(Relatively) Child-free neighbourhoods

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Talking to another Aspie today, he was talking of how he feels that very soon no place will be safe from gangs of youths, terrorising the place. If his, and my, experience are anything to go by, things feel that way already, as we tend to have had very bad experiences with kids.

I did point out however, and this is an obsession of mine lately, that some areas have far less kids than others, and so are relatively safe from kids. In many areas, one does not really feel the presence of kids, and local life is not hijacked by them. So my obsession is finding out, via census data, which towns and cities have most areas like this.

From knowledge of the different areas of Edinburgh, it seems that below 1 in 9 kids in an area tends to mean local life a place is not hijacked by kids' presence. The general UK population is more like 2 in 9, and higher in the US. So I have found which areas are at or below this level.

Findings for UK towns and cities show interesting results. First of all, it tends to be in central areas of towns and cities that one finds less kids in the population. By total population living in relatively child-free areas, within particular cities, I'd have thought London would be well out on top. But it is beaten by right here in Edinburgh, Glasgow a close third, and the next highest are seaside resorts Brighton and Bournemouth, as well as Aberdeen. So there's a theme of seaside resorts, and Scottish cities, offering more scope for living in relatively child-free places.

I have also looked into US data. The US has a higher percentage of children than the UK, yet large swathes of major cities have very, very few children in the population. This is true above all of New York (Manhattan) and San Francisco, where not only there are large swathes, the amount of children within these swathes is particularly extremely low as well. When I told my friend of the situation in NY and SF it was met with APPLAUSE.

There's a major drawback though, as the areas that are relatively child-free are expensive for housing. This causes the great majority of people, economically, to live in areas that DO carry a risk of trouble from kids. Which causes a lot of gratuitous misery, where you've got independent adult Aspies, and also have gangs of youths.

I can relate so much it hurts.

I can't stand the below 20's, I never did even when I was one myself. And there isn't any place without them either, or if there is the area is badly traficked.

Apartment buildings tend to be more-or-less child-free. And when there are kids, it's usually in just a few apartments. Stereotypically, families with kids live in suburban subdivisions, so don't move into one of those if you expect people to be sympathetic to your child-free lifestyle. Of course, this is true for United States and to a slightly lesser extent, Canada. In Europe, the situation may be different.

Scandinavian countries have a higher birth rate, and more children, than the rest of Europe, meaning they'll have less child-free areas.

The fact that Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and other Scottish places have such a high proportion of their population in relatively child-free areas reflects their city structure. They have a lot of apartments in the centre of town. Most of these are what we call tenements - whole street blocks of apartments built in the Victorian era - which are a peculiarly Scottish phenomenon. They almost always don't have gardens (or only communal ones for the block) and there is little space and the area heavily trafficked so it's not conducive to child rearing. I live in an apartment block but then it is in a suburban subdivision and it has a very high number of kids. Admittedly, in spite of the location, I didn't expect that when I moved in because of it being apartments.

you're one of those kinds of people who think that all blacks are bad and all Latinos are lazy and dirty.

There are lots of kids in my neighborhood who don't cause any mischief at all.

If you open yourself up as the friendly neighbor that the kids respect, they won't bother you.

You were a kid too once, y'know...

back to your prejudiced request;

look at golfing or retirement communities. No shortage of golfers in Scotland, right laddie?

Eek! My neighborhood is full of kids! So, I need to get out of here.

I know! Kids will be the death of us all! Run for the hills! Lock up the silver! The end is upon us! Wasn't there a Nostradamus quatrain about 4 and 20 kids in a field of corn?

When you say "kids" do you really mean "neds"?

All that you've said are just unsubstantiated assumptions.

The OP never said anything about blacks, latinos, laziness, or dirtiness. He never said anything about being unfriendly to children. He is well aware that he was once young.

Your experience with kids in your neighborhood may not neccesarily be the same as what he has experienced in his neighborhood. It's a rather narrow comparison. Many neighborhoods in his particular area would have to be considered, not just yours.

Perhaps you should ask more questions about his opinions on blacks/latinos, rather than just assuming what he thinks.

It is where I live, anyway. In my stairs alone there are kids in 3 of 8 apartments, 5 in all. I can't even say how much I hate this place now. It used to be such a nice stairs, except for my family there were only old people and kidless couples, unlike in the other stairs. I loved the silence here. Needless to say it's gone.


Thank heavens you don't jump to conclusions...



You know what? I don't need to open up as a friendly neighbour so they can respect me. See, I have the right to reject contact with the people that happen to live in the area, and I still have the same right to be left alone as social people have. That kind of "reasoning" reminds me of how teachers try to solve bullying: "If only you change, they'll leave you alone."



Yeah, I was and I never harrassed people intentionally. I didn't make fun of other kids and I didn't shout obscenities after adults or laugh at disabled people. Nor did I join any gangs and scare people. I didn't even vandalise or spray grafiti.

the only kids that are bad are because the parents are bad. Or the parents just plain suck.

You wanna see kids in apartments? Come to Canada. Single mothers and apartments go together like a horse and carriage. Unfortunately, 9 times out of 10, children in such situations have such screwed up lives due to all the instability that they can't help but act out...

I live in an area which is popular with families.
The kids don't really bug me. Most of them are pretty good.

It is just the groups of youths that hang around in front of train stations and yell abuse at people that scare me.