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Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

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Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#141

Post by analog31 »

ndriscoll wrote: post #61
lmm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem there is college. You'd have to either make college admissions much less "holistic", or make sure there are non-college paths to success (something people have been trying hard for many years with little success), or both.

Or just go to a state school. My alma mater apparently has an 87% acceptance rate. My extracurriculars were playing Counter Strike, Battlefield 2, and WoWcrack. It doesn't seem to have had any negative effect on my life.

Both of my kids did just fine at state schools. One at the state "flagship" university, and the other at one of the regional schools.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#142

Post by blendo »

“Social scientists have shown — for as long as we have been collecting data — that conservatives have better mental health than liberals, and religious people have better mental health than their secular peers.”

My gut tells me social scientists have “shown” no such thing, but am open to hearing the case.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#143

Post by throwaway2037 »

alfalfasprout wrote: post #32
bedobi wrote: post #29

The design of the physical environment is in no small part responsible for this. Don't believe me go to Europe and Japan where kids are still allowed to walk and bike to school, to friends places and just in general play and exist outside unattended to a much higher degree than in the US. Because in the US they would be roadkill, and even if they somehow survived outside of a car, car centric design means there's now…

You're also putting Europe on a pedestal. In many urban areas (where the majority of the population lives) it's no longer safe for kids to walk + bike to school freely. Not necessarily because of cars but significant crime.

    > Not necessarily because of cars but significant crime.
I love these HN comments -- so incredibly vague. Can you be more specific about which cities? I find it hard to believe. Crime has fallen like a stone in the last 30 years in highly developed countries and their biggest cities.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#144

Post by burnished »

dyauspitr wrote: post #109
wincy wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My daughter has been playing outside since she was 4 years old, unsupervised. She's 9 now. A lot of the other neighborhood kids have followed suit (I really suspect our "benign neglect" made the other parents thing "well if nothing bad happened to her our kids will be fine" and we have about 8-10 kids around the same age on the block that are constantly going to each other's houses and hanging out doing whatever it i…

9pm and you don’t know where your 9 year old is? That going too far in the other direction in my opinion. How is she doing academically? I feel like that much freedom, that early, makes it easy to pick up bad habits with the “bad” kids.

This one might have a regional element to it based on how late the days are. For example where I'm at it won't quite be sunset at 9pm, and each phase of twilight will have around an hour to itself. Around now would be about an appropriate time for a young person to make their way home so they get back before dark. In comparison it looks like Houston will be about halfway through nautical twilight and basically be completely dark by 9pm (nautical twilight ends at 920 there).

So yeah, your gauge of what 9pm means might not be accurate for the situation! I doubt you were imagining 9pm being bright and an hour or two before its too dark for a young person to be out riding a bike, but that could well be the case

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#145

Post by bee_rider »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #120
Foreignborn wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're saying doesn't hold up. Japan: > Road fatalities per 100 000 population: 2.6 USA: > Road fatalities per 100 000 population: 13.8 [0] https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/japan-road-safe... [1] https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/historical-fatalit...

That’s because they’re still far better drivers than us.

I’ve only really driven much in the Northeastern US and the Portland, OR area. The Portland drivers were much less aggressive and also much scarier. There just isn’t a tradition of moving with intention out there. They drift aimlessly about, sliding thoughtlessly through your blind spot. It is maddening.

You can see it in the stats too,

https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/state...

Places like MA and NY are, I think, known for their rude drivers but the fatalities per distance: anomalously low.

My theory is that Japanese drivers are our brothers in attentive, intentional driving.

An alternative theory is that population dense areas like cities promote aggressive driving, but also tend to host slower-speed collisions just by virtue of all the traffic. However, this seems unlikely, because it is far too simple and straightforward. Also wouldn’t justify a great long ramble about the superiority of my local driving culture, so I can’t bear for it to be true.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#146

Post by denkmoon »

admax88qqq wrote: post #131
kjkjadksj wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People had no choice. When they come out with a new generation of car model they stop producing the old.

There’s also still the insane 25% tariff on light trucks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax Which makes importing smaller trucks like you see in other countries cost prohibitive

Only the most frugal and businesses are thinking about that tariff. Ads for these excessively large "utility" vehicles (which have sacrificed bed size for cabin comfort and are often not 4WD) are very indicative. They don't talk about price (and when they do, it's focused on credit terms rather than the capital cost). They talk about power, lifestyle, and giving the perception of masculinity. That is why people buy these vehicles, and that is the mindset that drives their size.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#147

Post by TheBlight »

thepasswordis wrote: post #119
bedobi wrote: post #29

The design of the physical environment is in no small part responsible for this. Don't believe me go to Europe and Japan where kids are still allowed to walk and bike to school, to friends places and just in general play and exist outside unattended to a much higher degree than in the US. Because in the US they would be roadkill, and even if they somehow survived outside of a car, car centric design means there's now…

The physical environment from my childhood was substantially “worse” than what exists now. I don’t remember really ever going to a park, and the playgrounds that existed were full of [fun] death traps. When I got older and rode my bike everywhere there was not a SINGLE bike lane anywhere in my entire town, and the sidewalks were disused and crappy. And yet: we were outside playing CONSTANTLY.

I agree with this. Growing up we had nothing but some small patches of "woods" and some industrial areas but we still had plenty of fun. We also had various school grounds and the little league park. Definitely zero bike friendly infrastructure.

But now there is so much more everywhere I look. Skateparks everywhere, kid friendly pools and parks. More bike friendly roads. My daughter is still too young now but it seems like the outdoor resources are better than ever.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#148

Post by acjohnson55 »

blendo wrote: post #142

“Social scientists have shown — for as long as we have been collecting data — that conservatives have better mental health than liberals, and religious people have better mental health than their secular peers.” My gut tells me social scientists have “shown” no such thing, but am open to hearing the case.

I think it's worth considering how the causation runs. Being in a conservative environment but unable to conform could cause poor mental health and disaffection with the ideology. In a very broad stroke, this describes my personal experience.

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#149

Post by TaylorAlexander »

crooked-v wrote: post #80
bedobi wrote: post #29

The design of the physical environment is in no small part responsible for this. Don't believe me go to Europe and Japan where kids are still allowed to walk and bike to school, to friends places and just in general play and exist outside unattended to a much higher degree than in the US. Because in the US they would be roadkill, and even if they somehow survived outside of a car, car centric design means there's now…

My particular bugbear here is the absolutely insanity of truck and SUV heights, to the point that even full-grown adults are no longer clearly visible from inside new vehicles ( https://i.imgur.com/1dHWVxn.png ).

I recently had to borrow one of those big trucks to do some towing. Sitting in the drivers seat I felt like I was staring through a narrow slit. The nose and entire dash of the car are so high up it felt very unsettling. It seems extremely unsafe!

Re: Deterioration of local community a major driver of loss of play-based childhood

#150

Post by toomuchtodo »

bedobi wrote: post #116
causality0 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need reforms to the method the EPA uses to calculate and enforce fuel efficiency requirements. It's the direct driver of the gigantifucation of vehicles.

Simplest thing to do would be to just tax weight (at time of purchase and yearly) and require commercial license (only obtainable with demonstrable justification like running a business that requires hauling loads every day)

Still need to force trucks to design the front to be as pedestrian friendly as possible.
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