Replicating a Child-Friendly City

Let’s define “Child-Friendly”

A child-friendly city is a place where children:

• Experience equality in social services, education, and a clean environment
• Have a good start in life: healthy, safe in the community, cared for, protected from violence
• Live in a safe space: access to green spaces, places to play, and clean neighborhood
• Participate in family, cultural, and community social life
• Have a fair chance in life regardless of their ethnic origin, religion, income, gender or ability

Why San Diego was voted the Most Kid-Friendly City in The U.S.

1. “San Diego has the most playgrounds per capita in the country”

San Diego’s parks place among the top for the best parks in the country.  Additionally, San Diego has beaches and a Botanic Garden that have also placed in the top ten for the countries best! San Diego has access to many parks, beaches, activities for the children. It is filled with several kid activities such as the A new Children’s museum park, several splash pads, water parks, Tidepools, and Birch Aquarium.

2. “Thriving Food Scene”

San Diego has many restaurants and places that accommodate any age group. Not only do these places accommodate people, but they also accommodate allergies. There are many vegan, vegetation, and gluten-free restaurants in San Diego. There are also restaurants from many different cultures such as Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Salvadorian, American, Creole, etc. San Diego makes is possible for kids to have alternate choices with eating healthy and explore other cultures’ goods.

“Accessible City”

San Diego has access to many bike paths through-out the city of San Diego. Not only are these bike paths available, but they are also deemed safe for children of all ages. Most of the paths are wide and tucked out of the way of traffic. The paths come in many sizes. This ensures that you can still have a bike experience, even if you have younger kids. Historic Old Town is a walkable town with a courtyard in the middle. This town will help you indulge in the Mexican culture that is dominant in San Diego.

“Fair chance in life regardless of their ethnic origin, religion, income, gender or ability”

There are many free and cheap things to do in San Diego such as scavenger hunts, local splash pads, Sunny Jim Sea Cave, Legoland, Seaport village, Hiking trails for kids, museums, and the list goes on. There are endless amounts of activities for kids in San Diego. There are all throughout the city, so kids can have access regardless of where they live. Most places in San Diego offer free admission to kids or reduced. There is something for everybody in the city of San Diego. Whether its hiking, playing, swimming, biking, learning, art, etc. San Diego has a place for every need!

San Diego’s Current Youth Projects

• Kids4PlanetEarth
  • Kids write letters to President Trump about climate change and conservation in honor of Earth Day
  • Give kids a voice in the community
  • Provides awareness to through the community with a strong voice behind it
• Climate Kids
  • This is a program that educates kids on climate change and is very active in SD
  • Explore Outdoors- Field trips to Cabrillo National Monument, Living Coast Discovery Center, San Diego Zoo, Batiquitos Lagoon
  • Climate artwork shop where art is displayed at the Art of Change art show
  • Hands-on Science lesson with regional scientists and experts from various disciplines; regional research projects
• Climate Walk-out
  • High school student organized a walk to raise awareness
  • It is a global event taking place September 20^th
  • Students across the globe will be marching across their communities in hopes of creating momentum in the current climate change issue

Sources:                                                                                                          

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/92375554-132.html

https://www.sandiego.org/articles/family/best-family-bike-rides-in-san-diego.aspx

https://redtri.com/socal/san-diego-voted-most-kid-friendly-city-in-america/

https://childfriendlycities.org/what-is-a-child-friendly-city/

Percentages of Different Race Within the City

It doesn’t take too much digging to discover the conditions of how children are living within the city borders of New Orleans.  It immediately becomes prominent if one were to look at the statistics. The city itself is currently at a population of about 423,656.  It has been scientifically proven that detrimental environments and increased trauma within the earlier stages of a child’s life can cause a large set back in the child’s brain development.  Between 2000 and 2010, the metro area lost 22 percent of children under 18 compared to only seven percent of all adults. Now, of course, this study spaced throughout the timeline of Hurricane Katrina and it’s the horrific impact on the city.  But what can this say about any up and coming storms that could be even more horrific given the worse existing conditions due to climate change? Specific parishes that were affected the most traumatically were Orleans, Plaquemines, and Jefferson, experiencing greater losses among children than among adults.  Now, moving on to the more recent statistics…

