Category: children

Best cities for kids

Now this is a list I wish Charlotte were on:

U.S. News & World Report’s list of the 10 best U.S. cities and towns in which to grow up (link here) does not, sadly, include Charlotte. Here are the criteria the magazine said it used:

“First off, you’d probably want a low crime rate. A strong school system would also be key. From there, you’d need lots of other children, expansive green spaces to play in, and plenty of nearby family events. Toss in an abundance of artistic and recreational activities, and all of a sudden you’ve got one heck of a place to grow up.”

Obviously, different people value different things. I might have put a bit more weight on the attributes of a large city, which can offer plenty of things to do without having to drive everywhere. San Jose, Boston and Denver are on the list. Public school problems probably kept New York and Washington off the list (I’m speculating, I don’t have inside info). Green space probably hurt Atlanta and Charlotte. Crime probably hurt Charlotte – the city has had, comparatively speaking, a high crime rate for decades.

It’s hard to tell if the list is in order of No. 1 to No. 10, but here are the cities, in order:
1. Virginia Beach, Va.
2. Madison, Ala. (a bedroom suburb of Huntsville)
3. San Jose, Calif.
4. Overland Park, Kan. (outside Kansas City, Mo.)
5. Boston
6. Denver
7. Rochester, Minn.
8. Cedar Rapids, Iowa
9. Plano, Texas
10. Edison, N.J.

City attitudes: The young have it.

Are the younger generation really different in their attitudes toward cities and urban life?

Here’s a comment from my post “End of sprawl? Um, not yet.”

“I think there’s another factor too that’s not entirely being examined. I’m a 26 year old young professional, and unlike young ‘yuppie’ professionals from past generations, my generation couldn’t seem less interested in having a big house in the ‘burbs. The majority of them seem to prefer more contained urban living. Will this new generation further the trend of new urbanism and fuel more inner city growth as they come more into their own? Only time will tell I suppose!”

Will this generation “further the trend of new urbanism and fuel more inner city growth”? Or will they be like previous generations and conclude that when they have children they require a house with a lawn, and suburban schools? I think one of the great untold stories — and I hope to tell it one of these days — is to debunk the myth that there are no families with children in uptown Charlotte.

But in Charlotte, at least, most of the uptown development seems designed with the assumption that folks with kids live elsewhere. Maybe that will change. Maybe the new 9-11 and Millennial generations will provoke the change. What do you think?