Building Children Out of Our Cities
Last fall, the City of Oakland, Ca. launched a planning process to shape the future of its downtown. SPUR, a regional planning nonprofit, published a report titled, A Downtown for Everyone: Shaping the Future of Downtown Oakland. In it, the authors lay out bold recommendations focused on making Downtown more developer, transit, and business friendly.
As I read the report, one oversight really hit a nerve: there is nary a reference to making downtown more family friendly.
In the report, the words “business,” “companies,” or “office” are used over 200 times. In contrast, “families,” “family,” or “children” appear only 10 times. Even San Francisco across the Bay got 88 mentions, and “parking” got big shoutouts—over 80 of them. A scan of other recent reports reveal similar and dismaying blind spots in our local planning efforts.
Topics
- The Deliberate Segregation of U.S. Cities, as Evidenced by Freeway Congestion
- A Retiring Dean Considers the Changing Responsibilities of Planners
- Light Rail to Be Extended East of Los Angeles Again
- Pop Quiz: Cities and Obscure World Records
- The Climate Has Already Changed
- Shared Mobility Subsidies Dry Up, Revealing the Industry’s Economic Realities
- Voters Will Decide on $3.5 Billion Transit Funding Bond in Houston
- Jakarta's Suburb in the Sky
- Columbia River Crossing Project Officially Back From the Dead
- Gentrification and Race in the San Francisco Bay Area
- A Comedian's Brutal Takedown of Public Transportation's Failures
- Editorial: Pittsburgh Fails to Provide Adequate Parking Around Downtown
- School Playgrounds to Parks
- New Space for Multi-Generational Living in High-Rises
- British Researchers Sound the Alarm About the Dangers of Large SUVs
- Scooter 'Redlining' Raises Questions in San Francisco
- Bikelash Strikes Again in New York City
- There's Still a Catch to Plans for the World's Largest Undersea Rail Tunnel
- As Cities Densify, New Building Design Strategies Keep Them Livable
- Mobility Data: How Your Travel Patterns Could Inform Policy
