When We Plan Cities, Consider Children, First - Tim Gill / London

 “I would be really framing a lot of my conversations about this… about the long-term health and wellbeing and prospects of our youngest citizens.”
“Insight for politicians, anyone who's listening to this who wants to kind of shift the needle on creating more sustainable neighborhoods. Talk about children, talk with children, get children's views into the conversation, and that will help you have a more concrete vision of what direction you need to be going in.”
________________________________________________________
Join Boopsie Maran and Bea Enriquez in conversation with Tim Gill author of Urban Playground, How Child-Friendly Urban Planning and Design can save Cities
________________________________________________________
Episode Notes:

“The municipalities hold most of the levers of power. Of course, what they do is shaped by the central government, and there are messages here for, for the central government as well. But, there's a lot that any municipality can do if they want to. And so the hub and spoke model, It really was what I was seeing when I visited these cities that were doing good things and in lots of cases … What was the catalyst for change? It was an officer, it was one or maybe more than one person in the municipality who took up this issue. Who said to themselves, I'm going to try and make good things happen for kids. And I'm in a position to do that.”

So just like that.. Enter the mayor of Tirana, Albania: Erion Velia.  The mayor of Tirana decided to structure his vision for urban change around children.

“Norway is one of the few countries where it's written into law that children's views and concerns have to be taken into account in planning. So, you know, every municipality has to show that it does that.” 
It is because of this policy that in order to respond to parent’s fears and tackle traffic issues head on, Oslo created a pioneering app, “The Traffic Agent.”  The app  provides “child’s eye” feedback to enable both real time and long term improvements in road maintenance and infrastructure planning. 
“On a simple level, in the app kids could say to the transport team, oh, you know, there's this bush and it's just growing too big and it needs to be trimmed down, and by that afternoon it had been done. The result is simple because they just sent somebody out to do it. But, then for more complicated issues like traffic junctions or you know, badly planned routes, the people in the highest department could then put it into their longer term planning. To say, oh, you know, this junction is really important for children.”
____
"It's only where you've got both a lot of choice of places and things to do and go, and it's very easy for children to get around on foot or by bike. It's only where you've got both of those, that you're in that child-friendly spot or quadrant.”
 We do live everywhere in cities that have basically been designed around the needs of the car for the last a hundred years. And it takes energy and commitment and actually courage to turn that around.
And that's why we are seeing some pushback around some of these ideas
Focus on the streets where people live
Think about life from the point of view of a child, the streets are the beginning of our literal and figurative journeys. Have programs that change the way people think about streets, encourage children to walk, cycle, and create a safe place for play.


Useful Links & References:
https://rethinkingchildhood.com/urban-playground/
Read the first 20 pages from Tim Gill's new book 'Urban Playground: How Child-Friendly Planning and Design Can Save Cities.'  Courtesy of the Bernard van Leer Foundation.

Show Credits:
Music by:  Max Epstein
Sound Engineering and Editing by: Andy Day
https://www.handytrainingonline.com/audio-laundry