One thing I have noticed about Fayetteville in 2025 (as compared to essentially everywhere else I have lived since about 1995) is that there are kids everywhere. I'm not saying kids with parents -- these are kids from about the age of ten on up to their mid-teens running the streets and parks in small packs or on their own. No adult in sight.
(And before anyone clutches their pearls, these kids are almost universally polite to any adult (me) who they intersect with, though in general they do not interact with adults unless one of them (me) gets in their way with my dog.)
It makes sense that so many kids here would be out on their own -- we have free public transportation (though its range is limited to the university area and areas where most students live -- but that's also where many of the parks are) and free bikes and scooters that anyone can use and miles and miles and miles of bike trails they can range through the city on.
In Fort Smith, on the other hand, there weren't even sidewalks in most places, and anywhere a kid might want to go (a park, a theater, a library) was distant enough that they had to be driven to it. There were public buses, but they cost $1.25 each way and only ran from 8:00 to 5:00, and also only went to places like Wal-Mart. In the parks, there were small children at the playground with their parents, but any age from five to twenty might as well not have existed.
Also, in Fort Smith, everyone hated kids, from what I could tell. At least on the local FB page, everyone was always complaining about children doing horrible things like playing outside or riding their bikes in the street. (See above, no sidewalks.)
Here in Fayetteville, people seem to like kids, though also they don't pay them a lot of attention. Kids are yet another group that lives here, is the attitude, and isn't that cool. It really improves the experience of living in the city, though I'm not sure why. Maybe because they're part of humanity, and it's nice to see a full range of humans? Maybe because it's how a city should be, and the life of children should be.
Anyway, 10/10, all cities should be like this.
2 comments:
Somehow I was waiting on you to metaphorically scream "Get off my lawn!" so I could tell you to get a damned job, you lazy bum.
We have kids all over the place where I live. It's nice to know we're not actually going to go extinct. Also, someone has to pay into Social Security so I too can retire and then yell at kids to get off my lawn.
LOL. Yes, that too! I've noticed more people here in FV have more than one kid. Maybe all we need to up the birthrate is a decent infrastructure.
Though childcare and preschools are insanely expensive, even here.
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