5 ms·

I moved to NYC with my 4 young kids. NYC is a great place for kids as long as you can afford the rent. We sold our cars, get most of what we need delivered, and

by pesenti 10y ago

I moved to NYC with my 4 young kids. NYC is a great place for kids as long as you can afford the rent. We sold our cars, get most of what we need delivered, and walk or bike pretty much everywhere. All the kids activities are at walking distance and my oldest who is 12 is completely independent. I have no idea why people think that cities are bad for kids (apart from the cost of lodging).

rodgerd 10y ago
I don't live anywhere as dense and NYC, but I'd echo the sentiment. I live on the city fringe, and the ability to easily get to music, dance, language lessons, galleries, playgrounds, and so on are all invaluable to me and the kids. Pretty much anything they want to do (other than "have a pony") is much easier in the city that it would be in an outlying suburb. And when they get into their teens, I'll be a lot happier with them having good options for buses, trains and so on.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
wizardforhire 10y ago
Fellow New Yorker here. New York's a great town if you're not racist and only slightly classist. Let's not forget why suburbs became popular in the first place. cough cough https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight
- rtehfm 10y ago
  That's hardly why suburbs became popular across the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suburb#Origins_of_the_modern_suburb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suburb#Origins_of_the_modern_s...
  - wizardforhire 10y ago
    Fwiw from the article you just posted. "A greater percentage of whites and lesser percentage of citizens of other ethnic groups than in urban areas. However, Black suburbanization grew between 1970 and 1980 by 2.6% as a result of central city neighborhoods expanding into older neighborhoods vacated by whites.[27][28][29]" "The English word is derived from the Old French subburbe, which is in turn derived from the Latin suburbium, formed from sub (meaning "under" or "below") and urbs ("city"). The first recorded usage of the term in English, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was made by John Wycliffe in 1380, where the form subarbis was used." Generally in the west, being below something is a sign of weekness or inferiority. Traditionally only poor/ surfs/ peasants/ redneck country folk / barbarians (which has a great etymology btw), lived outside the city walls... Hence sub urban areas. They developed originally primarily for economic reasons you're right not racist. Or maybe we're taking about two different things with the same name? Because I'm talking about the vast droves of concrete waste in America inhabited by isolated individuals who exist in echo chambers of their own creation and defend them vehemently. #yesallsuburbs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_New_York https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_New_York http://ushistoryscene.com/article/levittown/ http://ushistoryscene.com/article/levittown/
    - emodendroket 10y ago
      If they're "inferior" then it's hard to see them as a fortress for the wealthy to hole themselves up in so I think your argument is self-contradictory.
  - mc32 10y ago
    First off, yes, racism and classism have influenced and continue to influence many things around the world [we can go to South Sudan, for a contemporary example]. Yet, I find it quite interesting that many people ascribe quite a few things they are against (for whatever reason) to racism --but when you look further many of these phenomena also exist in generally homogenous paces, so it's not intrinsically racist, although it's possible racism contributed to some of these phenomena or that racism finds some of the phenomena a useful expression or vehicle. It still does not make the phenomenon intrinsically racist. Occasionally, then some will say, well America exported it with their imperialism, so of course you find it elsewhere --yeah like Russia where they were all out anti-US!
    - wizardforhire 10y ago
      You're absolutely right I mentioned this earlier, but racism and classism have become confounded in America. But it doesn't really matter what we call it, they're all just other names for hate. We humans love to get granular in our definitions and categories. Especially in how specifically we hate other people and for what reasons, as if to justify it... I guess it makes it easier to kill them
