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'That's their future': Elementary students consulted to help City of Spokane with urban planning project

'That's their future': Elementary students consulted to help City of Spokane with urban planning project

Yahooa day ago

Jun. 9—Francis Scott Elementary's fifth-grade class peered through the chain-link fence surrounding their playground Monday to get a closer look at the lot just a block north of the school.
Students spouted lofty ideas for what could fit in the plot of dead grass: An indoor swimming pool. A gaga ball court. A gaming center featuring retro video games.
They retreated from the glaring mid-day sun to the school's colorful library to begin cycling through stations involving Minecraft, Legos and the urban design platform Streetmix, creatively reimagining their schoolyard and the area surrounding it.
This student workshop is the result of a collaboration between The City of Spokane Planning Team and Spokane Public Schools aimed at engaging students about community needs.
Leading the session was Carlos Felipe Pardo, a mobility and urban transport policy consultant who has worked on projects with the United Nations and the World Bank.
Having previously redesigned his hometown in Colombia using a video game, he enlisted his son, whom he refers to as "a genius in Minecraft," to help him understand the game. Then, he helped develop a two-day curriculum for inspiring children to care about infrastructure.
"Our role is to just create the spark and systematize everything that we come up with," Pardo said. "We're going to show it to everybody and say, 'This is what children would like to see there.'"
The event is part of the Smart Growth America Community Connectors Program, a national initiative helping small- and mid-sized cities restore communities impacted by divisive infrastructure.
"The classic example is federal highways that divide communities," said Justyn Huckleberry, a projects and research associate at the New Urban Mobility Alliance, a partner of the program. "And so I-90 is an example."
Though Interstate 90 stimulated the growth of industry and connected towns to Spokane, its construction came at the cost of community in the East Central nneighborhood. The historically diverse and working-class neighborhood was cut in half by the freeway, displacing residents and forcing small businesses to close as traffic redirected drivers away from their neighborhood.
Frances Scott Elementary, which is located less than 500 feet from the freeway, is just one part of the community still affected by the construction.
Eleven-year-old Juanita Geary has big ideas of what could fill the empty lot by the school.
"Probably a mall or a homeless shelter," Juanita said.
Sketching a map of the school in blue pen, she also envisioned larger sidewalks with fewer bumps for better accessibility for people in wheelchairs.
Charity Resian from The Carl Maxey Center attended Monday's session to facilitate the students' street designs on Streetmix and hear the ideas they have for their school.
As a part of the community connectors program, she immerses herself in the East Central neighborhood to ensure community members' needs are listened to and voiced.
A key part of reviving community is educating children, which is why events like these are crucial, she said.
"It's important that they know that they are included from a very young age, that their voices matter," she said. "And so such an activity is very, very important, and it's very powerful in a way of ensuring that these young kids grow knowing that they are part of this community."
Maren Murphy, a principal planner with the city's Planning & Economic Development Department involved with the project, suggested that the students' active imaginations will drum up ideas adults did not consider.
"The idea of bringing children, youth into planning is something that we are exploring and trying to do more of to think about the future," she said. "That's their future, and giving them a bit of say in their future is a really important part of what we want to do with planning."

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'That's their future': Elementary students consulted to help City of Spokane with urban planning project
'That's their future': Elementary students consulted to help City of Spokane with urban planning project

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

'That's their future': Elementary students consulted to help City of Spokane with urban planning project

