Neighborhood Public Policy
This paper is regarding a scenario involving Marcus Young in an automobile accident and Angie Young, Marcus’ mother and her attempt to change public safety for children in her residential area. The paper will also discuss the Legislative process, the different approaches of the Neighborhood Council and Angie Young’s ability to refute the opponent’s claims and propositions.
Public safety and public health cannot be separated. Anywhere there are safety issues, it affects the people around the unsafe zone. Neighborhood scenarios represent both public safety and public health. Marcus Young was playing around the neighborhood and got into a car accident where he was struck and suffered a pelvic fracture, a right leg fracture, and multiple lacerations to the body. He is now in stable condition at an intensive care unit. Marcus’ mother, Angie Young wants to prevent these incidents from happening in the future to other families in the community. She wants to put speed bumps in her residential area. She is planning to take this matter to the state and local Neighborhood Council.
This scenario exemplified the legislative process and how it influences public health in the Neighborhood community. Angie Young discovered a problem for public safety and is planning to take this matter to state and local Neighborhood Council. She wrote a letter to a congresswoman and made phone calls to city officials. While waiting for the meeting, she organized a Neighborhood petition campaign with her entire family. The petition was for placing speed bumps on the street. She collected signatures from the residents and took it to the Neighborhood Council meeting. She wants to do something to help slow down speeding cars around her residential area where children are playing.
The Neighborhood Council’s reaction and response to Angie was that speed bumps would damage the suspension of vehicles traveling in her residential area. The Neighborhood Council should have acted in a different manner on this issue. This issue impacts the safety and health of children and residents. The way that they represented themselves made it seem like they did not care for human’s life. Instead, the city could have used statistical data and given her a list of why they are resisting the use of speed bumps. Just like a lot of people in our community, Angie probably did not know about the disadvantages of having speed bumps. According to Albornoz, speed bumps are not beneficial; the speed bumps can cause delays on ambulances that are attending heart attack victims, or any emergency medical event, and fire trucks for reaching fire and medical emergencies (2007). Delays to these emergency service vehicles cannot compare with the benefits of speed bumps. The City council members could have proposed an alternative method to slow down the cars. “Photo speed signs and radar speed guns can effectively cause driver to slow down” (Kelley, 2007).
Angie had good intentions in collecting petitions from her neighbors so that city council members would know that she is not alone on this public safety issue. If Angie brought out an Oakland study with speed bumps, she could have brought her statistical data to support her argument. The Oakland study found that speed humps reduced the injury or death among children struck by an automobile in their neighborhood by a 53% to 60% increase. If Angie presented this study, the study’s findings could have moved some city council members’ opinions. Additionally, she could have prepared other alternative ideas to present to the city council members.
People who want to pursue a change in public health policy need to study a little further about what they are presenting. There are many resources in the internet to search many topics. They should gather statistical and scientific evidence to present to policy makers. Additionally, citizens need to be open-minded and have alternative methods to solve the problem. Furthermore, they should be polite, write letters, make telephone calls, get to know local legislators, increase political awareness, and offer their opinion with strong evidence or statistical knowledge.
In conclusion, it is not easy to change public health policies, as Angie experienced. In order to present to people of interest, Angie should have presented her case with an evidence based approach, and not her own thoughts or neighbors’ concerns exclusively. Additionally, it is good to have alternative ideas to present to those that can make effective changes. In this way, both parties can search for better alternatives. It is also important for healthcare workers to show their support and add to the voice of the community.