Self Lists Best Places for Women

Filed in archive General Health on November 29, 2007

Do you live in a healthy city? The editors at Self (one of my favorite magazines) have compiled a list of the Best Places for Women. Gathering more than 6,000 pieces of information in 50 categories, this survey left no stone unturned. So, what's the most healthiest city for women?

San Francisco. Why? Because the city has banned the use of plastic bags in grocery stores and is the first city to guarantee care to the uninsured. Rounding out the list is San Jose, Honolulu, and Burlington.

The first thing to know about San Francisco is that its residents love being first. In the past year, it became the first U.S. city to guarantee care to the uninsured, to ban plastic bags in large grocery stores, even the first to convert its recycling facility to run partly on solar power.

Women here rave about walkable neighborhoods, plentiful, scenic trails and offices that encourage exercise breaks. "I've lost 15 pounds since moving here without even trying," says Stacy Wanless, 24, an assistant account executive at a public relations firm. "Instead of the social scene centering around drinking or eating, friends get together to go for a hike or run, take a ski trip or make a bonfire on the beach."

Residents enjoy clean air and water and have access to nearly twice as many ob/gyns and three times more psychiatrists per capita than average.

More than 93 percent of women are insured, and by January, those who aren't will be eligible for free care under the new universal health care plan. Odds are, your hometown is watching to see how it works - and benefiting once again from San Francisco's path-forging ways.