A conference on active living began with a presentation by two eighth-graders who critiqued the walking environment of downtown San Diego.
D'Angelo Burton, who attends Monarch School, spoke at the conference about his "walk audit" of downtown, in which he found many conditions that discourage physical activity.
"I skateboard and I often fall off a lot due to uneven sidewalks and cracks," he said.
The conference is sponsored by Active Living Research, a group that's devoted to studying environmental factors that make Americans sedentary and overweight. Jim Sallis is a professor at San Diego State University and the director of the group. He said obesity has become a class issue in the U.S.
"Obesity is high in every group but it's higher in lower income kids," said Sallis.
The conference will feature an address by the Angela Glover Blackwell who advised Michelle Obama on her Let's Move initiative, directed at childhood obesity.