Jun. 9—Francis Scott Elementary's fifth-grade class peered through the chain-link fence surrounding their playground Monday to get a closer look at the lot just a block north of the school. Students spouted lofty ideas for what could fit in the plot of dead grass: An indoor swimming pool. A gaga ball court. A gaming center featuring retro video games. They retreated from the glaring mid-day sun to the school's colorful library to begin cycling through stations involving Minecraft, Legos and the urban design platform Streetmix, creatively reimagining their schoolyard and the area surrounding it. This student workshop is the result of a collaboration between The City of Spokane Planning Team and Spokane Public Schools aimed at engaging students about community needs. Leading the session was Carlos Felipe Pardo, a mobility and urban transport policy consultant who has worked on projects with the United Nations and the World Bank. Having previously redesigned his hometown in Colombia using a video game, he enlisted his son, whom he refers to as "a genius in Minecraft," to help him understand the game. Then, he helped develop a two-day curriculum for inspiring children to care about infrastructure. "Our role is to just create the spark and systematize everything that we come up with," Pardo said. "We're going to show it to everybody and say, 'This is what children would like to see there.'" The event is part of the Smart Growth America Community Connectors Program, a national initiative helping small- and mid-sized cities restore communities impacted by divisive infrastructure. "The classic example is federal highways that divide communities," said Justyn Huckleberry, a projects and research associate at the New Urban Mobility Alliance, a partner of the program. "And so I-90 is an example." Though Interstate 90 stimulated the growth of industry and connected towns to Spokane, its construction came at the cost of community in the East Central nneighborhood. The historically diverse and working-class neighborhood was cut in half by the freeway, displacing residents and forcing small businesses to close as traffic redirected drivers away from their neighborhood. Frances Scott Elementary, which is located less than 500 feet from the freeway, is just one part of the community still affected by the construction. Eleven-year-old Juanita Geary has big ideas of what could fill the empty lot by the school. "Probably a mall or a homeless shelter," Juanita said. Sketching a map of the school in blue pen, she also envisioned larger sidewalks with fewer bumps for better accessibility for people in wheelchairs. Charity Resian from The Carl Maxey Center attended Monday's session to facilitate the students' street designs on Streetmix and hear the ideas they have for their school. As a part of the community connectors program, she immerses herself in the East Central neighborhood to ensure community members' needs are listened to and voiced. A key part of reviving community is educating children, which is why events like these are crucial, she said. "It's important that they know that they are included from a very young age, that their voices matter," she said. "And so such an activity is very, very important, and it's very powerful in a way of ensuring that these young kids grow knowing that they are part of this community." Maren Murphy, a principal planner with the city's Planning & Economic Development Department involved with the project, suggested that the students' active imaginations will drum up ideas adults did not consider. "The idea of bringing children, youth into planning is something that we are exploring and trying to do more of to think about the future," she said. "That's their future, and giving them a bit of say in their future is a really important part of what we want to do with planning."

I'm a mom of 4, and there's no winning in parenting. People complain if kids are playing outside or if they're looking at screens.
I'm a mom of 4, and there's no winning in parenting. People complain if kids are playing outside or if they're looking at screens.

Yahoo

time3 days ago

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I'm a mom of 4, and there's no winning in parenting. People complain if kids are playing outside or if they're looking at screens.

I'm a mom of four, and screens are integral to our lives. When the weather is nice, my kids naturally migrate outdoors, and we hike and swim. I see older people complaining about kids being on screens and also about kids being in public spaces. As a family that has chosen to embrace technology and raise tech-savvy kids, screens are an integral part of our everyday family life. From the Skylight calendar in our kitchen that helps me manage the schedules of four busy kids to the smartphones my adolescents now possess, we see how technology improves our lives. We are just as apt to spend an afternoon working on the family Minecraft world as we are to play a board game (though we love those too). However, as soon as the weather breaks, my kids naturally migrate outdoors. We love to bike, hike, swim, and camp — and warmer temps typically mean my kids naturally reduce screen time. Recently, though, I have been frustrated by the mixed messages society sends us moms. Like most nosy neighbors, I am in all of our community's local groups. I see posts by older generations bemoaning the techy life my kids are living. "Get them off of screens and outdoors!" they lament. But the second the weather breaks, those posts shift from screeds against screens to rants about children playing in public spaces. We live in a walkable, safe community where our adolescents enjoy freedom. Since toddlerhood, we've taught our children how to cross a road, pay at stores and restaurants, and be respectful of others in our community—from picking up their trash to not trampling someone's flowers. The freedom our kids now have was earned. In addition, our town feels like the type of place older relatives reminisce about. My kids literally know to bike home when the street lights come on, like in a 1950s sitcom. That's why I am surprised so many adults seem uncomfortable with kids on the loose. In general, I am not concerned about my kids' safety in our tiny Pittsburgh borough, but I am worried about others' judgment. I worry more about someone reporting my kids to the authorities when they are exercising the freedom we've given them than about anything bad befalling them. I worry that when I send my 13-year-old off on his bike to head to Boy Scouts, someone will criticize me for not biking with him (or driving him). I worry that my 11-year-old twins will receive a noise complaint while playing basketball in the alley until sunset with neighbor kids, because it has already happened once. I was nearby, just on the other side of a fence, and heard nothing but the joyous laughter of happy kids on a summer evening. I am still unsure why that was so bothersome to some anonymous neighbor. Still, I imagine them furiously typing up a Nextdoor post about how they never see kids playing outdoors anymore. It feels both ironic and cruel. It's a common refrain: Today's kids are too lazy, too entitled, and don't want to work. At the same time, when my kids go door-to-door asking to shovel walks for a few bucks, people are scared to open their door. I worry that someone will reprimand me for sending my child to pick up milk at the corner store so I can finish cooking dinner. It feels like an impossible tightrope. How are we parents supposed to raise independent kids in a world that decries our attempts? How can we get them off the screens and outside to play while somehow keeping them endlessly in our sight? To those not currently parenting, I only ask for one thing: grace. Grace to raise these little humans as best we can in a rapidly changing world. Grace to raise up adults who appreciate a lazy gaming day just as much as they appreciate a good day of yard work. Grace that you were given in a world that was smaller and more insular — and yet really not that different from the neighborhood my kids are learning to be adults in. Read the original article on Business Insider

