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A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

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Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#511
post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was 5 my parents went on holiday abroad for 2 weeks and left me alone at home with 2 dogs. We had great fun after I learnt how to use analogue camera

What did you eat during those two weeks?

I was left with a full fridge and some frozen stuff, a few pizzas I remember

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#512
My experience of growing up in the UK in the late 1970s was heavily influenced by road safety drills, which we had in school from age six or even earlier - see [1] The Green Cross Code.

We also had to pass a cycling proficiency test in order to ride our bikes to school, and had to pass swimming tests in order to get in the deep end of the local pool. Maybe there're aren't many formal safety campaigns any more?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Cross_Code

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless it’s a clearly serious felony like a murder or burglary, you aren’t really getting any information. Good news! The numbers reported in my citation are specifically about: Larceny/Theft, Burglary, Aggraveted Assault, Motor Vehicle Theft, Robbery, Rape, and Murder/Non-Negligent Manslaughter. Every single one of these has drastically decreased since the 90's (90's increased in crime since the 80's but current l…

It’s kinda hilarious that you’re chiding me for not reading the link when you didn’t read the comment. Those are index felonies, and have nothing to do with walking to school. Quality of life crime, non-criminal bad behavior, sidewalks, and traffic hazards all have more impact and aren’t measured in a uniform way. In fact, I’d argue that there’s an increase in petty street crime as policy has changed and we no longer…

I'm sorry, it's difficult to take your responses in good faith. You first start by saying that you can only meaningfully measure violent crimes and burglary, which I pointed out were the measurements in the citation. Now you say that those don't matter and that petty crime has increased based on gut feelings. But by your own claim that's impossible to measure accurately. You put me in a spot where you've said that no data would be convincing to you. I think that's the end of this conversation then.

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> For another... your 12 year olds can handle seeing homeless people. I promise you. Did you miss the part where he said people are passed out, possibly dead, on the sidewalk? I remember going into a Walgreens in Boston and walking out 15 minutes later to a body being put into an ambulance. A few hours later I got on a plane to the UK, made my way to Edinburgh, and was blown away by how clean the city was in comparis…

Yeah. I've been on those sidewalks too. "People are passed out, possibly dead" is...hyperbolic. It's a real issue, I grant you, but there's a looot of hyperbole. It's not that bad, except in a few specific corners across an entire city of 700,000 people. So I disagree with the assessment.

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am usually a supporter of 'free-range kids', but I'd draw the line with Skid Row. Sure, the vast majority of homeless folks may be relatively harmless, but I'd wager that the density of less-than-harmless people is higher in that environment.

Statistically, kids are most likely to be abused and hurt in any imaginable way by people in their social circles, be that family, coaches, youth group leaders, teachers,... I'm not worried about my children seeing a poor drug addict or homeless in the streets. It actually is a great opportunity to talk about what this means, how it can happen and not to be afraid of it. And it can show them to be careful, without su…

> Statistically, kids are most likely to be abused and hurt in any imaginable way by people in their social circles

Sure. But I can't make them social recluses just so they never encounter that high-risk group. That does not mean I need to encourage them seeking out another high-risk group on top of that.

Not wanting your kid to walk alone through Skid Row does not mean you are hiding the issue of homelessness - you can still talk about that at other opportunities.

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#516
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should add that my parents bought me my first bike while we lived in SF. The reason they say we moved to Marin when I started second grade was because my parents had nowhere in The City to teach me how to ride it.

My point wasn’t about seediness or drug use, but about the number of severely mentally ill living on the streets. That has objectively gotten worse since the barriers to commitment went up substantially in the early 1980s and the Reagan dismantling of the national public mental health system and subsequent collapse at the state level. I feel less worried about drug dealers who have a rational economic reason for what…

How is Reagan responsible for decisions made at a state and local level? Mental asylums had already lost their credibility as news of medical abuse was documented in the 60s. O'Connor vs Donaldson had rendered involuntary commitment as a violation of personal liberty. By the time Reagan became President, it was quite clear asylums were little more than medical prisons.

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#517
post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would you send your 5 year old self down the streets of San Francisco or Seattle No. And I would avoid raising my kids there to begin with. Those two cities in particular have done everything within their means to alienate families. I get that some parents believe that exposing their kids to people living in squalor on the street due to mental illness or addiction is an enriching cultural experience, and maybe it i…

Lol. I live in Seattle, with a kid, on a block with tons of kids, in a neighborhood with tons of kids. It's fine. Seriously. It's great, actually. WTF are you talking about.

You’re right, Seattle is much more livable for families. My perspective is from SF, and it adopts similar policies as Seattle (which is why I unfairly lumped the two together) but SF has implemented them with much worse effect. I think it’s partly because SF is more compressed and usually lacks clear boundaries between neighborhoods that are good for families and those that aren’t, with a couple exceptions (e.g. Noe Valley).

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#518
post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The chief difference is that the segment of the media dedicated to keeping people fearful Also, there is the Citizen app. I wonder if it's driving perception more than anything else. When I've talked to people in safe cities who nonetheless were ranting to me about crime, I've asked them if they have Citizen, and very many do. Not strong data, but I would love to see some research.

Citizen is going to get someone killed.

That's part of the goal, in a way. It used to be called Vigilante - no joke - and the goals remain similar.

Look up the Fast Company article describing them.

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I generally agree ... > Most crime is limited to a few states, and really just a few cities in those states, and even more so specific areas within those cities (pareto is fractal in this way). What is that based on? Some tangential data leans in the other direction: The most recent FBI/DoJ report (that I'm aware of) said recent increases in gun crime were spread pretty evenly, urban and rural, across the count…

This is pretty common in pareto distributions. Here's a heat map from 2020 data with state level resolution[0]. You'll notice that crime is in fact not evenly distributed (my claim). Here's a similar map but with county level precision[1]. And here's a heat map for crime in San Francisco[2]. Nothing I've stated is really that controversial and is pretty well known by anyone that looks at crime statistics. I think it…

Thanks for doing all the research. I will keep this tab open and catch up on it later. One comment:

> Nothing I've stated is really that controversial and is pretty well known by anyone that looks at crime statistics. I think it is also relatively easy for the average person to buy because everyone knows where "the bad part of town" is.

'What everyone knows' is not knowledge; that's why we need data, research, etc (which you have amply provided). Look at what BS people 'know' about all sorts of things. IME the 'bad part of town' is usually not so bad, if at all, and it's often conflated with race.

Re: A 4-year-old can run errands alone and not just on reality TV

#520

Not in the US they can't. "officials placed two brothers into foster care after one, 11, was found playing basketball alone in his own yard." He'd gotten home early from school and his parents came 90 minutes later. He was in his own yard. The family lost their children to foster care. Ironically in foster care ACTUAL abuse rates are pretty darn high! "When Cindy and Fred arrived home they were arrested for child neg…

That's a horrible story that resulted in the Maryland CPS issuing the following statement clarifying that what those parents did was not neglect: > And in fact, as Donna St. George reported in yesterday's Washington Post, Maryland's CPS has just issued new guidelines, saying, "Children playing outside or walking unsupervised does not meet the criteria for a CPS response absent specific information supporting the conc…

I think I was referring to a very similar but different florida case:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/parents-under-investigation-after...

There are actually a surprising amount of these.

I sort of understand that someone might call something in.

My issues is the govt, arresting, strip searching parents, take away a young child from them and putting them in foster care, getting folks fired.

What are they trying to accomplish here. There is insane abuse IN the foster care system. What is the great harm to an 11 year old child playing outside in their own yard that requires this govt response.

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