2018

The Dynamics Between Parents, Children, and Poverty

In the city of New Orleans, the share of adults with less than a high school degree fell from 25 percent to 14 percent but is still higher than the U.S. average of 12 percent.  What does this mean within our research? The higher the educational attainment, the higher the income and internet access. Although most New Orleans parents are in the workforce, low-wage jobs are still much too prevalent to provide proper support towards a child.  The child poverty rate in New Orleans is statistically unchanged from 1999. In Jefferson Parish, the child poverty rate jumped from 20 percent in 1999 to 28 percent in 2017 — greatly surpassing the U.S. child poverty rate, which rose from 17 to 18 percent between 1999 and 2017.

The share of households with children is shrinking while the share of individuals living alone is growing — both across the metro and nation.  As of 2017, 24 percent of households in metro New Orleans included children, down from 34 percent in 2000.  The metro had 358,092 children under 18 years in 2000 and only 282,246 in 2018.  Much of this loss was driven by Orleans Parish, where the under 18 population declined to 78,086 from 129,408. The under 18 population is now 22 percent of the metro population, down from 27 percent in 2000.

Where To Go From Here

38 percent of our children below the age of 18 live in poverty.  That is 10 points higher than the rest of Louisiana and twice the 19 percent national child poverty rate.  So what can be done?

Access to adequate health care and education as well as public safety and infrastructure must be provided. The city also must provide systems for dealing with blight (plant disease) and regulating zoning decisions to make sure housing is available for a fair price and that neighborhoods are safe and livable.  On top of this, small organizations like I had mentioned in the previous article can make a massive impact on viable living. Climate change is taking properties and making the situation much more difficult. For the city to continue to come together and create better management practices, huge impacts can be made.

Sources:

https://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/who-lives-in-new-orleans-now/

https://www.nola.com/opinions/article_0fc48978-a57e-55d8-a656-05ea53586635.html

Goal: Encourage and enable children and youth to become actively involved in their cities 

3 Main Objectives: 

• Strengthen local governance for children
• Raise awareness of and promote child rights among adults and children 
• Use strategic partnerships to engage all members of society in building a child-friendly environment 

Strengthen local governance for children

• implementing a child-friendly legal framework
• assessing the situation of children
• developing a Strategy for Children with an allocated budget
• setting up a coordinating mechanism in local government to ensure priority is given to children’s issues
• assessing the impact of law, policy and practice on children

Priority areas include early childhood development, education, health, children with disabilities, child protection, poverty, migrant children, culture and sport.

Raise awareness of and promote child rights among adults and children 

• listening to children’s views and taking them into consideration when decisions are made on issues that affect them

This element will include promoting child rights education through the UNICEF School Club Project that runs in 2,100 schools across the country.

Use strategic partnerships to engage all members of society in building a child-friendly environment 

• building broad platforms for cooperation between the media, civil society and private sector

Private sector engagement will include setting up a Business Coalition for Children with members committing to adhere to the Children’s Rights and Business Principles and getting involved in local initiatives promoting child rights and wellbeing.

References:

https://childfriendlycities.org/poland/

Kids in Miami, Florida

Children ages 18 and under make up around 18% of the population of Miami.  This is a large percentage
that is not always thought about during the design phase of many projects.  Designing for children is an important part in a city’s cohesion.  Child friendly design improves a city’s level of safety, as well helps with the child’s ability to learn and grow.  Mara Mintzer is the program director for an organization called Growing Up Boulder.  This initiative began in 2009 as a collaboration between the University of Colorado Boulder, the city of Boulder, and the school district.  The organization uses kids in the design development phase as a different approach for solving problems.  This allows children to grow and realize that their opinion matters too.  But what is happening in Miami that keeps children in mind during the design process?

The Underline

The Underline is massive project currently taking place in Miami that takes the land
below Miami’s MetroRail, and turns it into a 10 mile linear park.  This park connects different parts of the city and acts as a safe, fun corridor for exploring Miami.  Stretching from the Miami River to Dadeland South Station, the park has many different features as well as different planting communities to reflect the multiple historic plant communities of the area surrounding the city.

