The first "Award to Active Cities Contest" for the Region of the Americas.

1 United States of America, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Physical Activity and Health Promotion, Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Send correspondence to: Andrea Neiman, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4077 Buford Highway, Mailstop K-46, Atlanta, Georgia 30347, United States of America; telephone: 770-488-6051; fax: 770-488-5743; e-mail: [email protected] 2 Pan American Health Organization, Food and Nutrition Unit, Washington, D.C., United States of America. Physical activity is no longer seen as merely a recreational pastime but is recognized as a basic pillar of our present and future health. More and more, however, a healthy lifestyle that includes regular physical activity has become an issue of politics and policy and not solely individual volition (1, 2). City officials throughout the Region of the Americas have increasing influence over areas critical to active living such as transportation, urban design, recreation, and crime control. Indeed, access to public spaces for safe recreation, alternative modes of transportation, and community design are all crucial factors that are consistently associated with promoting a physically active lifestyle (3, 4). Sustainable, pedestrian-friendly planning has gone on for many years in such cities as Curitiba, Brazil; Bogotá, Colombia; and Quito, Ecuador. These cities demonstrate the positive effects of thoughtful community design, having transformed public spaces into safer, better places for walking, social encounters, recreation, and other activities of daily living (5–7).