Big cities toxic to raising kids
By DJ Yap
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:34:00 08/28/2010
Filed Under: Lifestyle & Leisure, Children
MANILA, Philippines—About 70 percent of the world’s population is expected to be living in cities by 2050. Some experts are concerned that as cities continue to grow and prosper, they become less and less habitable for families.
For some reason, people stop marrying and having children in places that are too urban, too congested or too expensive.
“There’s something really strange that’s going on right now,” said Joel Atkin, an internationally recognized expert on global economic, political and social trends.
“What’s happening to many cities is that they are no longer attractive to families,” he said at the closing plenary of the World Cities Summit held in Singapore last month. The summit was a meeting place for leaders to discuss the best ways and practices to make cities more livable.
Rich big cities like New York are witness to this phenomenon, and so have rich mid-sized cities like Singapore, Atkin said.
Metro Manila
Even Metro Manila, which has 11 million residents, does not seem to be an ideal place anymore for growing a family as it grapples with the same issues that beset many big, densely populated cities of the world: congestion, pollution, crime and poverty.
“Something in the way we’re building our cities and our society, but cities in particular, is making it toxic for the formation of families and raising children,” Atkin said.
“That’s why we have things called suburbs. That’s why people start off in Manhattan, get married and they move up to the Hudson Valley or they go to New Jersey, and they raise a family,” he said.
High cost, little space
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