The kindered community: using a child's perspective to improve urban planning and evaluate neighborhood friendliness

UnrestrictedChildren have been largely ignored in urban planning. Examination of this field in the United States yields a complex subhistory of planning for families and children, including both purposeful, explicit planning for children, and de facto planning that as a by-product limited children's environment. Much of this was undertaken to address other goals, such as promoting desirable activity among poor and immigrant residents. Despite the evolution of suburban development, these communities have not always represented the healthiest or happiest environments for their youthful residents.; Children have specific but unmet environmental needs. For example, suburbs designed to improve domestic life by separating it from the perceived ills of the city limit the range of youth under 16; as does transportation planning that subordinates pedestrian-oriented and public transit relative to automobile transit; and land use planning that segregates business, retail and residential uses. Youth seek independent mobility, opportunities to interact with peers, and spaces for solitude.; Youth seek much from the planning field, but also have much to offer. Kindering, or taking a child's perspective, provides a venue for expanding the scope of planning and other knowledge. Children offer a unique and relatively untapped perspective on the world that can illuminate and inform land use and open space planning, and community development. This opportunity to explore another source of information meshes with trends in the field of planning to broaden the sources and scope of knowledge.; In addition to uncovering new sources of knowledge, planners need to step back from dated evaluation methods that focus on ways in which communities are deficient and instead consider ways in which they meet the diverse needs of our community. A child-friendly community indicator model designed and piloted in three iconic Washington D.C. neighborhoods suggests some possible proactive strategies interested communities can incorporate into their efforts to become more youth-friendly, as well as the outline for a successful suburban development