I'm a mom of 4, and there's no winning in parenting. People complain if kids are playing outside or if they're looking at screens.
I'm a mom of 4, and there's no winning in parenting. People complain if kids are playing outside or if they're looking at screens.

Business Insider

time3 days ago

  • Business Insider

I'm a mom of 4, and there's no winning in parenting. People complain if kids are playing outside or if they're looking at screens.

I'm a mom of four, and screens are integral to our lives. When the weather is nice, my kids naturally migrate outdoors, and we hike and swim. I see older people complaining about kids being on screens and also about kids being in public spaces. As a family that has chosen to embrace technology and raise tech-savvy kids, screens are an integral part of our everyday family life. From the Skylight calendar in our kitchen that helps me manage the schedules of four busy kids to the smartphones my adolescents now possess, we see how technology improves our lives. We are just as apt to spend an afternoon working on the family Minecraft world as we are to play a board game (though we love those too). However, as soon as the weather breaks, my kids naturally migrate outdoors. We love to bike, hike, swim, and camp — and warmer temps typically mean my kids naturally reduce screen time. Recently, though, I have been frustrated by the mixed messages society sends us moms. Like most nosy neighbors, I am in all of our community's local groups. I see posts by older generations bemoaning the techy life my kids are living. " Get them off of screens and outdoors!" they lament. But the second the weather breaks, those posts shift from screeds against screens to rants about children playing in public spaces. The freedom my kids have has been earned We live in a walkable, safe community where our adolescents enjoy freedom. Since toddlerhood, we've taught our children how to cross a road, pay at stores and restaurants, and be respectful of others in our community—from picking up their trash to not trampling someone's flowers. The freedom our kids now have was earned. In addition, our town feels like the type of place older relatives reminisce about. My kids literally know to bike home when the street lights come on, like in a 1950s sitcom. That's why I am surprised so many adults seem uncomfortable with kids on the loose. In general, I am not concerned about my kids' safety in our tiny Pittsburgh borough, but I am worried about others' judgment. I worry more about someone reporting my kids to the authorities when they are exercising the freedom we've given them than about anything bad befalling them. I worry about what other people are going to say or do if they are out alone I worry that when I send my 13-year-old off on his bike to head to Boy Scouts, someone will criticize me for not biking with him (or driving him). I worry that my 11-year-old twins will receive a noise complaint while playing basketball in the alley until sunset with neighbor kids, because it has already happened once. I was nearby, just on the other side of a fence, and heard nothing but the joyous laughter of happy kids on a summer evening. I am still unsure why that was so bothersome to some anonymous neighbor. Still, I imagine them furiously typing up a Nextdoor post about how they never see kids playing outdoors anymore. It feels both ironic and cruel. I feel like I'm on an impossible tightrope It's a common refrain: Today's kids are too lazy, too entitled, and don't want to work. At the same time, when my kids go door-to-door asking to shovel walks for a few bucks, people are scared to open their door. I worry that someone will reprimand me for sending my child to pick up milk at the corner store so I can finish cooking dinner. It feels like an impossible tightrope. How are we parents supposed to raise independent kids in a world that decries our attempts? How can we get them off the screens and outside to play while somehow keeping them endlessly in our sight? To those not currently parenting, I only ask for one thing: grace. Grace to raise these little humans as best we can in a rapidly changing world. Grace to raise up adults who appreciate a lazy gaming day just as much as they appreciate a good day of yard work. Grace that you were given in a world that was smaller and more insular — and yet really not that different from the neighborhood my kids are learning to be adults in.

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