The different character zones planned for The Underline include active recreation, green tech, art & craft incubator, and nature and play.  All four of these character zones were designed with children in mind. The active recreation zone is located in the widest area of the corridor and will accommodate open areas where children can pass a soccer ball or throw a frisbee back and forth.  The green tech zone will have green infrastructure implemented such as green roofs and rain gardens and will use these features to teach children about the benefits of sustainability.  The art & craft incubator zone will display public art that will have some sort of interactive side of them.  Finally, the Nature and play zone is located in the highly developed section of The Underline, closest to downtown Miami.  This zone will focus on a park-like, nature-based setting that also incorporates play spaces and room for activities such as birdwatching.

Progress

The Underline is a $120 million project that is funded by the Miami-Dade County, the State of Florida, FDOT, the cities of Miami, Coral Gables, and South Miami, as well as a number of foundations.  The project is broken down into 9 phases, each phase estimated to take 1-1.5 years to complete.  The timeline may be expedited if funding increases.  At this point, 3 of the 9 phases are fully funded including phase 1, 2, and 5.  Construction of phase 1, Brickell Backyard, began December 10, 2018 and is projected to be completed come June 2020.

Sources

https://icma.org/articles/article/boulders-plan-become-child-and-youth-friendly-city

https://www.theunderline.org/#design

https://www.theunderline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-Underline_Framework-Plan-and-Demonstration-Projects_screen_revised-0205_2016-FINAL.pdf

Relatively new among the Child-Friendly Cities Initiative, Liverpool committed itself in March of 2019 to become a child-friendly city. Over fifty local schools took part in the event which will lead to a three to a five-year partnership with city officials. City officials say that the program will focus primarily on ensuring youth rights are fairly represented in policies, programs, and budgets laid out by the city.

The beginning of this journey to become child-friendly starts with what the city calls a “discovery phase”. This is a phase where city policymakers actively work with youth and young adults to understand what is important to their well-being as well as their personal development. The end goals of this phase are to identify three “badges” or areas which policymakers will prioritize. Examples of what areas might be prioritized are safety, education, and future employment.

Throughout this process, a representative from UNICEF’s Child-Friendly City Initiative will be performing reports on Liverpool’s progress. The representatives will be actively checking in to measure positive change within Liverpool’s youth while using testimonials from city youth to ensure this change is tangible. If Liverpool passes its checkups with UNICEF, “it will be internationally recognized as a UNICEF Child-Friendly City, joining cities and communities in 40 countries which are taking part in this global program”.

Positive Signs

Over July of 2019, the child-friendly initiative of Liverpool paired with the local charity Positive About Play. The goal of Positive About Play is to give local children more opportunities to be active and provide meals for children who wouldn’t be otherwise fed. Because the charity works so closely with youth in Liverpool, policymakers have teamed with the organization to be able to call Liverpool child-friendly. There are currently over fifty activities planned by Positive about play and the organization continues to plan more.

Takeaway Lessons

As compared to other cities taking on the child-friendly initiative, Liverpool is especially new to the game. Many cities which have taken part in this program have come up with physical changes which their cities have installed or implemented. Liverpool’s program is far too new for anything physical to be implemented, but it’s important to know where these programs start at.

New Orleans is in a very similar boat as Liverpool when it comes to this initiative. Liverpool currently has no grand plans or schemes which turn the city around in no time flat. Ture change which will be long-lasting and influential always has to shoot for long term goals as opposed to short bursts of effort. For the change we seek in New Orleans to have a long-lasting effect, starting small by truly understanding the community’s needs to where to start.

Sources:

https://www.lcvs.org.uk/give/positive-about-play/

https://liverpoolexpress.co.uk/liverpool-takes-step-closer-to-becoming-unicef-child-friendly-city/

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/in-your-area/thousands-liverpool-children-positive-play-16137164

https://www.unicef.org.uk/press-releases/liverpool-kicks-off-bid-to-become-unicef-child-friendly-city/

What is Melbourne’s Future?

