What if NYC was a Childhood City?

Helping Give Kids Freedom and Independence Through the Built Environment

There’s no denying children’s public lives have shrunk over the decades. The reasons are many and varied, but the built environment needn't be one of them.

(Vision)

A childhood city is one where kids are empowered to participate in the public life of the city without the constant supervision and interference of adults.

This might mean Where they can go to school, visit a friend, go to the library or the park without needing to be escorted there by adults. Where the presence of kids in public space is expected and seen as a sign of the health of a community.

To live in a childhood city, regardless of your age, is to live in a place where everyone feels cared for. If a seven year old can safely go a few blocks to the corner market to grab a loaf of bread, then it’s safe for most everyone to do the same. If there are third places for children to meet up with their friends without spending money, then there are places for us all to get together.

Where caregivers can let kids be free and reclaim their own time. Where the needs of kids and caregivers are front and center in the decisions made about the built environment.

Part of a global movement. (Several, in fact.)

(Mission)

The role of the city in the life of children is nothing new.

The UN charter on children’s rights was ratified in 1989. Kevin Lynch published ____ in 197_. Independence and play have been the default way children have learned for millennia.

What is new is that we’ve designed those rights and that independence out of children’s lives. And there’s a growing realization that it’s time to take it back. From the conditions exposed by the Anxious Generation, to ever better understanding of the role of play in children’s lives, to the codification of the rights of the child.

We are adding our voice to this global movement and raising the voices of communities of kids and caregivers already doing the work.

New York City should be the best place in America to experience childhood. In many ways, it already is. But there’s lots of work still to do.

(Practice)

Why NYC is great for kids. There are incredible opportunities. Public transit means that kids as young as 8 or 9 can ride through bus of the train between neighborhoods. Cultural institutions offer kids access. cultural and ethnic diversity….

Where it falls short. But how do kids get to places on their own? What are the barriers… data…

How it can change. We’re here to focus on the public space bit. We can’t solve many of theses social issues, but we can make sure that the streets and public spaces are not the limiting factor in whether a caregiver allows their young child to walk to a friends house or whether a tween chooses to ride a bike to school.

It takes all of us to make a childhood city. We’re here to help collect the threads and connect the dots.

(About)

Get to know the team behind Childhood City

  • Carl Mahaney founded Childhood City to help his ten-year-old son ride his bike to school.

    Okay, it’s more complicated than that, but not by much.

    These kinds of simple realities in the lives of kids and caregivers are at the heart of a Childhood City.

    Carl started his career as a practicing architect, working for 25 years at the scale of private residences and neighborhood plans. Becoming a father was the beginning of this pivot to advocacy, and Childhood City is the next step in that journey.

    After five years directing and advocacy initiative for Open Plans, Carl decided to focus on the way the built environment affects childhood, hence Childhood City.

  • Steph is the executive director of Play:groundNYC, a local nonprofit dedicated to transforming NYC through play. She is the mother to a ___ year old and lives with family in Brooklyn. Her favorite Childhood City space in the city is ______.

  • Kate is a veteran city planning and policy expert. She was in the NYC DOT in the Bloomberg administration and knows first hand how the changes needed for a Childhood City get made. Kate has two kids _____ and ____ and lives with her partner in Upper Manhattan,