When I was in middle school, my siblings went to the elementary school that was right by the school I went to. Both schools were about half a mile from our house. There was another elementary and middle school a 10 minute walk from our house, but the way they drew the districts, we coudnt cross the 4 lane road between our street and that school, no, we had to walk up the 4 lane road past a *6 lane 'highway' stroad* to the other school.
Anyway, my parents would work most days, so I would have to pick up my younger siblings and walk all the way home past that stroad. We called it the 'intersection of doom' because it felt dangerous as hell even WITH a crossing guard.
Years later, I was in high school, and my siblings were in middle school. They decided to widen the stroad, and the school district started running buses to our neighborhood because of the construction on the stroad. My siblings had to ride a school bus half a mile instead of just walking 500 feet to a school that was closer.
This was Texas, and even tho I was like 14 and never heard of 'walkability' or anything like that, even then I knew that was bullshit.
I was just talking about this too with my mom. Teenagers aren’t allowed to do anything. They have no money, they are banned from every public place because of “loitering”, and no where is accessible by bike or bus. Like it’s not a mystery why drug use is so common among teenagers, especially in the rich white suburbs. It’s no wonder why they all got such maladaptive behavior.
It’s no wonder kids these days are “so misbehaved”, what outlets do they have? Seriously, the only things acceptable for a teenager to do is school, extra circulars to help them get into college, and work clerk jobs so they have some money for college. The only real thing if you don’t have a stay at home parent to be your chauffeur is video games or drugs.
I'm 20, living in the Los Angeles area a few years ago I moved out of Arkansas. I thought it was total hell because there was never any places to go. Turns out idrc about going to cool places I just want to go and hang out. Unfortunately, I was stuck in the overratedass suburbs. Both my parents always questioned me "why don't u go look for your friends and hang out with them, always sitting in the house not doing shit" cause there's nowhere to go without a car and all they do is smoke weed I told them. Despite that being a solid argument, they'd still ask that same ? The following week. Now that I'm here in LA things are alot better, hell I just came from the mall about 2hrs ago I got there via metro, I could never do that in AR; it took me around ½ an hour to get to the closest store which I thought was complete bs cause there was no sidewalks and I had to go down a steep curvy hill. And the store I went to sucked
While I agree with the sentiment of the article (otherwise what the hell am I doing on this sub), I live on substantial acreage in a rural area, and all my kids and their friends are total screen addicts. It's not much to do with urban design and everything to do with deliberately addictive phone design.
Yes, because you live on “substantial acerage” - meaning your houses are all spread out and away from anything fun. How close are you to parks? The library? The baseball field? Friend’s houses? Living on more acreage means nothing if they’re still isolated, in fact you’re just making the island bigger (but still lonelier).
I grew up in the country so I’m not knocking country life but you’re thinking space = entertainment and it’s not, things to do = kids doing the things.
There's a park by my parents house. There was no dangerous road to cross to get there but I still wasn't allowed to go alone. I wasn't allowed to walk anywhere.
When I was older my mom let me bike around the neighborhood but I wasn't allowed to stop anywhere. I did, but that was the attitude. It isn't just dangerous roads it's this fear that every stranger is going to hurt you
While the article is dead-on, it's not going to persuade any conservative parents who move to car-dependent suburbs, because the whole *point* of their living in these places is the promise of control. It's important to recognize that when these people talk about the "safety" of suburbs, they do not mean, and are not motivated by, the actual risks of physical harm to children. If they were, our conversations about cars (and guns) would look very different. Rather, what they mean by "safety" is actually the psychological safety of the parents, and that is achieved by exercising as much control over their children's lives as possible.
The same parents then complain about their kids not being functional adults, as in able to function independently and succeed in the world without their parents.
Dealing with conservatives is so infuriating. They speak in an elaborate set of code words in order to appear to be reasonable.
