Saturday evening on a family stroll Michael started talking about a city councilor who had recently made an argument against families with young kids living downtown. I won’t go into the details of the article, since they are irrelevant, if you are however, interested in reading it for yourself, you can do so here.
The conversation we had that night stuck with me though. I thought it over through the course of the weekend as we went about our own activities.
For us I think living downtown Toronto is perfect. We are able to walk to sweet little shops, experience great restaurants, visit museums, bike through the city parks, stop and listen to impromptu street symphonies and run along the water…all in a single day. I feel that we exposing J to an eclectic life experience and its one that I’m reluctant to give up.
M and I have been discussing moving out of our 2 bedroom loft, into a house in which we can grow as a family {read…more kiddos}. At the forefront of our decision making is finding the best school for our kid{s}. We’re not quite prepared to send him to private elementary school, nor are we in a position to purchase a home in the most affluent Toronto neighborhoods where the best schools happen to reside. While the best {affordable} school choices lie outside of the Toronto boundaries I am torn about moving. I am reluctant to become dependent on the family car and give up the outdoor time.
Ironically, the counselor in the aforementioned article insisted that children being raised downtown Toronto are “playing in traffic”, and I would argue that the truth is very far from his claims. We spend almost our entire day outside. On a regular day we run on the waterfront in the morning, eat breakfast, head out to the park, eat lunch, nap, bike to another park, cook and eat dinner and then go for an evening stroll right before bed. Toronto is in my opinion a great place to raise children, with many lovely city run parks, splash pads and community centers. Followed by great restaurant meals and delicious ice cream treats…what kiddo wouldn’t love that?!
Now tell me, are you or have you ever wanted to raise your kids in an urban center? Why or why not?
I was thinking of you and a few others when I heard about this.
You should write a post for this project: http://downtownkids.tumblr.com/
I would love it if my family lived a little closer to the city. Where we live now we are very dependent on our car to get us anywhere. There is absolutely no where to walk. We’d have to get in our car and drive out of the way to go to the park. I hate that.
At the same time, I love the peacefulness of living outside of the city. We used to live in a town that had everything you need from a big city (grocery, clothing stores, hardware stores, plenty of restaurants, etc.) but all of the residential areas are spacious with a rural feel. We hope to move back there someday. It’s our idea of the perfect place to live.
I love seeing all your city pictures and always think how fun it would be to live in a big city. I think you are letting Johannes experience life, this world isn’t getting any smaller and soon there will be more “big cities.” I wish we lived somewhere that had a bigger downtown and things to do.
Personally living in the suburbs and on top of that living on a military base I find myself not leaving as much as I should. I need to make it a point to take Vince to new places. And finding out that he loves the splash pad just like Johannes I need to find one!
Lots of people have written some amazing letters in response Deputy Mayor’s Doug Holyday comment: http://downtownkids.tumblr.com/