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Tim Gill鈥檚 book is a timely and engaging manifesto, full of maps and charts, pointing to future cities where play happens in streets, squares and green spaces, not just playgrounds. Further, he celebrates public spaces that 鈥渘urture contact between families in different social groups.鈥�

Ankita Chachra, senior fellow at Capita, recently posted an essay, , describing how her dual journeys as an urban planner and a new mother reinforce each other: 鈥淲ith an urgent, selfish and personal interest in securing a safe future for my child and his future friends, I decided to commit myself to climate action at the intersection of early years and the built environment.鈥�

Early Learning Nation magazine spoke to Gill and Chachra about the potential they see for playful cities.

Mark Swartz: We鈥檙e going to talk about playgrounds, of course, but for both of you, there鈥檚 so much more to making our cities better for young children. What鈥檚 the best way for urban planners to tune into what their youngest residents need?

Tim Gill: The way I鈥檓 going to take that question is: How do we get urban planners and senior decision makers to care about children? I think it鈥檚 a moral issue. , we have to stop designing cities for people who are 30 years old and athletic and male. Caring about children helps us tackle cities鈥� long-term future, economic as well as environmental. If your city is not attracting and retaining families with children, then its long-term economic future is pretty bleak, because the demographics are against you.

Ankita Chachra: A city that works well for young children and families inherently works well for everyone. There needs to be a shift in perspective on who and what the city is for. What if we centered designing cities around care and caregiving? What if cities prioritized intergenerational social connections where young children and families can flourish?

Planners and city shapers must also recognize that children, caregivers and families navigate and use the city differently than a typical office-commuting-able-male adult. Proximity to services, ease of mobility (walking, biking, transit), and access to green and public spaces are foundational for building child-friendly cities. And lastly, it is essential to involve children and families in the decision-making to understand their needs better.

In the context of the United States, urban planning has had a history of segregation and redlining; thus, as practitioners move forward with working in communities where their needs haven鈥檛 been met for so many years, they must always seek to do with, not merely do for.

Gill: I鈥檓 a big fan of the bottom-up schemes that reclaim streets. Here in the UK, promotes resident-led, short-term road closures to let the kids come out and play. The model is regular, fairly unstructured block parties, and people experience what the street is like without traffic.

Chachra: That reminds me of awhere there was a small parking lot with garbage bins. We turned it into a plaza, painting the streets and adding some fake grass, and the children started playing there right away. I remember one little boy just running around, shouting, 鈥淧layground, playground.鈥� And it wasn鈥檛 even close to a playground, but the families had such joy in realizing their children could actually play right in front of their eyes.

Gill: In my book, I talk about how , in Colorado, brought young people鈥檚 voices into a debate about a downtown public space and counteracted the commercial interests that were pushing in other directions. That helped the city to build a more progressive and better collective solution.

Chachra: Growing Up Boulder鈥檚 has done some exceptional work, and including them in some of the planning decisions and having them go to the planning offices and work with the planners. That鈥檚 community engagement done the right way. It鈥檚 not tokenism.

Swartz: By spreading the word about these approaches, Urban Playground is influencing a new generation of urban planners, Tim.

Gill: It鈥檚 been encouraging to see city leaders joining the dots between children and the climate. Two of the most inspiring examples are Tirana, Albania; and Bratislava, Slovakia.

Chachra: Another question we need to ask is: How are we creating spaces for unexpected interactions between neighbors to happen? has looked at the street dimensions, the distance between the two streets and the number of interactions that happen between neighbors. A lot of it comes down to not driving. You鈥檙e very isolated when you鈥檙e just driving. Historically, playgrounds or dedicated places to play for children only emerged after we started prioritizing streets for cars over people and public life.

Swartz: I knew we鈥檇 get to playgrounds eventually. Now that you live in Brooklyn and have a baby of your own, Ankita, what issues are coming to the fore for you?

Chachra: I wish we were doing better from a physical infrastructure and access to green space perspective. There are a few destination parks and places like the Brooklyn Bridge Park, which offer some incredible opportunities for children and families to play and enjoy public life but those are limited and unique. In general, where families have access to parks, it鈥檚 mostly asphalt and concrete, with very few natural softscapes with grass or turf. In most playgrounds, it鈥檚 the same cookie-cutter infrastructure instead of a variety of play equipment that encourages imagination, learning and positive risk taking. That equipment is often designed for two years and older, so there鈥檚 also that missing amenity for really young children just starting to crawl and learning to engage with their environment.

Gill: The American Journal of Preventive Medicine just published a study by Meghan Talarowski and others on . They found that location is critical. If you鈥檝e got a playground in the right place with a good local catchment (a local population that surrounds a service like a school or park), you can have six times as many users as a playground that isn鈥檛 in a dense area with a good catchment within half a mile. The second thing is trees and greenery, which is a factor that doubles the levels of use.

Chachra: Access to green space is a big question. Of course, the catchment area is extremely important, but also, where does it sit within the city? For example, three playgrounds within walking distance of where I am right now are adjacent to highways. If we鈥檙e talking about children鈥檚 health and reducing exposure to bad air, especially in this era of changing climate with recurring days with hazardous air quality, the location of playgrounds near highways, that increase children鈥檚 daily exposure to poor air should be a non-starter.

Swartz: What else are you noticing about New York City?

Chachra: I won鈥檛 go into social programs and policy but will speak purely from the infrastructure perspective. While New York is walkable and has relatively good public infrastructure, it can still feel harsh and uninviting for young children. There鈥檚 been progress, but there鈥檚 a long way to go in making our streets and intersections safe and more child friendly. Streets where you can let your children play as if it were your front yard, or let your newly walking toddler roam free and know that your child is safe riding their bike from home to a neighboring park.

Sidewalks in many neighborhoods still lack shade and seating or in general, opportunities to pause and rest, which is essential when you are moving around with young children or the elderly. If streets are not safe and comfortable for everyone, and if they don鈥檛 feel inviting, then we are losing that opportunity to create a truly child-friendly city.

Swartz: What larger trends do you see affecting the way we live in cities?

Gill: One change we have definitely seen here in the UK 鈥� and I think it鈥檚 true in many other countries 鈥� is a decrease in workers going into city centers to work. So they鈥檙e working from home more or their jobs have shifted. And so that鈥檚 led to a kind of drop in demand and economic activity of various kinds in city centers.

This has led to a rise in economic activities in more peripheral areas, which, for me, relates to the idea of . Simply living locally, traveling more locally, focusing on local amenities and green space, reducing the dependence on the car鈥攁ll those things help make neighborhoods better for children.

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 麻豆精品. Learn more here.