America's Big Cities Are Rapidly Losing Kids | Hacker News Reader

America's Big Cities Are Rapidly Losing Kids

wsj.com

As somebody who grew up in NYC, I am so grateful I did when I speak to people who grew up elsewhere. By the age of 15, I had infinite freedom, especially since all my HS friends came from all 5 boroughs. I'd go see movies with friends in Brooklyn, go to their apartments on the Upper West Side, hang out at museums or parks -- meanwhile my suburban friends were at the mercy of their parents driving them places.

I love seeing how resilient NYC kids are, like the 8 year old who folds his own stroller or the 7 year olds who are pros at the subway. This independence is both terrifying (for parents) and inspiring (it preps them early in life).

My first year at Cornell, I remember every freshman kind of losing their mind with the freedom of being away from home (getting super drunk, not controlling themselves, never self-selecting to "stay in, not go out, for the night") --- except for the New Yorkers who would constantly think, "What's the big deal?"

The hard part of raising kids in the city is it's extremely expensive. But my wife and I are pretty focused on, hell or high water, on making it work in Brooklyn - so we'll see how it goes.

NYC is so different than any other US city that it defies comparison. It has no equals in terms of population, population density, and public transit. Its population exceeds most entire US states.

The definition of big cities is also pretty arbitrary. The first city mentioned, El Paso in Texas, has a lower density than the suburb I grew up in, but it's classified as a "big city" because its borders are simply larger. The suburb I grew up in is adjacent to multiple other suburbs, and if you add them all up it meets the article's definition of "big city" - 500k people. There are various definitions of urban area (CSA, MSA, etc) which are the correct methods of comparison.

You also likely grew up with less fear of things like subways and people who look different than you.

I would rather raise my kid(s) in a small town and not a big city. Maybe within a few hours drive of a big city to the occasional big/special event, museum visit, etc.

I am glad I did not grew in a place like that. Being able to move around independently and having those free events, museums, sports, libraries available by bicycle and public transport was nice. Better then then needing hours of drive or stay at home.

> Being able to move around independently and having those free events, ... sports, libraries available by bicycle

You can still do that in a smaller town too, and have actual wilderness - forests, etc to explore, build tree houses, forts, fishing, swimming, etc.

I lived in my local big city for a few years. As I did so, and as I regularly traversed its streets and public transport, I many times thought, "ok, maybe suburbanites have a point."

What makes the suburbs and small towns good isn't positive / a presence of pros, but negative / an absence of cons.

> a few hours drive

hard pass. cars are the reason everything sucks in N American urban planning

Assume that's true. They (and their cars) aren't in your city. They come in once in a blue moon for something. If you have a problem with that, why? You'd be better off (from your perspective) reducing to zero the number of people who do live in your city and use a car.

I'd recommend bicycles or walking in a small town.

https://archive.ph/BeLhx

The number of city kids really boomed between 1990 and 2010 or even 2020. But the pandemic really changed things.

yeah same experience. downtown in a big Canadian city. lots of kids, but when COVID hit everyone got really, really claustrophobic -- small expensive downtown apartments ain't great when there is nowhere to go -- and everyone moved to the burbs

During the pandemic, my neighborhood in Scottsdale saw a huge increase of families with kids moving from Chicago / Seattle / SF. Remote workers, etc... We've got good public school / parks / places to roam, at the time represented a huge bargain in home pricing.

(Anecdotal but reflected by a rapid increase in home values that came with that.)

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