  - user5994461 10y ago
    Suburbs are popular? You must be kidding. > "In many parts of the developed world, suburbs can be economically distressed areas, inhabited by higher proportions of recent immigrants, with higher delinquency rates and social problems. Sometimes the notion of suburb may even refer to people in real misery, who are kept at the limit of the city borders for economic, social, and sometimes ethnic reasons. An example in the developed world would be the banlieues of France, or the concrete suburbs of Sweden [...]. Thus some of the suburbs of most of the developed world are comparable to several inner cities of the U.S. and Canada." More seriously. Suburbs may be the trendy area in the English speaking world but that's not the case everywhere else. Watch out when you go to holidays/business trips abroad, there are 'suburbs' you don't wanna end up for your own safety ;)
    - emodendroket 10y ago
      You can pretty much draw a line from English veneration of countryside manors to modern suburbs in the anglophone world and clearly they are quite popular in the US. Calling French banlieues "suburbs" probably obscures more than it clarifies.
- throwaway7312 10y ago
  If you've had the experience of being physically assaulted by random blacks high on drugs, had other random blacks break into your car, and still others accost you at night and ask probing questions designed to test how soft or hard you are as a robbery target (not to mention been pickpocketed by other blacks you tried being nice to), as I have, and you relocate yourself somewhere there are not so many of these people, as my family has, does that make you racist? Genuinely asking, as I'm unclear how this term's defined these days. As far as I'm aware, racism used to be defined as "believing one race is superior to another." However it seems most of its users use it now to mean "protecting oneself from populations with, on average, markedly higher violent crime rates than other populations." You're not supposed to do that - you're supposed to grin and bear it. For diversity. Right?
  - fitchjo 10y ago
    According to Merriam-Webster[1], racism is defined as one of the following: 1. a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2.a. a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles 2.b. a political or social system founded on racism 3. racial prejudice or discrimination As far as your comment you are simply "protecting oneself from populations with, on average, markedly higher violent crime rates than other populations," if that population is defined by race, you are being racist unless there is some newly published study I have yet to hear about that "blacks love crime." [1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism
    - EpicEng 10y ago
      Yeah, except that in reality, socioeconimc conditions are often tied closely to race. That doesn't mean that e.g. blacks are inherently more likely to commit crime than Asians, but certainly blacks are a more impoverished race in general. That leads to higher crime rates, so it's certainly not racist to be more fearful of that group of people in general, it's just a learned behavior and a reflection of reality.
  - 10y ago
crucifiction 10y ago
In most cities you also need to be able to afford private school and the public transportation options are not as dense as NYC. A city like NYC is in a completely different echelon from nearly every other medium/large city in the US.
maxsilver 10y ago
> I have no idea why people think that cities are bad for kids (apart from the cost of lodging). I think the cost of living is that main reason, and can't be overstated enough. Cities are great environments for most people (including kids) -- but cities are already the most expensive places on the planet for living / working / schooling. Trying to house a family there (with the extra stress of daycare costs, educational costs, larger housing needs, etc) just makes it all that much more impossible to afford. If you imagine cost of living as a 100-foot wall around major cities, a single person can just get themselves over and be ok. But for a family, they likely have to scale that same wall 2x, 3x, or 4x times.
EpicEng 10y ago
Bad? I wouldn't say that, but I prefer my big back yard, lower cost of living, and open spaces.

