Children just fine living downtown

I live downtown with my husband and daughters aged two and five in a two-bedroom apartment.

This is the lifestyle we and other downtown families have chosen, but in Alberta, we are outliers.

Alberta’s conservatism has shaped our cities for too long. The migration to the suburbs is rooted in the false belief that cities are bad and suburbs are wholesome, that children need backyards to have healthy childhoods, and that private space is superior to public space.

The trend is to conserve how the majority of the province lives. The pushback to the campaign of the ChildFriendly Coalition of Alberta is evidence of this.

Ending age discrimination against children in housing is not a cause to support lowincome families (though it will likely help).

It is an issue of choice: to live minimally; to live an urban lifestyle that does not rely on commuting by car; to raise children in socio-economically diverse neighbourhoods.

Also, children aren’t animals.

Stop talking like they’re going to wreck the carpet if you allow them in your condo. Yvonne Epp, Edmonton