids. There are also a few adults who cycle as a form of fitness work out. The neighborhood encourages walking by building good walk ways, paths, and parks. There also are pedestrian lights along the road to control the relative movements of motorists and pedestrians and ensure that there is safety at all times CITATION Hea11 l 1033 (Foundation, 2011).

References
Boer, R., Zheng, Y., Overton, A., Ridgeway, G. K., & Cohen, D. A. (2008). Neighborhood Design and Walking Trips in Ten U.S. Metropolitan. NIH Public Access, 1-12.
Foundation, H. (2011, May 15). Neighbourhood Walkability Checklist. Retrieved July 10, 2015, from heartfoundation.org: www.heartfoundation.org.au%2FSiteCollectionDocuments%2FHFW-Walkability-Checklist.pdf&ei=A_KeVYfWN4KtU-CgoIgL&usg=AFQjCNH4Sjml7CKJsQeGsxkVWmB2kYd3WQ&sig2=1cFa9GemPL2_mqHbhVIn_g&bvm=bv.96952980,d.d24
BIBLIOGRAPHY Kitsinger, A. (2013, December 4). Seven Ingredients for Building a Healthy Downtown, Part 1. Retrieved July 10, 2015, from Planners Web: http://plannersweb.com/2013/12/ingredients-building-healthy-downtown-part1/
NewPublicHealth. (2012, January 27). Culture of Health. Retrieved July 10, 2015, from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: http://www.rwjf.org/en/culture-of-health/2012/01/designing-healthy-communities-newpublichealth-qa-with-richard-jackson.html