Moving to the suburbs for your kids? Think again

[marmar]

from Grist:




Moving to the suburbs for your kids? Think again
by Carla Saulter

15 Nov 2010 7:28 AM

We cannot separate our children from the ills that affect everyone, however hard we try. -- Erica Jong, "The Madness of Modern Motherhood," in the Wall Street Journal

Most environmentally aware parents would say that we'd like to keep the planet in good shape for our kids. We'd like them to have clean air to breathe, healthy sources of food and water, and the good fortune to coexist with a variety of species of plants and animals. We'd also probably prefer that they not be drowned by rising sea levels before they reach retirement.

This is somewhat (OK, a lot) ironic, since many of the environmental ills that threaten our children's futures have been exacerbated by our attempts to keep them safe in the here and now.

Allow me to explain.

We Americans tend to believe that a healthy environment in which to raise children is a large, single-family home in a quiet, suburban community. Many of us are convinced that trading the polluted, crowded city for greener pastures (also known as the large backyards that usually come along with suburban homes) is the right decision for our children. Unfortunately, the farther we move from urban centers, the more auto-dependent, resource-intensive, and by extension, environmentally detrimental our lives become. Auto-dependent living is bad for our children; it's also very, very bad for the planet.

The energy efficiency of individual automobiles is a far less important environmental issue than the energy inefficiency of the asphalt-latticed way of life that we have built to oblige them- the sprawling American landscape of subdivisions, parking lots, strip malls and interstate bypasses. The critical energy drain in a typical American suburb is not the Hummer in the driveway; it's everything the Hummer makes possible- the oversized houses and irrigated yards, the network of new feeder roads and residential streets, the costly and inefficient outward expansion of the power grid, the duplicated stores and schools, the two-hour solo commutes. -- Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability, by David Owen

Certainly, every choice matters, and making an effort to do the little things right is important. (Lord knows I agonize over pretty much every child-related choice I'm presented with, to my husband's great delight.) But folks, if you live in a sprawling, autocentric community that requires you to drive your kids to the supermarket to buy their organic produce and to the local playfield to get their exercise, you're not doing them -- or the planet -- any favors. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-14-moving-to-the-suburbs-for-your-kids-think-again

[Renew Deal]

1. Why shouldn't people want to live in a "large home with a large back yard?"

We don't all need to be cramped into a beehive.

[madokie]

6. I do

well not the big house as its only the two of us, boss and me, but we have a large back yard that we wouldn't trade for anything. Open fields on three sides so we let nature build us a privacy fence, I've got shumac, black berries, wisteria, wild cherry trees, empress trees, and many other plants like honeysuckle vines all grown up in the fence line and simply love the feeling of living in a clearing in the woods somewhere but yet still be less than a mile from the store. We have rabbits and squirrels, lots of birds, an occasional skunk'll pass through and let me tell you me and our pet know to steer a big path around them buggers as they don't smell too good. If its my weed I love the smell but when its the animal not so much. Anyways I like a large yard

[taterguy]

17. I don't feel cramped but live close to almost everything I need.

Have a yard but it's not very big.

You're welcome to make whatever choices you want, but you should be fully aware of the consequences of those choices.

[CoffeeCat]

2. The sad truth is..

...that the income disparity between people is so deep right now. There is a huge difference
between the haves and the have nots and it is sad.

The haves are in the burbs and in the nice parts of town. The have nots are in violent neighborhoods
with houses that are falling apart.

So of course, if you have kids--you would rather than they live in a nice community. Yes, there is
a high environmental price to pay for all of this--but I sure as hell am not moving to an unsafe,
crime-ridden neighborhood.

Therein lies the struggle for all of us as human beings. What to do?

The problem, in my opinion--is that too many people are falling into poverty. It seems like there
is no middle ground anymore. Either you're living in a dilapidated community and dodging gun
fire and drug deals on the corners---or you're living in an immaculate neighborhood where the
lawns are manicured and everything is shiny and new.

Society forces people to make these choices. It's like we have no choices anymore. Be a big
environmental drain on the world--or raise your children in an unsafe neighborhood.

[marmar]

3. But there are lots of nice, dense neighborhoods in the cities, and even in some burbs.....

nt

[mediaman007]

5. There can be plenty of density in the suburbs.

Just think of the kids still living with their parents, the distant relatives that might move in because they lost their home. Many new immigrants move in with families, friends until they make enough to get their own home. Just check the number of cars in driveways. I'll bet you'll find many driveways with three or more cars/vehicles.

[Kievan Rus]

18. Not necessarily...most of Manhattan is pretty nice, and real estate-wise, it's probably...

one of the most expensive places in the country, if not the entire world.

[XemaSab]

20. Not so much in many areas of California

There are healthy urban areas, and half-abandoned gang-ridden suburbs throughout the state.

[DFW]

4. Not an issue where we raised our kids

Our kids were born and raised (and went to elementary school) in a small, old (as in about 800 years) town
in the German Rheinland. They walked to their friends, to their school, and to the center of town if needed
be (15 minutes walking slowly). When they went on to high school ("Gymnasium"), they walked to the bus stop
and took the bus in to Düsseldorf.

Our farmers' market is in the town square three mornings a week, as it has been for the last seven centuries
or so.

It's a different way of doing things over here. My kids both adapted to life in the States while they were
there. One of them just came back to Germany, as a €95,000 a year job in Frankfurt sounded better than waiting
on tables in Manhattan, but the other one is still there, now jealously pondering her sister's high salary,
comprehensive health care package and thirty (as opposed to nine in NYC) days of paid vacation.

[Ginto]

10. Wish we had that here.

Would be an interesting walk to school for the kids in Detroit or say Compton.