31.7% of Melbourne’s population is 24 years of age or younger. Creating safe, informative, and usable spaces and programs for these youth will drive the success of Melbourne for years to come. Melbourne is frequently known for its diverse culture but not necessarily for raising a family. However, there are programs and spaces designed with the youth in mind to try to create an appeal for the younger generations and families while supporting the less fortunate.

Youth Projects

With five different office locations in Melbourne, Youth Projects is an organization that provides support to disadvantaged, unemployed, homeless, alcohol and drug users, and young people looking to reengage with their community. For every 5 homeless people in Melbourne, 2 are under the age of 25 equating to about 28,000 young individuals being homeless on average every night. The mission of Youth Projects is to have High impact support. Without judgment. Fullstop. Youth Projects is a non-judgmental service that focuses on respect, client care, and harm prevention while understanding that everyone has their own complex web of struggles, difficulties, and needs.

Each year Youth Projects provides over 40,000 episodes of care helping to prevent homelessness from taking hold and to helping people to recover from homelessness and problems so they can get back on their feet again. An understanding of the importance of investing in youth is absolutely necessary. For every dollar funded for social support and employment, $10 returns to the city economy. Investing and including the youth benefits all stakeholders within the city.

Credit: youthprojects.org.au

Alma Park

Located Southeast of downtown Melbourne rests a 41-acre open space with sports fields, picnic areas, playgrounds, and open lawn. Alma Park is one of the most used park spaces in Melbourne and is very child and family-friendly. Alma Park is bordered by Alma Road, Westbury Street and Dandenong Road in St Kilda East. The park is split into East and West sections by the Sandringham train line. The park has open access from each street frontage. With multiple modes of transportation nearby including a tram, train, and free parking there are plenty of options for getting to the park.

Within the park consists of many features from attractions to facilities. Restrooms with accessible toilets, playground with junior and senior play areas, BBQ’s, picnic tables including longer tables for group gatherings, bench seats, drinking fountain, perimeter paths for walking, jogging and cycling, a large grassed reserve, wetland area, mature established shade trees and public artworks. Alma Park West is a designated dog off-leash area and Alma park East is a dog off-leash area only north of the sports oval.

In Alma Park, there are two separate play areas, the junior and senior playground. In the junior playground there is a two-story castle with slides, crawl tunnel and tubes, as well as multiple wood carved animals such as a kangaroo, wombat, and potteroo. In the senior playground, there are unique tree houses with climbing nets and play structures resembling imaginary creatures known as the ‘slug’ with climbing stairs and slides, flying fox (or zip line for us Americans) that is open every day, a sandbox with equipment like a seesaw, swings and a roundabout.

Credit: portphillip.vic.gov.au

Children’s Garden at Royal Botanic Gardens South Yarra

The Children’s Garden is a great place for kids who love getting their hands muddy to go. There is a Ruin Garden, Meeting Place with water features, a Wetland Area, Bamboo Forest, Gorge, Plant Tunnel, Kitchen Garden, and Rill (a quiet waterway running through the garden).

The Children’s Garden is an interactive educational environment in which children of all ages, backgrounds, physical abilities and cultures can play, explore and discover the natural world. It features plants, water, structures and pathways that reflect Melbourne’s changing seasons. The Children’s Garden is an interactive tool for environmental education and conservation made to intrigue teach and excite children from a young age. The garden was scaled with the very young in mind to create a sense of ownership and responsibility for the environment. The garden proudly is accessible for all.

Credit: www.rbg.vic.gov.au

The role of Co-creation 

The role of co-creation is what it simply means to create together. A way to develop cities and designs where the individuals who use the space or product are part of the design thinking process. It is inclusive design.  An approach where the youth of the city actively takes part in the design making of a site or a project where they are able to relay their views so that their voices are heard and also it becomes a design which people of all ages can enjoy. Projects and concepts like this help children in team work, design understanding, creative thinking, practical thinking.

