wordsimageslife
an exploration of life as a parent & designer

City Living

It was with great surprise that our friends let us know, last weekend, that they had bought a house in Lutherville. They are planning on moving in July and we will miss them very much. I just hope that we don't lose touch like we have with other friends who have gone the way of the 'burbs. Another family we are close with, our kids are all about the same ages, are moving at the end of this month to the lovely hamlet of Severna Park. Let me just note that neither of these places seem to even have their own web sites. Now I know that our friends moving 15 minutes to the south, it's really about family, his parents, and one can't argue with that. But why doesn't anyone ever think of doing the reverse, having the parents move their house and boat here to the city?

Now ever since I was a kid I always wanted to live in a city. For me it was really NYC but as life would have it, for now it's Baltimore. I 'd still love to live in NYC but someone would have to pay me a whole lot of money to afford where and how I'd want to live with my family. In some ways it would be a homecoming, as it's the same neighborhood that my parent's grew-up in.

Now I know the schools in the city aren't great and everyone seems to think having grass is like gold. But really, we're four blocks from the park, there's plenty of grass there and I'm not responsible for mowing it. The kids can play safely there, the playground in enclosed, and there's tons of space for running around. As for schools, it's just a matter of either picking the right public school, parochial or if you can afford the price of a college education, than one of the many private schools in the area. (And let's see, the suburbs are safer? Really? See this story.)

I think the real key to successful education of children is parental participation. Not how much you spend to get them in the door. Now, of course, you also have to have teacher's who really enjoy teaching and get paid well enough to continue teaching. I always find it interesting that teacher's in the county get paid more than teacher's in the city. You'd think the city woudl get it's act together and do what it needs to do to compete. Of course in Baltimore, the public school system faces a financial crisis because of poor management. So, until we can get clear leadership at the top, the school system will suffer as a bloated, political mess that works more on the needs of career bureaucrats than its own students.

In any case. we've got no plans on moving out and we will miss our friends a whole lot. And will make a conscious effort to get together as often as possible. But it's still sad to know they won't be right down the street.

Posted by robdesign at May 13, 2004 11:08 PM