We let kids design our city -- here's what happened | Mara Mintzer | TEDxMileHigh

Translator: Ekaterina Shipatova Reviewer: Riaki Poništ Our society routinely makes decisions without consulting a quarter of the population. We are making decisions about land use, energy production and natural resources without the ideas and experiences of the entire community. The car, an inanimate object, has more say in our public policy than this group of citizens. Can you guess which group I'm talking about? They are children! I work in urban

design

and, unsurprisingly, most cities are

design

ed by adults, urban planners, architects, developers, politicians and occasionally some loud citizens. Rarely does one think about the voices of a group of four-year-olds, barely tall enough to stand on the podium in the

city

council chambers.

But today I'm going to ask you this: What would happen if we asked children to design our cities? (laughs) In 2009, I was introduced to a small group of people who wanted to start a child-friendly

city

initiative in Boulder, Colorado. I come from a family of civil rights advocates and up until that point had dedicated my career to working with low-income children and families. But I had never heard of a child-friendly city initiative before! So, I thought its purpose would be to address some of the frustrations I had encountered as a mother of a young child. Perhaps we would advocate for more changing tables in restaurants or creating indoor play spaces for those cold, rainy days.

In other words, make the city more welcoming to children and families. It wasn't until I committed to this project that I realized I was all wrong. We would not be designing better cities for children; children would be designing better cities for themselves and also for the rest of us. Now, I bet you're skeptical about this idea, and honestly, I was too. I mean, t

here

must be a reason why the voting age is 18. (Laughter) How do

kids

possibly understand complex ideas, like the affordable housing crisis or how to develop a transportation master plan? And even if they did have ideas, wouldn't they be childish or unreasonable?

Do our cities really need a park made of candy? (laughs) Or a bridge with water cannons that shoot water at unsuspecting kayakers below? (Laughter) Well, these concerns seem legitimate. I realized that not including children in urban planning was a major design problem. After all, shouldn't we include end users in the design process? If we are building a park to be used primarily by children, then children should have a say in the design of the park! So, with all this in mind, we formed a program called "Growing Up Boulder", and my job is to work with children ages 0-18 to find innovative urban design solutions.

How do we do this, you ask? Let me give you a real example. In 2012, the city of Boulder decided to redesign a large downtown park known as The Civic Area. This space is bounded by a farmers market at one end, the Boulder Public Library at the other end, and Boulder Creek, which runs through the middle. The space needed a new design to better handle inevitable flash flooding from the creek, restore a sense of safety to the area, and support an expanded farmers market. So, from 2012 to 2014, we involved more than 200 young people in the process, from preschool students to high school students.

First, we visited the children in their classrooms and introduced them to the project:

what

it was, why their ideas were important, and

what

would happen with their recommendations. Before we could influence them, we asked the children to record their ideas based on their own lived experiences. We then asked the

kids

to go on a field trip with us to document what they liked and didn't like about the space through photography. Through green frames, students highlighted what they liked about the space, like college students boating down the creek. (laughs) Then they turned those frames over and used the red side to highlight things they didn't like, like trash.

Our sixth grade students studied the Civic Area by researching sites with similar challenges around the world. We then invite children to combine their original ideas with their new inspiration to synthesize solutions to improve the space. Each class invited adult planners, city council members, and community members into the classroom to share and discuss their recommendations. Boulder's senior urban planner stepped over blocks and stuffed animals to explore recreating the civic area in preschool students' life-sized classroom. The adult planners marveled at the students' ideas as they shared a park made from a jelly bracelet (it was supposed to be an ice skating rink) and then a public ark made from animal-shaped plastic beads.

And although this may seem ridiculous, it is not that different from the models that architects create. Now, four years later, I am pleased to report that many of the children's ideas are being implemented in the Civic Area. For example, access to Boulder Creek will be improved so children can play safely in the water. Lighting in previously dark underpasses so high school students can safely walk home after school at night. And separate biking and walking paths, so speeding cyclists don't hit young people as they stroll along the creek. My daughter and I even skated at a new ice skating rink requested by kids last winter.