Growing up Boulder

“Growing Up Boulder’s vision is to make Boulder an exemplary child- and youth-friendly city.   Growing Up Boulder’s mission is to empower Boulder’s young people with opportunities for inclusion, influence, and deliberation on local issues that affect their lives.”- growingupboulder.org 

Goals of organization:

1.  Ensure meaningful opportunities for young people’s participation in Boulder decision-making.
2.  Make Boulder a more inclusive place for children and youth of all income levels, ethnicities ​and abilities.
3.  Give GUB partners a voice in setting the direction of GUB projects.
4.  Disseminate lessons learned from GUB to the community (Boulder-at-large, youth, academics, ​GUB partners, other child-friendly city communities).

PROJECTS:

Boulder’s redesigned civic area

In the year of 2012 Boulder’s civic area was part of a major re development by the City of Boulder. This area which is in the south of the city includes the main public library, public buildings of the municipality, museums, central park and green way. Fall of 2014 GUP worked alongside children and youth to come up with a re design for the Civic Area.

–  60 3rd graders at Whittier International Elementary School
– 18 10th graders in a Boulder High School Advancement via Individual Determinism (AVID) Class
– 21 Casey Middle School students in an applied science elective
– GUB staff, interns, graduate students, and visiting graduate students

 Valmont City Park

In the year of 2008 a concept plan was developed for the Valmont City Park.  GUP took part in this process where they brought middle school and high school youth from YMCA’s University Hill, Crestview Elementary programs and the Youth Services Initiative (YSI) to come up with ideas for the project.

YMCA youth envisioning a new park; Photo Stephen Cardinale

“Data was gathered using different methods with each group. YMCA children were engaged with a Co-design activity during a field-trip to the site, where they created drawings of playgrounds in an imaginary newly developed park. YSI activities took place using photovoice during a field-trip to the site, and using a visual preference survey at the YSI meeting space at Salberg Park facilities. Parents of participating youth were interviewed at an informal social gathering for Dia de los Niños at the Manhattan housing site. Although responses varied between and within each group, two major themes that were present and highly prevalent for all three groups were nature and play, while two other themes, transport and food were mostly a concern of the older groups of youth and parents.”- Growing up boulder 

​

11th Street Corridor, Hill redevelopment project

Photo by Erika Chavarria

In fall of 2017, fourth grade students from  Flatirons elementary in the 11th street corridor, Hill redevelopment project where the students developed creative ideas to make the 11th street corridor a safe space and for all kinds of ages. Students went through a eight week process involving site analysis, precedent projects and presentation to the city. This project gave the city a better insight towards how to design or make a space which are child friendly, safe and can used by people of any age group.

Common themes that came up with the students were :

• Beautification of Space
• Interactive Activities and Art
• Safety for Children and Families
• Environmental Consciousness
• Pedestrian friendly Spaces

Welcoming Children Into The City 

Denmark population: 5.8 million people

Growth: .7%

Copenhagen population: 770,000 people.

Growth: 1.22%

Fun Facts:

• 40% of people cycle daily in Denmark. Streets and bike paths are separated by either a lane of parked cars or a change in elevation. Some bike paths are up to 3 lanes for maximum efficiency due to high traffic.
• Denmark has 7,314 miles of coastline, that is longer than the great wall of china.
• Denmark is often ranked as the happiest place in the world for the standards of health, warfare, and education.

“The Rope Forest” Interactive Art Display  

Close your eyes. Now image a space where all you can see is white hanging ropes hanging from a tall ceiling. In fact, 3,500 worth of ropes hanging from what seems to be the sky. Feel the breeze move through space and visualize the sway of the ropes, your environment, as if you are in a whole nother virtual reality. An art installation like this that is so simple can become so powerful and interesting to people of all ages, kids especially. Here kids can swing rope to rope or try to climb up as high as they can. Essentially, this art installation is also a playground for the adventurous.

A competition by the city was started for temporary art installations with the purpose of bringing people to abandoned and forgotten places within the city. Through art, we can recreate a feeling of a place, redefining the original purpose of a place, find a connection or meaning. This interactive art display was designed on an abandoned free-standing, square metal porch which, once used to shelter trucks in an unloading area for a factory. A really tall metal ceiling and support pillars are what consists of the site originally. Lights from the ceiling light up the shelter at night. With the right eye, a location like this became a hot spot in the community for people of all ages to enjoy the odd nature of art in an abandoned location.