[DFW]

14. If I had married a women from Detroit or Compton, I guess I would have found out

As it is, my wife is from Northwestern Germany, and she said she was not living in the USA, so if I
wanted to stay with her, it would be here. I got myself transferred over here, and here I still am.

[Ginto]

15. I wanted to live in Tokyo.

But the future wife's family is all in the US and she told me that she could never leave so that is that.

[a la izquierda]

16. Oh! That sounds amazing.

Your kids are super, duper lucky! I'm hoping to raise mine in the country. That is, if I ever have kids.

[DFW]

19. My wife was a country girl

Her dad was a farmer but couldn't work on the farm after the war (he got a leg blown off by an artillery shell).
Her cousins still live on a farm where the house is divided into living quarters in the front, and stalls full
hay in the back. I took her out into the big bad world, but she adapted.

[old mark]

7. We have no kids - by choice - but we found happiness in our 90 year old

row house on the fringe of a small city. We have lived in the country, and in the suburbs, but bought our 8 room brick 3 story 1920 end of row for $50,000 15 years ago. We are minutes away from anywhere we need to go. Shopping is very convenient, as are doctors, hospitals, highways to travel to visit relatives, hiking and hunting areas, farmers markets, etc.

We sort of retired in place after finding how easy it was to get around from our little house, and my brother and sister in law are finding the same thing with their city home about 35 miles away...turns out their city was a recommended retirement area in a national magazine a year ago, and they are spending their money fixing their home for the future - as we did - rather than making plans to move to some retirement community. We have made our little house old person friendly by creating a second full bathroom on the first floor, and making off street parking out of part of our large yard and installing a wood pellet stove for heat. We also removed all the grass and replaced it with mulch and growing beds for vegies, as well as fruit trees and bushes. (we grow organic figs - in Pennsylvania)

Our mortgage was little more than many people's car payments, and we paid it off in full this month.

We find our home's value has increased quite a bit since we bought it, and that many of our neighbors are putting money into their houses rather than moving, so values are increasing and the neighborhood is improving. FWIW, there are a lot of young kids around, crime is very low, and our biggest problem is traffic on our street, which is nothing compared to large cities.

mark

We feel like we made a great choice and we plan to stay here for life.

[Urban Prairie]

8. During the 60s and 70s in my urban neighborhood

We kids mostly walked and biked to where we wanted to go. I never had a school bus pick me up and drop me off, I had to walk (or bike in the early fall and late spring) to my grade and high school. I often parked my bike in my aunt and uncle's backyard, who were fortunately located about a half-mile away from the HS that I attended, and walked the remainder of the way to and from school. I remember all too well freezing my ass off walking the about 3 miles to high school on the coldest, windiest,and snowiest days in the dead of winter, or once and awhile getting soaking wet on a rainy day, since it wasn't "cool" to wear a raincoat in HS, but we kids did have and wore bright yellow raincoats and hats while attending grade school back then.

It is a sign of the times when the very obese ten year old boy who lives below us with his disabled father in our condo-complex often knocks on my door, asking me to drive him to the party store nearby,or visit his friends, most who live less than a half-mile away, even during the most pleasant days in the summer. and yeah, he has a bicycle, not that he rides it very much.

[mopinko]

9. my relatives on the edge of sprawl think i'm nuts.

i was raised literally on the edge of the 50's urban sprawl, just blocks away from the remaining cornfields, which are all gone now. the happiest day of my city-raised mom's life was when she moved her 5 kids out of the 2 bedroom city apartment to a 4 bedroom house with a big yard. my entire family thought i had lost my mind when i moved to the city nearly 30 years ago.
i raised 5 kids here, and i tell ya, they all turned out great, and pretty much color blind. nothing horrible ever happened to them, and the near horrible things just did not really freak them out.

they are not citizens of podunk, they are citizens of the world.


(but i do confess that i have a big house, and by city standards, a good size yard.)

[RiverStone]

12. My kids grew up in a county with one traffic light

My daughter is an environmental activist - my son teaches snowboarding (still a teenager).

They are probably more liberal then their parents!

The point is where ever we raise our kids - it's the love and support and examples we set as parents that help set their compass bearings, more then if they grow up in inner city LA - or the wilds of Alaska.

[Xenotime]

11. What an excellent awareness post

I see so many people who think they are environmentally friendly, and then drive 20 miles one way to the grocery store. Live in a 2-story house with big back yards. And having a big back yard doesn't make you green. You have to mow it and think about the migratory patterns of local animals that were disrupted so you could have your swing set and swimming pool.

Perhaps there should be a tax on those who have large homes and backyards just like those who make too much money.

[RiverStone]

13. What about rural living? Go past the burbs!

Where I get the OP's point on not being auto-dependent and exposure to diversity, I think she has not ever experienced rural living.

We raised our two kids just outside a town of around 3K in Washington state. Our kids walked to school every day (minus big snow storms). The grocery, bank, dentist etc. is also within walking distance. There may not be lots to choose from, but there is at least one of everything you need. We pool our resources and buy food through an organic food co-op. We drink from a chlorine free well.

At night the stars are amazing and we hear wild things howl - deer, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, porcupines and other woodsy friends visit. Being close to hundreds of miles of hiking trails in the Cascade Mountains + cross country skiing + mountain biking my kiddos grew up experiencing a love and appreciation for nature up close. Now that's environmental education!

The nearest BIG shopping mall is 80 miles from here. I compromised career $ to live here, but it was well worth it.

Having a close relationship with nature also teaches something unique that transcends city life - and the burbs is city life. For diversity, we can drive into Portland Oregon and spend the day. Portland is really cool progressive place and we love to visit, but for finding fresh bear tracks - there's no place like home.