Were all the children's ideas implemented in the Civic Area? Of course not! Democracy is a complicated process. But just as a reasonable and well-informed adult does not expect all of his ideas to be used, neither does a nine-year-old child. We've been using this process for eight years, and along the way we've found some incredible benefits to designing cities with kids. First of all, children think differently than adults, and that's a good thing. Adults think about limitations: how long will a project take? How much money will it cost? And how dangerous will it be? In other words, are they going to sue us? (laughs) It's not that these limitations aren't real, but if we eliminate ideas from the beginning, it limits our creativity and slows down the design process.

Children, on the other hand, think in possibilities. For kids, the sky is the limit, literally. When we worked with high school students to design teen-friendly parks, they drew pictures of skydiving, hang gliding (Laughs), and jumping from jet trampolines into giant foam pits. (Laughter) Some of them sound far-fetched, but the commonalities between the activities revealed an important story. Our teens wanted thrill-seeking opportunities, which makes a lot of sense, given their developmental stage in life. So our task as connectors between inspiration and reality was to point them to activities and equipment that could really be installed in a park.

This is exactly what Australia's parks have done with their extensive zip lines and 30-foot-high climbing towers. When children imagine a space, they almost always include fun, play, and movement in their designs. Now, this is not what adults prioritize. But research shows that fun, play, and movement are exactly what adults need to stay healthy too! Who wouldn't like to have a tree house that contains a small library and comfortable beanbags for reading? Or how about a public art exhibit that sprays paint onto a canvas every time you walk up the stairs? In addition to fun and games, children value beauty in their designs.

When tasked with designing dense, affordable housing, the children rejected the identical beige condo blocks that so many developers favor and instead put bright colors on everything from the homes to the play equipment. They placed flowers between the walking and biking platforms and placed benches along the stream, so the children could hang out with their friends and enjoy the tranquility of the water, which takes me back to nature. Children have a biological need to connect with nature and this is reflected in their designs. They want nature in their backyards, not four blocks away. That's why they designed communities that incorporate water, fruit trees, flowers and animals into their visible common spaces.

This is logical, because today five-year-olds are rarely allowed to walk four blocks alone to access a park. And nature in the immediate environment benefits everyone, as it has been shown to have restorative effects for all ages. It may be surprising, but we even take into account the wishes of our smallest citizens, babies and toddlers. From a young age we learned that the joy of walking comes from what is discovered along the way. When assessing the walkability of Boulder's 19th Street corridor, toddlers spent long periods exploring leaves in a ditch and sparkles on the sidewalk. They reminded us to slow down and design a path w

here

the journey is as important as the destination.

In addition to trees and plants, children almost always include animals in their designs. Insects, birds and small mammals occupy a prominent place in children's photographs. Whether because they are closer to the ground and can see grasshoppers better than we can, or simply because they have a greater sense of empathy for other beings, children almost always include non-human species in their ideal worlds. In general, children are inclusive in their urban planning. They design for everyone, from your grandmother in a wheelchair to the homeless woman you see sleeping in the park. Children design for living beings, not for cars, egos or corporations.

The last discovery we made, and perhaps the most compelling, is that a city friendly to children is a city friendly to everyone. The mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa, observed that children are a kind of indicator species. If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for all people. Think about it. Kids can't just get in a car and drive to the store, and most kids can't afford an expensive lunch at a nearby cafeteria. So if we build cities that take into account their needs for alternative forms of transportation and cheaper places to eat, we will also meet the needs of many other populations.

The more frequent and more affordable bus service, so desired by our young people, also supports older people, who want to live independently after they no longer know how to drive. Teen recommendations for soft, protected trails for walking and skateboarding also support the person in a wheelchair or the parent pushing a new stroller. For me, all of this has revealed something important, a major blind spot. If we don't include children in our planning, who are we also not including? Are we listening to people of color, immigrants, the elderly, and people with disabilities or low incomes? What innovative design solutions are we overlooking?

Because we are not listening to the voices of the entire community. It is not possible for us to know other people's needs and wants without asking. This applies to children and everyone else. So adults, let's stop thinking of our children as future citizens and instead start valuing them as the citizens they are today. Because our children are designing the cities that will make us happier and healthier, cities full of nature, play, movement, social connection and beauty. Children are designing the cities we all want to live in. Thank you. (Applause)