About “The Rope Forest” 

Havneparken Public Park 

Looking for a nice cooling dipper for a fun family activity during the hot summer months while you are in good ol’ Copenhagen? Well, do I have the place for you! Havenparken park is designed for kids of all ages as well as adults looking to soak up some sun. This park is directly on the waterfront of Copenhagen and consists of 5 pools, 2 of which are designed for young children. The shallowest pool is 30cm deep so even the little ones can feel included at this park. The diving area is also very popular. diving areas very at 1 meter, 3 meters, or 5 meters high for the teenagers or adults that are feeling a little on the wild side. Do not fear, there is always at least one lifeguard on duty and daily water quality checks for the safety of the guests. Feeling like you may just want to soak up some sun and lay in the grass? You betcha pal. Right across the water park, there is a large open green space made for doing just that. Bring some friends and family and simply enjoy a beautiful day in the great outdoors.

Havneparken is a very creative way to utilize and access the water’s edge. Humans are naturally drawn to the water. Creating this park where we can touch, play and interact with the water’s edge in the city is innovative in our natural resources with a little touch of playful design. Money moves right there ladies and gentlemen.

About Havneparken Park

Kids’ City 

Have you ever head the phrase “live, work, play?” Live, work, play is a perfect way to describe Kids’ City. Kids’ city is…well… a city for kids, easy as that. Every aspect is designed around children. From the unique playful architecture, landscape design, and simple scaled-down design details, the city was made to make children feel comfortable within the space.

Kids’ City is primarily a childcare facility. It is made up of several existing daycare facilities along with some new additions. The main focus was to create more of an environment of various buildings for children rather than just one singular building.  Kids’ City also includes a fire station, stadium, museum, factory, city hall, neighborhoods, houses, and public spaces. The whole city is designed around a human-centric design perspective. No cars can drive or park within the city, only on the outskirts to access the homes, fire station, and parking. This human-centric design is also found throughout Copenhagen.  It really is unique to see how a city can evolve without the main focus being vehicles. When it comes it children, cars can be a real threat. In fact, it is the leading cause of death with an average of 11 children a week dying due to car accidents. One very important aspect of a child’s life is exploration and a feeling of safety. Children want to be able to go outside and run around like a wild animal, not having any cares in the world. To discover what it feels like to be alive. One of the most beautiful things about children is that they see everything for the very first time with such interest and appreciation. Simple things in life that we see every day we become blind to its beauty. Kids’ City creates an environment made to learn, explore, and live with safety being a key aspect.

Kids’ City Webpage

SOS Children’s Villages

Originally founded in 1949 to help out abandoned children after World War 2, now has become a very large organization in 134 countries, including Denmark, around the world and helping around 80,000 children. Today there are around 2,000 children facilities worldwide. Women around the world are devoting there lives to be an SOS Mother, raising a generation of children, providing every child with everything they can. To be an SOS mother you need to go 2 years of training monitored by childcare professionals and social workers. Each family is given free room and board, a household allowance and a salary. 10-15 houses make up an SOS village creating a community environment. Each village has a nursery school, primary school, medical center, and a social center. Children that are alone, abandoned or orphaned can find shelter through the SOS children’s village. Here they are provided food, education, clothing, and a loving family.

Denmark promotes the goals and activities of the organization, raises funding from sponsorships and provides donations for projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Ride For SOS is a fundraising event for people of all ages. Hop on your bicycle, cheer on the roadside, or make a donation for an event that can change a child’s future.

SOS Children’s Villages Webpage

#NoChildAlone #iseeyou #soschildrensvillages

What makes Incheon, Korea a great child friendly city?

Incheon, Korea is a great example of a child friendly city for many reasons. First of all they take value in education and they want every kid to have the opportunity to go to school and hopefully decrease the poverty rates. They are always trying to find innovative ways to include kids and use the information that they get to improve their city to make it more inclusive for them. South Korea as a country was one of the original pilot studies for UNICEF because of how much they value their children. They are thought as being the future of Korea and want them to have a strong development.

