Pittsburgh metro 21/50 on American Fitness Index (real estate, 2015, how much)

[SuburbanPioneer]

http://americanfitnessindex.org/wp-c...eport_2015.pdf

The good news is that we are #1 in PA and we did beat Cleveland, again.

Some interesting statistics from the paper:
- We have lots of farmer's markets but we don't eat our vegetables
- We have way too many baseball parks, that's probably why we don't seem to care about aerobics
- We don't eat enough fruits either (I'd bet they didn't count chocolate as a fruit)
- We have lots of parks, but they are small (with overabundance of playgrounds)
- We don't have nearly enough golf courses and way too many swimming pools
- We do smoke more, have diabetes and die from heart attacks more, but our mind is just as insane as anybody else's.

[AaronPGH]

Interesting. I think we've climbed quite a bit haven't we? Even to #21. I seem to remember us ranking much worse before.

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

Interesting. I think we've climbed quite a bit haven't we? Even to #21. I seem to remember us ranking much worse before.

I remember a list from the late 1990s where we were in the top 10 for obese cities, if you can believe it.

[bradjl2009]

How do we have too few golf courses? Golf has been in a major decline over the decade.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

How do we have too few golf courses? Golf has been in a major decline over the decade.

I swear that I thought I read something about SW PA having the most golf courses per capita, but I can't find anything.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by doo dah

I swear that I thought I read something about SW PA having the most golf courses per capita, but I can't find anything.

Golf courses and cemeteries are the biggest wastes of prime real estate.

[SteelCityRising]

Obesity doesn't bother me that much because someone else being overweight doesn't detrimentally impact my health.

Smoking, on the other hand, is quite an annoyance here since it seems like 1/3 of the population smokes. There's often no way to escape inhaling secondhand smoke on a daily basis when I'm making deliveries Downtown or in/around UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, and I often wonder how much damage that (coupled with our prevailing poor air quality) is doing to my lungs.

[DoubleStraps]

Even if you're riding a cart, golf is exercise. And if you're walking, which I like to do, it's a great workout.

As for having "too few" courses - I tend to agree. It's hard to find a decent public course without driving an hour outside the city. There's only one public course in the city, and it's... not great. I understand that a golf course in the city is a maybe-not-ideal use of real estate, but there's plenty of room in the suburbs.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by DoubleStraps

Even if you're riding a cart, golf is exercise.

If you're eighty or something. Otherwise, I don't see how it counts as exercise unless you walk while carrying your own clubs.

[DoubleStraps]

It's physical activity. You still need to walk to your ball, and the green, and swing a golf club some 300 times, and move around. It's not an intense cardiovascular workout, for sure, but it's certainly better than sitting on the couch. I've never not been a little tired after playing 18 holes.

Anyways, the point is that having more golf courses is probably better for public health than having less golf courses. At least in the part of the country that isn't dying of thirst.