National Links: Designing Pedestrian Dignity
Why green space doesn’t make suburbs more environmentally friendly than cities, how Japanese toddlers are more helpful to their parents and more on global urban trends.
Category: Children
Urbanist Grades for Books for Babies
As a new dad, our author is reading lots of baby and toddler books. But most promote a lifestyle that relies on large motor vehicles.
Three Days of Parent Drop-Off for Back-to-School
I spent three mornings in the last week volunteering to wear a yellow vest and hold a fluorescent poster board, just down the street from my local elementary school. The sign said “SLOW You’re Almost There,” and it was addressed to parents who were driving their children to school. As they approached the curve where […]
Kids on Bikes
We’re all doomed. As a Gen-X American, I grew up with entertainment and popular culture that reverberated with the notion that no crisis, or monster attack, or alien invasion, or government conspiracy is a match for Kids on Bikes, a belief recently reintroduced by TV shows paying homage to the stories of my youth, featuring […]
Sustainable Child Play
I spent half of a recent Saturday outside helping some friends do yard work in what most would call a working class to low-income neighborhood of Saint Paul. It’s a pretty diverse place, too, with U.S.-born black, indigenous, and white people living side-by-side with immigrant families from many countries. My friends’ duplex apartment is on […]
Transpo Convo: What’s Important on the Way to School
What does a walk to and from school look like through a child’s eyes? In a word (or three): Fascinating. Fanciful. Appreciative.
Updating the Bruce Vento Trail
I have previously written about what a fantastic urban bikeway the Bruce Vento Trail is. My family and I continue to use it frequently, including my now 5 year old daughter on her own two-wheeler. However, there are some major safety issues. At intersections we would like the travel of the bicycle to remain parallel […]
Map Monday: Minnesota Working Moms With Children Under 6
Mother’s Day was yesterday, but moms don’t get days off. Especially if you’re a working mom with children under 6. This map comes via the Humphrey School of Public Affairs’ Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy and the American Community Survey. It shows that some of Minnesota’s most rural counties have the highest percentages […]
The Basketball Hoop
One morning in 2009, Husband pulled on his grubby work clothes and set out for the garage. He welded when he had the time, and that day, he needed to create a piece for the school’s art gala. Hours later, I glanced out the kitchen window. He had an audience. The two boys from down […]
Final Four on Nicollet Mall Shows What Downtown Minneapolis Could Be
On semifinal Saturday, as the game between Virginia and Auburn was about to begin, I followed the streaming crowds backward to Nicollet Mall, where the other half of the fan base was enjoying our new pedestrian mall, now vehicle-free! Traffic was relatively light, and visitors were taking to the sidewalk pretty well. One Final Four […]