Projects for helping children and their safety

The city starting in 2015 initiated a project called Safe Nuri (Safe World). This project was created to support children in need who did not have a safe living environment. Chevron has been developing ways to promote safety for kids when they are on the street and not at home. They help train the kids to use safety tools and where to go to find help in certain scenarios. It was a huge success from the start and continues to this day.

Incheon, Korea is considered one of the safest cities in the world. The crime in the city is not seen often, and to add to that, they say that generally if you accidentally leave your phone on a table, nobody will take it. Now that is saying a lot about children in the city too. There are many security cameras facing all directions that the city specifically did to slow down crime rates (you are always being watched).

Sustainable development Project

There has been a great movement for Korea to have more affordable housing though out the county and Incheon is trying to follow through with that. The goal was to have this done in the year 2030, but they still have a long way to go to fulfill that. This will provide homes for younger family to start their lives and in time, hopefully grow the population of the city. The Government is more focused right now towards LGBT rights and what they can do to help with the changes, so this is kind of on stand-by right now. This is also going to create more jobs for the city and more opportunities to grow with children. One of their main goals is to design it in a way that the future will be safe in these neighborhoods without much gentrification. Korea values anyone’s background and is open to trying new things.

Using urban design to improve road safety

The problem with urban roads is that they are generally very unsafe and scary sometimes especially for kids. Kids use streets in multiple ways, walking, biking, playing and traveling in cars. But the problem is that they are very vulnerable because they are hard to see. It is very important to make sure vehicles can see children and it is very big problem to address because slowing down doesn’t help all the time. Incheon continues a project that started in Seoul that cut traffic deaths by 95 percent between the years 1988 (1,766 deaths), to only 83 in 2012. The reason why this was so successful was because they created safe routes just for kids that directed them straight to and from school. They established a school zone area to the slow down cars and make them more away of their surroundings. A city designed for children must be safe for them too, and that’s what they are focusing on. Plus, the car accidents dropped by 32 percent as well in those areas. This project couldn’t have been done without great leadership and people who agree that this is important because the infrastructure needed to change for this to be built.

The layout of the city

The layout of the city is very similar to that of western Europe. There are many “V” cuts in the roads and everything is fairly easy to get to. The buildings in this area of the city are high rises and buildings now smaller than 6 stories tall. A high concentration of people live is this area and there are many convenient stores and other necessities. The middle of the map has smaller buildings, and the outside ring are all of the high-rises. Children can easily get from one place to another because there are a lot of large gaps between buildings for them to feel safe walking through. In the middle there are many small square shapes apartment and multi-use buildings. The large shapes in the middle are actually a grouping of smaller ones. This area includes, churches, transit, some schools, and grocery stores. In street view from google maps you can see that most of the streets are kept clean and taken care of. This is important for kids living in these communities for them to feel safe. Most of the streets in these dense neighborhoods are one way streets, and are often full of traffic. Kids will have to be careful crossing streets, but the crossing guards and lights help with that. The city is not set up like a grid, so instead the city was designed to have the roads go at different angles (which can be good in some circumstances) because the grid system wasn’t adopted until North America was colonized.

Population of Incheon by age group

The city has a fairly consistent percentage for its age’s population. When looking at children specifically, in 2018, 13.21% of them were 0-14 years of age. This number is relatively the average other than the 25-54-year olds being at a high of 45.5 percent. They are trying to increase their population by 500,000 people, but they are not having the best of luck so far. There total population as of 2018 was 2.9 million people and it is slowly dropping. They are projecting the population in 2030 to be 2.7 million.

What kids like to do In Incheon?

Incheon has a lot of fun, open spaces for kids to enjoy that are very interactive and inclusive for all age groups. Central Park Songdo is the most popular park in Incheon with a lot of open space and climbable play sets. Most of the time you will see kids outside and enjoying the weather while playing. This is also a pedestrian friendly city with walkways and bicycle lanes going throughout most of the city, this creates a safe environment for the kids and provides more protection. The mayor Park Nam-Chun even prefers pedestrians over cars to create a more livable environment. The children’s science museum was a recent project used to help expand the minds of the kids.