Cities Aren’t Built for Kids

It’s tempting to blame the highly surveilled nature of modern childhood on parents too neurotic to let their children out of sight. But according to Gill, the “gradual creeping lockdown” on kids is in part a reflection of the built environment they occupy.

During the rapid urbanization of the 20th century, many cities were designed for the people building them: able-bodied men who weren’t typically caring for children. This created all sorts of lingering obstacles for kids and their caregivers: Think metro platforms reachable only by descending a flight of stairs (not easy with a stroller), or bus ro... See more

With a little thought, run-of-the-mill city infrastructure can be reenvisioned for play. I encountered an exquisite example of such creativity on a day trip to Rotterdam: a flood-retention zone with a basketball court in its basin, and seating cut into its walls.

But modern childhood, in America and elsewhere, is more and more constrained.

Kids are sidelined by policy makers, and that creates unnecessary burdens for parents. Most urban planners, Lange said, “don’t make streets safe for kids to cross on their own. They expect you, as a parent, to set aside time to walk your kids to school every day.”

although fewer young children die in car accidents in the U.S. now than did about half a century ago, Gill suspects that progress is partly because parents have massively restricted children’s freedoms. That trade-off results in something of a paradox: In cities full of danger, childhood can become too safe.

“Human habitats shape children in ways we don’t appreciate,” Tim Gill, the author of Urban Playground: How Child-Friendly Planning and Design Can Save Cities, told me.

Consider what it takes for a child to develop into a grown-up. We enter our lives in a state of utter dependence on adults. Eventually, God willing, we become adults ourselves, capable of navigating daily life on our own. The journey from the former to the latter, Gill told me, ought to be one of gradually expanding independence. Parents shouldn’t ... See more