City launches Philly Powered

City officials launched a healthy lifestyle campaign that will promote the city's free and affordable ways to stay active.

"Our goal is to make the healthy choice, the easy choice," Mayor Nutter said at Wednesday's campaign kick-off.

The multimedia campaign will promote the city's 12,000 acres of park land, 223 miles of trails and 100-plus recreation centers for the next 18 months. The $467,098 total is being paid for mostly through a U.S. Center for Disease Control grant ($121,500 was paid from the city's general fund.)

The campaign features a website, www.PhillyPowered.org, which includes a database of hundreds of free or low-cost places to work out in the city.

The campaign follows other city initiatives such as Get Healthy Philly, which  focused on reducing obesity, diabetes and hypertension, Nutter said. The mayor attributed the drop in smokers and the use of sugary drinks in Philadelphia in part to the Get Healthy Philly campaign. He hopes this campaign will help further reduce those statistics plus the risk and rates of high blood pressure and heart disease among residents.

Of the nation's ten largest cities, Philadelphia has the highest rates for Type II Diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease , according to the mayor's news release.

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