An ideal neighborhood for children begins with including children in the planning process. This doesn't mean families, developers or planners put in an amusement park with ice cream stands on every block. It means professionals and adults take children's ideas seriously and pay attention to common concerns that both children and adults have.
Children share neighborhood concepts with planning professionals, a 1999 study published in the Journal of Planning Education and Research reported. Children prefer a variety of land uses and want places to interact, visit, play and relax. They want a microcosm of society.
"Children tended to favor diversity and accessibility, as opposed to homogeneity and privacy. Further, the children's plans were different in terms of age and particularly in terms of gender," the study shows. "Children were able to conceptualize neighborhood even at the kindergarten level, and many of their conceptualizations were not dissimilar from the traditional view of neighborhood espoused by planners."
Internationally, city planners include children early in the process. It's happened recently in war-torn Iran. "UNICEF Iran's Child Friendly Cities Initiative aims to ensure the rights of children, ages 6-13, to access quality basic services, through promoting the development of a sustainable and child-friendly environment," a UNICEF report from 2005 states. "The first phase of planning for the CFCI in Bam (Iran), focused on community participation, using children as key planners of their environment. UNICEF Iran takes the view that if children are involved in planning cities, the results will be more sustainable and child-friendly than current urban development practices allow."
Many American planners have come to the same conclusions and encourage involving children early in the process.
1. Sidewalks through the neighborhood light up naturally when it's dark, using bioluminescence. NunoErin, a Jackson-based design studio, can make a coating to do just that, using products made from organisms that glow in the dark. Painting sidewalks with a process NunoErin calls Luciform would create bottom-lit sidewalks that absorb sunshine during the day and glow for eight to 10 hours at night. Stargazing in the city would be possible because of the low ground-light lighting. And there's a practical application: Luciform could aid in natural disasters and power outages. Street markers could be seen under water during a flood.
2. The branch library or other community space has low-cost, or even free space for children's activities. Kids can take music lessons or attend club meetings close to home—only five to 10 minutes walking distance. Parents might teach art or dance or karate, or coach soccer, depending on their expertise. It's another way moms and dads might be able to work or volunteer close to home.
3. Children can walk or ride bikes anywhere and be where they need to be within 15 minutes. School is not more than a 15-minute walk away, or a quarter of a mile, suggests "Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream," by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck (North Point Press, 2001, $19). Restaurants and other shops are also a short walk for evenings out. The CDC and state agencies such as Mississippi Department of Health, stress allowing kids to walk to school and ride bikes more often is key in fighting childhood obesity.
4. Houses close to the street create more shared green space. "Suburban Nation" says this is an early step in planning a new development, but the concept is worth considering in older existing neighborhoods. It preserves as much green space as possible, giving kids and adults more space to play and relax.
5. An affordable daycare and neighborhood clinic could share the same space, sharing parking in back. When kids are sick, they can stay in daycare if parents have to work. In another section of the building, a regular daycare operates with flexible rules and times so parents who have to work late aren't punished. Also, in-home daycare is available. "Parents often face steep costs and questionable quality of care," a report from the Almanac of Policy Issues states. "Child care expenses can range anywhere from $4,000 to $10,000 a year per child." Having a clinic nearby would benefit the entire neighborhood.
6. Free broadband Internet connections make this a good neighborhood, but ultra high-speed fiber-optic connections make it ideal. Google recently chose Kansas City, Kan., as its test city for an experiment. "Over the past decade, the jump from dial-up to broadband has led to streaming online video, digital music sales, video conferencing over the web and countless other innovations that have transformed communication and commerce," the Google blog post reads. "We can't wait to see what new products and services will emerge as Kansas City moves from traditional broadband to ultra high-speed fiber optic connections."
7. Transit that's frequent and reliable is part of what "Suburban Nation" refers to as interconnectivity, an important element of an ideal community. A bus stop or two in the neighborhood is important, but important is a regular bus service that shows up on time and goes directly to a hub where other transportation is. Parents can work in the city knowing it's easy to go home. On business trips, they can travel from the neighborhood bus stop to the hub at a train station to the airport in an almost seamless mass transit transfer. When it's easy for families to get to work from where they live, children benefit.
8. A community garden teaches children basic nature lessons and can feed them, too. It's another interactive, social encounter that balances a child's environment. If the season brings a bumper crop, the neighborhood can donate produce to a food bank. Jackson Inner-city Gardeners has already taken a first step, creating the city's first community garden. To start a community garden, get ideas from JIG by emailing [e-mail missing] or get tips at http://wwwserve.gov/toolkits/comm-gardens.
9. Shared office space could help more parents work from home or closer to home. The neighborhood could have a co-op style set-up or invite a business like Kinko's, "Suburan Nation" suggests. Moms and dads who want to work from home could share meeting rooms, office equipment, secretarial services or whatever the needs are. This is great for kids, because parents can be home more often.
10. A key element in a new neighborhood is a corner store, as described in "Suburban Nation." It's small and caters to the needs of the neighbors. A developer or perhaps a neighborhood board lets the store operate lease free, at least in the beginning. Perhaps neighborhood children are allowed small charge accounts. The idea is you can walk here and get what you need.
11. Mixed-use buildings full of mixed-aged people are a must in this ideal neighborhood. With retail shops and professional offices on the bottom, retired couples and college students live in small apartments above, another observation from "Suburban Nation." The mix of people and purposes gives a neighborhood texture and a holistic view of the world that's healthy for children to experience.
12. Parking is on the edges and beneath trees. It's not a matter of how much parking, "Suburban Nation" states, it's where. A branch library can have access parking in the back. An office building with living space on top floors can share a parking lot more easily when office workers leave about the time apartment dwellers get home.
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