Mike Lanza, author of the parenting book “Playborhood: Turn Your Neighborhood Into a Place For Play,” says politicians who advocate anti-suburb policies are hurting children and “anti-child.”
Lanza questions the premise of a recently released book by Fortune Executive Editor Leigh Gallagher, “The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving,” which argues that suburban homes and communities are losing their appeal in favor of denser, urban areas.
While suburbs have their problems — a high dependence on cars, for example — they pale in comparison to what’s in store for children who live in cities with poor school districts, according to Lanza. Such children are often sent to private schools, sometimes outside of their neighborhoods, and therefore do not play with neighborhood kids because they don’t know them. Urban children also have less access to play-fostering open space, while suburban children at least have yards, he said.
Source: New Geography