by pesenti 10y ago

rodgerd 10y ago

I don't live anywhere as dense and NYC, but I'd echo the sentiment. I live on the city fringe, and the ability to easily get to music, dance, language lessons, galleries, playgrounds, and so on are all invaluable to me and the kids. Pretty much anything they want to do (other than "have a pony") is much easier in the city that it would be in an outlying suburb. And when they get into their teens, I'll be a lot happier with them having good options for buses, trains and so on.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

wizardforhire 10y ago

Fellow New Yorker here. New York's a great town if you're not racist and only slightly classist. Let's not forget why suburbs became popular in the first place. cough cough https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight

rtehfm 10y ago
That's hardly why suburbs became popular across the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suburb#Origins_of_the_modern_suburb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suburb#Origins_of_the_modern_s...
- wizardforhire 10y ago
  Fwiw from the article you just posted. "A greater percentage of whites and lesser percentage of citizens of other ethnic groups than in urban areas. However, Black suburbanization grew between 1970 and 1980 by 2.6% as a result of central city neighborhoods expanding into older neighborhoods vacated by whites.[27][28][29]" "The English word is derived from the Old French subburbe, which is in turn derived from the Latin suburbium, formed from sub (meaning "under" or "below") and urbs ("city"). The first recorded usage of the term in English, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was made by John Wycliffe in 1380, where the form subarbis was used." Generally in the west, being below something is a sign of weekness or inferiority. Traditionally only poor/ surfs/ peasants/ redneck country folk / barbarians (which has a great etymology btw), lived outside the city walls... Hence sub urban areas. They developed originally primarily for economic reasons you're right not racist. Or maybe we're taking about two different things with the same name? Because I'm talking about the vast droves of concrete waste in America inhabited by isolated individuals who exist in echo chambers of their own creation and defend them vehemently. #yesallsuburbs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_New_York https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown,_New_York http://ushistoryscene.com/article/levittown/ http://ushistoryscene.com/article/levittown/
  - emodendroket 10y ago
    If they're "inferior" then it's hard to see them as a fortress for the wealthy to hole themselves up in so I think your argument is self-contradictory.
- mc32 10y ago
  First off, yes, racism and classism have influenced and continue to influence many things around the world [we can go to South Sudan, for a contemporary example]. Yet, I find it quite interesting that many people ascribe quite a few things they are against (for whatever reason) to racism --but when you look further many of these phenomena also exist in generally homogenous paces, so it's not intrinsically racist, although it's possible racism contributed to some of these phenomena or that racism finds some of the phenomena a useful expression or vehicle. It still does not make the phenomenon intrinsically racist. Occasionally, then some will say, well America exported it with their imperialism, so of course you find it elsewhere --yeah like Russia where they were all out anti-US!
  - wizardforhire 10y ago
    You're absolutely right I mentioned this earlier, but racism and classism have become confounded in America. But it doesn't really matter what we call it, they're all just other names for hate. We humans love to get granular in our definitions and categories. Especially in how specifically we hate other people and for what reasons, as if to justify it... I guess it makes it easier to kill them
- user5994461 10y ago
  Suburbs are popular? You must be kidding. > "In many parts of the developed world, suburbs can be economically distressed areas, inhabited by higher proportions of recent immigrants, with higher delinquency rates and social problems. Sometimes the notion of suburb may even refer to people in real misery, who are kept at the limit of the city borders for economic, social, and sometimes ethnic reasons. An example in the developed world would be the banlieues of France, or the concrete suburbs of Sweden [...]. Thus some of the suburbs of most of the developed world are comparable to several inner cities of the U.S. and Canada." More seriously. Suburbs may be the trendy area in the English speaking world but that's not the case everywhere else. Watch out when you go to holidays/business trips abroad, there are 'suburbs' you don't wanna end up for your own safety ;)
  - emodendroket 10y ago
    You can pretty much draw a line from English veneration of countryside manors to modern suburbs in the anglophone world and clearly they are quite popular in the US. Calling French banlieues "suburbs" probably obscures more than it clarifies.
throwaway7312 10y ago
If you've had the experience of being physically assaulted by random blacks high on drugs, had other random blacks break into your car, and still others accost you at night and ask probing questions designed to test how soft or hard you are as a robbery target (not to mention been pickpocketed by other blacks you tried being nice to), as I have, and you relocate yourself somewhere there are not so many of these people, as my family has, does that make you racist? Genuinely asking, as I'm unclear how this term's defined these days. As far as I'm aware, racism used to be defined as "believing one race is superior to another." However it seems most of its users use it now to mean "protecting oneself from populations with, on average, markedly higher violent crime rates than other populations." You're not supposed to do that - you're supposed to grin and bear it. For diversity. Right?
- fitchjo 10y ago
  According to Merriam-Webster[1], racism is defined as one of the following: 1. a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2.a. a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles 2.b. a political or social system founded on racism 3. racial prejudice or discrimination As far as your comment you are simply "protecting oneself from populations with, on average, markedly higher violent crime rates than other populations," if that population is defined by race, you are being racist unless there is some newly published study I have yet to hear about that "blacks love crime." [1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism
  - EpicEng 10y ago
    Yeah, except that in reality, socioeconimc conditions are often tied closely to race. That doesn't mean that e.g. blacks are inherently more likely to commit crime than Asians, but certainly blacks are a more impoverished race in general. That leads to higher crime rates, so it's certainly not racist to be more fearful of that group of people in general, it's just a learned behavior and a reflection of reality.
- 10y ago

crucifiction 10y ago

In most cities you also need to be able to afford private school and the public transportation options are not as dense as NYC. A city like NYC is in a completely different echelon from nearly every other medium/large city in the US.

maxsilver 10y ago

> I have no idea why people think that cities are bad for kids (apart from the cost of lodging). I think the cost of living is that main reason, and can't be overstated enough. Cities are great environments for most people (including kids) -- but cities are already the most expensive places on the planet for living / working / schooling. Trying to house a family there (with the extra stress of daycare costs, educational costs, larger housing needs, etc) just makes it all that much more impossible to afford. If you imagine cost of living as a 100-foot wall around major cities, a single person can just get themselves over and be ok. But for a family, they likely have to scale that same wall 2x, 3x, or 4x times.

EpicEng 10y ago

Bad? I wouldn't say that, but I prefer my big back yard, lower cost of living, and open spaces.