Re:The end of the pandemic is near
by rayiner on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @08:41PM
(#27298007)
The birth rate in transit friendly European cities has collapsed, so I’m not sure what that gets you. You make a good point about older children, but if you have 3 kids (American women in average want closer to 3 than to 2) you’re going to spend 15 years or so with at least one kid below 10.
Of course you can have three kids in the city, but you can also do your laundry by hand. That doesn’t mean people want to go back to that way of living. And birth rates in cities were never particularly high in the modern era. Most people in America at the turn of the 20th century lived in rural areas.
Also, a bunch of other stuff has changed since the pre-suburbanization era. Both parents typically work, and have to reconcile commuting to work with child care drop off and pickup (which isn’t necessarily located near transit).
That said, I know someone with three young kids living in Chicago without a car. But she’s a champion, and most people aren’t as hard as her. Dallas-style cities make a lot of the ancillary aspects of parenting much easier.
Of course you can have three kids in the city, but you can also do your laundry by hand. That doesn’t mean people want to go back to that way of living. And birth rates in cities were never particularly high in the modern era. Most people in America at the turn of the 20th century lived in rural areas.
Also, a bunch of other stuff has changed since the pre-suburbanization era. Both parents typically work, and have to reconcile commuting to work with child care drop off and pickup (which isn’t necessarily located near transit).
That said, I know someone with three young kids living in Chicago without a car. But she’s a champion, and most people aren’t as hard as her. Dallas-style cities make a lot of the ancillary aspects of parenting much easier.