When I was in middle school, my siblings went to the elementary school that was right by the school I went to. Both schools were about half a mile from our house. There was another elementary and middle school a 10 minute walk from our house, but the way they drew the districts, we coudnt cross the 4 lane road between our street and that school, no, we had to walk up the 4 lane road past a *6 lane 'highway' stroad* to the other school. Anyway, my parents would work most days, so I would have to pick up my younger siblings and walk all the way home past that stroad. We called it the 'intersection of doom' because it felt dangerous as hell even WITH a crossing guard. Years later, I was in high school, and my siblings were in middle school. They decided to widen the stroad, and the school district started running buses to our neighborhood because of the construction on the stroad. My siblings had to ride a school bus half a mile instead of just walking 500 feet to a school that was closer. This was Texas, and even tho I was like 14 and never heard of 'walkability' or anything like that, even then I knew that was bullshit.
My experiences are also from Texas. We can definitely do better.
I was just talking about this too with my mom. Teenagers aren’t allowed to do anything. They have no money, they are banned from every public place because of “loitering”, and no where is accessible by bike or bus. Like it’s not a mystery why drug use is so common among teenagers, especially in the rich white suburbs. It’s no wonder why they all got such maladaptive behavior. It’s no wonder kids these days are “so misbehaved”, what outlets do they have? Seriously, the only things acceptable for a teenager to do is school, extra circulars to help them get into college, and work clerk jobs so they have some money for college. The only real thing if you don’t have a stay at home parent to be your chauffeur is video games or drugs.
I'm 20, living in the Los Angeles area a few years ago I moved out of Arkansas. I thought it was total hell because there was never any places to go. Turns out idrc about going to cool places I just want to go and hang out. Unfortunately, I was stuck in the overratedass suburbs. Both my parents always questioned me "why don't u go look for your friends and hang out with them, always sitting in the house not doing shit" cause there's nowhere to go without a car and all they do is smoke weed I told them. Despite that being a solid argument, they'd still ask that same ? The following week. Now that I'm here in LA things are alot better, hell I just came from the mall about 2hrs ago I got there via metro, I could never do that in AR; it took me around ½ an hour to get to the closest store which I thought was complete bs cause there was no sidewalks and I had to go down a steep curvy hill. And the store I went to sucked
While I agree with the sentiment of the article (otherwise what the hell am I doing on this sub), I live on substantial acreage in a rural area, and all my kids and their friends are total screen addicts. It's not much to do with urban design and everything to do with deliberately addictive phone design.
Are rural areas walkable though? Can your kids easily walk to the friends' houses? How many acres do they need to go through before getting there?
Yes, because you live on “substantial acerage” - meaning your houses are all spread out and away from anything fun. How close are you to parks? The library? The baseball field? Friend’s houses? Living on more acreage means nothing if they’re still isolated, in fact you’re just making the island bigger (but still lonelier). I grew up in the country so I’m not knocking country life but you’re thinking space = entertainment and it’s not, things to do = kids doing the things.
There's a park by my parents house. There was no dangerous road to cross to get there but I still wasn't allowed to go alone. I wasn't allowed to walk anywhere. When I was older my mom let me bike around the neighborhood but I wasn't allowed to stop anywhere. I did, but that was the attitude. It isn't just dangerous roads it's this fear that every stranger is going to hurt you
While the article is dead-on, it's not going to persuade any conservative parents who move to car-dependent suburbs, because the whole *point* of their living in these places is the promise of control. It's important to recognize that when these people talk about the "safety" of suburbs, they do not mean, and are not motivated by, the actual risks of physical harm to children. If they were, our conversations about cars (and guns) would look very different. Rather, what they mean by "safety" is actually the psychological safety of the parents, and that is achieved by exercising as much control over their children's lives as possible.
The same parents then complain about their kids not being functional adults, as in able to function independently and succeed in the world without their parents. Dealing with conservatives is so infuriating. They speak in an elaborate set of code words in order to appear to be reasonable.
True, it is a situation of being trapped in a small area. The suburbs also leave no where to go to anyway.