Comments on: Making the Connection between Downtown Family Housing and a Sustainable City

By: Bonnie Rodd

Bonnie Rodd — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:39:31 +0000

Fantastic point about the stability of a community. Families do make communities, and that is another reason why it is so important to bring them into cities.

By: Bonnie Rodd

Bonnie Rodd — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:35:54 +0000

Thank you for this insight! I think you make a great point that if everyone walks, or uses alternative modes of transportation, it is safer. Also, your experience sounds much more rich than the experience I had, and I am sure most Americans have, as a child. That is definitely the environment I hope children have here in the future.

By: Sunny Menozzi

Sunny Menozzi — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 07:56:36 +0000

A neighborhood composed primarily of singles and couples is also much less stable than one composed of a mix of singles, couples, and families, or primarily families. Families invest in communities. They are homeowners, their children attend neighborhood schools, and they expect, when they purchase their home, to build a life around and within their community. Singles and couples are transient, and while some will volunteer or otherwise become involved in their community, many will be free-loaders, so to speak.

By: Lutz

Lutz — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 05:17:26 +0000

I have a family of five. Three kids, 3, 8, and 11. We’d love to live in a city. I hate driving. I ride my bike to work every day but the kids have to be taken to school by car.
The schools in the neighborhoods that are denser are always really bad or they don’t exist (I’ve lived in Seattle and in San Francisco, downtowns don’t have any schools at all).
It’s unsafe for kids to walk to school. It’s unsafe for kids to play in the parks. Mainly because of cars, but also because they get picked on by other, more aggressive kids.

I am originally from Munich, Germany. My older brother still lives there. I used to walk to school as a kid and take the subway when I got older and went to high school. It is illegal there to drop your kids off by car. Everyone hast to walk. That’s what makes it safer for everyone. Since there are so many kids out walking, traffic is slower.
Every neighborhood has access to a park, since nobody has a backyard. Kids walk home from school by bakeries and pick up rolls. We used to walk to Christkindl markets in the wiinter. I really, really miss growing up in a big city, it seems so impossible here, so much would have to change.