Kids in Cities

Posted by on December 16, 2006

Steven Johnson, author of The Ghost Map, has been writing a wonderful blog called "Urban Planet" for the New York Times. Sadly, it is drawing to a close. In his final post, Steven makes a compelling case for CEOs for Cities latest research on "Kids in Cities.

Steven wrote, "The transformation of New York City over the last three decades may be the most dramatic example of recent urban renewal. Think of the city circa 1975: teetering on the brink of insolvency, overrun with crime and garbage, with whole neighborhoods emptying out. Today, it?s as clean and safe as it has been since the ?50s; the population is growing; there is remarkable diversity with very little ethnic or religious conflict; and dozens of major new parks and public spaces are either being planned or built. (Arguably the city?s biggest problem now is that it has become too desirable as a place to live, resulting in runaway real estate prices.) To have achieved so much while simultaneously weathering the worst terrorist attack in the history of the country is truly an amazing success story, one we would do well to remind ourselves of more frequently.

"I think of that success every time I walk around my neighborhood in Brooklyn around drop-off or pick-up time at school, and see the overwhelming number of strollers clogging the sidewalks. Park Slope is notorious for its stroller traffic jams, as well as its slightly manic parents, but whenever I see all those young children on the sidewalk, I think of how many parents have opted to buck the trends of the past 50 years and raise their families in urban neighborhoods.

"They know they could buy a McMansion in the suburbs for what they?re paying for a floor-through here, and they know they could have a real backyard. And yet they?ve decided to stay all the same, for the camaraderie and energy and diversity of city neighborhoods. These are virtues we were close to giving up on 30 years ago. That they are ascendant again is good news for all of us."