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

[the-ujhi]

"Children design for living creatures not for cars, egos or corporations "

[captainweiss]

Who else said yes to the water cannons on bridges?

[trenae]

Even more than giving children a voice, this helps them start to understand how society works from a younger age, and builds up civic awareness.

[Lemonjessy]

Growing up in Australia, I can tell you that parks with zip lines, climbing structures and water-play areas were by far the best ones. We had so much fun and stayed there for all hours of the day. Listen to the kids, they know what they're talking about :)

[afriteststudios]

"The city friendly to children, is the city friendly to all." That is amazing

[Yotanido]

"In addition to treason plans"

...wait, what?
Oh, trees and plants. Right.

[allisondoak]

I work for local government, and we have consulted primary school kids historically for strategic plans and we consult kids on playgrounds regularly but we only ever seem to consult a certain kind of teenager: ‘youth leaders’. In high school I resented ‘youth leaders’ because I didn’t conform to what adults favoured in a leader and so my opinions were not valued and engagement wasn’t often possible for me because as a teenager I didn’t want to compromise my values in order to conform, which is fairly typical. I did engage by joining a radical environmentalist group as the youngest member and we were part of real change in the city and beyond via our protests and fund raising, but my contributions weren’t recognised outside of the group and my family, while fellow students who ‘lead’ by implementing a teacher’s idea to make anti-litter signs for storm water drains were.
Too often the teenagers who are engaged are the ones trying to impress adults and essentially serve as a eco chamber. My town has an excess of skate parks because people over 40 seem to know nothing else about youth culture. All the skaters regularly use only a couple of the parks, because it’s a social sport and the whole spectrum of other teenage interests are underserved. When I was a teenager we wanted indoor space, we wanted jobs or at least a better pathway to jobs after high school (and we had good ideas which were in scope of local government jurisdiction), we wanted spaces for music, we wanted a cbd where us being there wasn’t seen as a nuisance, we wanted food caravans, we thought a solution to the street racing some of us participated might be a race track, we wanted space for recreation that wasn’t sport and so much more. When I say we, I mean my group of friends who were mostly seen as dropkicks. How do you engage teenagers of all kinds and how do you avoid doing it in the class room where there is an additional element of pressure to deliver ideas that adults like? Teenagers are some of our biggest stakeholders, we need them to stay in town as our population is aging at a notably higher rate than other cities, and if we want adults who can engage we need to teach teenagers how and why.

[Jb]

I know this might sound silly, but I would love to hear ideas from kids about issues that adults can't agree on because they are bound to their loyal ships within political parties. A lot of this would include older children 13 and above. When we are bound to a side by default, we close off conversations as adults. Kids though aren't bound to sides or to their own ideas. Kids are willing to change their minds. They might have solutions to issues we deal with everyday, but adults can't listen to one another.

[fandomgodmother]

when I was a kid I wanted to be an architect and I designed a pet store with a river running through it that led into the fish area. The fish area was a dome shape and has a clear roof so you could see the sky the walls were lined with tanks.

[iskahana]

It takes great sensibility to decipher the children’s abstract ideas and to synthesize those ideas into reasonable realizations... and i think she’s done it amazingly. This is a very nice talk <3

[lacyMindsetConsulting]

At first I didn't think I would enjoy the talk but it really made sense towards the end. Thank you. It gives you a different view point

[sandhyachristine]

I'm 15 and I honestly think that a lot of teens will come up with excellent ideas not only in building parks and stuff but actually coming up with solutions to housing concerns due to population rise. All we want is a better city. Many of us are brutal when it comes to law making and enforcing. We aren't going to worry about whether it's gonna get the current govt. more voter's support. Many of us actually think about concerns involving everything like cost, space and environmental because we've been told since we started going to school that these are the problems faced. Most school also have students from wide range of economic backgrounds so there will be unbiased opinions about many living standards and we'll be more empathetic to other backgrounds

[aticosmos]

There's a joke that when teachers ask students what they want to be when they grow up, they're asking cause they're out of ideas and want to find something new...

[gr]

Wow! It indeed is such a simple yet a unique and a fun idea! Making us realise that we are lacking the most important thing in our lives as adults-only creativity.

[CestLimee]

When I was in primary school the city council had us design a park, just like her project. We went all out and had so many ideas. However, they didn't listen at all and all they ended up doing was add a sandpit, a swing and a see-saw. It was a very underwhelming experience. Good to see the adults actually learned from the project in Boulder!

[gideonjones]

kind of sad that this seems so interesting and new to everybody. I thought this was common sense, but I guess that's what i get for still being a child at heart. I hope more people pick up on this.

[SteviiLove]

This is a very well thought out idea. Giving kids the opportunity to help create these public spaces can do so much to benefit the people living within them, not to mention the positive outlets that these kids can utilize can help steer them away from the negative ones. I know if my city would have been more like these, a lot of us wouldn't have turned to drugs, alcohol and other negative activities due to boredom and nowhere to express ourselves positively. I am all for this

[SubversiveStyle]

We should have designs for homeless people, no one deserves to be exposed to the elements and it seems housing and shelters aren’t solutions for all.

[ursulanonya]

I write books for children and this is one of my favorite talks- EVER! Thank you for this.

[veronicachristopher]

Children are pure hearts before the world told them what to think instead of how to think. Their eyes don't see dollar signs or socioeconomic status; they see with wholeness. It inspires me. ❤