My Favorite Memories of 2009

After my friend Courtney was "inspired" by one of my posts for her own version, I became "inspired" by one of hers for this one. 

Here are some of my favorite memories from 2009 recapped via photos:

In December 2008, I was able to finish a great Crafternoon project that ushered in the New Year right, and so that I could display my Christmas cards that I received for the Holidays.

In January 2009, I had my first post residency interview in Falmouth, MA, on the Cape!

The Cincinnati Snuggie Bar Crawl debuted in March of 2009, through Mt. Adams.  Of course the Medicine Man knew how to doctor up his new snuggie.

The Norwood Community Garden was in initially founded and planted in May!

Residency Graduation at the end of June!!!!  Also my first hard thoughts about again entering into another LDR.

July was a month of Farewells.  Farewell Norwood.  Farewell Wildfell Hall.  Farewell Neighbors.  Farewell Great Friends.  Farewell Burgers!  And also a month of Hellos.  Hello St. Theodore. Hello Seattle Children's Hospital!

The month of August, I spent exploring Seattle and getting to know Green Lake, as I started my new job.

September, I went on my first trip to CA for Tim Chan wedding and caught up with old high school friends!

October. Back in Cincinnati for the RLH with Laura and Jonah, and also a look back at all the runs I've done over the years.

November was a big month for volunteering.

Who has a second going away party from Cincinnati, after not living there for 5 months?  I do!

Here's a new year, where may the best of 2009 be the worst of 2010!

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex

Seattle > Pittsburgh > Boston > Cincinnati

Literacy pays off! Who knew?

Seattle topped the list of 75 major cities across the US!  Sorry, Crystal, DC came in second, despite a Facebook quiz telling me that DC should have been the city of my choice. :-(

As the Seattle PI tells me, Dr. John W. Miller developed his rankings based on six categories:

1: Number of retail bookstores/1000 people.
2: % of adults with HS diplomas.
3. Total weekday circulation of a city's newspaper.

4: Number of web page views per capita to a city's "internet version" of a newspaper.

5. Magazine and journal distributions per capita.
6. Library staff and library volume per capita.

So, remember that you local library is also important!

Interestingly,  smart cities usually ranks well against other quality of life indicators too!

"...Most active singles’ scenes (Boston, Seattle, Washington, and Atlanta), are safer (Minneapolis, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Denver, and Cincinnati), more walk-able (Seattle, Washington, DC, Portland, Boston, and Denver), and healthier (Washington, DC and Denver)."

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex

Pittsburgh > Seattle > Cincinnati

Readers of the Medicine Man's Blog already know that Pittsburgh is much, much better then Boston from a previous post.

Now, Transportation for America ask "How dangerous is your city?"  A study was conducted to find and measure the Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI) of 52 US metro areas with populations of greater then 1 million people.  "The PDI was developed to allow a fair comparison of metro areas according to their risk to pedestrians, relative to how much an ordinary person walks in that metro area."

Over all Pittsburgh was found to be the 4th safest city (based on PDI), Seattle the 5th, and Cincinnati the 7th.  Philadelphia is an abysmal #15 in overall pedestrian safely.  The worst city: Orlando (#52).

If you're over 65, the study finds that states such as Hawaii, California, and Florida are all the more dangerous for you!  TfA reports that the "the higher fatality rate for older pedestrians can probably be attributed to several factors: 1) older pedestrians have a higher risk of death than young people given the same severity of injury; 2) older pedestrians are more likely to have perceptual, sensory and cognitive impairments that decrease their ability to avoid oncoming traffic; and, 3) existing pedestrian infrastructure, such as the duration of crosswalk signals, ignores the needs of older walkers." 

I really think from point #2 that TfA is trying to say that older walkers are slower to cross the street, slower to react if they feel they are in danger, may not see the cars or trucks coming at time, may not hear the roar of the traffic coming at them, and may not know what to do if they feel they are in danger. 

Even if you are young and quick, you still have to be lucky.  This video just goes to show you that brightly warn crossing guard reflectors don't always avoid close contacts with cars either. 

Urban Cincy did a great recap of the findings and expanding upon how pedestrian traffic relates to safety in our fair city.

At least Cincinnati > Cleveland.  :-)

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex