Walkable Healthcare
This pattern is shaped by
Problem
When healthcare is concentrated in large hospitals on the periphery of the city, every appointment requires a car, a bus ride, or an ambulance. Preventive care drops off because the visit is too burdensome. Emergency care is delayed because the hospital is too far. The neighborhood has no medical presence.
Evidence and Discussion
The pattern that works: small primary care clinics embedded in neighborhoods, within walking distance of housing. These clinics handle 80% of healthcare needs (checkups, chronic disease management, minor injuries, mental health) and reduce emergency room visits by 20–40% in the communities they serve.
Therefore
locate a primary care clinic within a ten-minute walk of every identifiable neighborhood — small enough to be embedded in a commercial street or community building, large enough to provide basic diagnostics, chronic disease management, mental health services, and pharmacy. Make it walkable, wheelchair-accessible, and open outside standard business hours. The clinic is not a mini-hospital — it is a neighbor who happens to be a doctor.