:"Some days I despair that we'll never really know how districts spend COVID money, despite all efforts."
After two years of deprioritizing kids, cities should be committed to making it up to the future generation — but it's clear that their priorities lie elsewhere.For a year during the pandemic, Cleveland removed swings from playgrounds. Meanwhile, adults were free to drink beer in casinos. To me, this remains one of the most confounding and shameful failures of our pandemic response.
For a year during the pandemic, Cleveland removed swings from playgrounds. Other cities like Los Angeles also closed playgrounds.at the beginning of the pandemic that predicted the"death of cities." But now I wonder whether, in our zeal to contain the virus, we have betrayed some of the ideals that make urban life bearable and worthwhile. I'm the kind of person who sought out city life and was committed to public schools and living in an urban area.
My mom friends and I still laugh about the time in summer 2020 when I was complaining about Cleveland's policy to keep playgrounds closed and a neighbor told me to"go on Pinterest" and find activities to do with my kids — as if that hadn't occurred to me during the five months we'd already been isolated together at home.
The cluelessness and contempt of parents, myself included, sometimes received when raising these issues are something I will never forget. It raised the question: Who are cities for? More and more, the answer is not families with kids, whose needs are very clearly subordinated to other priorities in political leadership.
城市已经放弃了孩子。作为一名城市规划师和两个孩子的母亲，我应该知道。