What if most of our public realm was a collection of child-friendly spaces such that the urban fabric was essentially a “playground”, a platform for childhood development with plenty of room to roam and explore?

This may sound crazy, but right now, in some countries, safe and inviting “All Ages & Abilities” environments encourage and support free-range kids and I would propose free-range older adults unencumbered by automobiles as well. Because, as the saying goes. If works for an 8-year-old it works for an 80-year-old.

In this episode, I talk with Tim Gill, author of the book Urban Playground: How Child-Friendly Planning and Design Can Save Cities about this radical yet simple planning and design concept.

Helpful Links (may include affiliate links to help me support the channel and podcast)
– Urban Playground book
– No Fear book
– Tim’s website
– Our Streets, Our Journeys video
– Growing Up Boulder
– The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
– Sustrans

My Favorite Stoic Philosophy Books:
– The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
– The Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday
– Courage is Calling by Ryan Holiday

Resources used during the production of this episode:
– Music mixed by John Simmerman using Logic Pro
– Graphics by Livestreaming Pros
– My awesome recording platform is Ecamm
– Edited in the Adobe Creative Cloud software suite

Equipment:
– Camera – Sony ZV-E10 (currently sold out)
– Lens – Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary Lens
– Elgato Cam Link 4k
– Elgato Streamdeck XL*
* note you may not need the XL – Streamdeck

Computer System:
– Apple MacBook Pro 16″ 2021 M1 Pro
– LG 34WP88C-B 34-inch Curved 21:9 UltraWide QHD (3440×1440) IPS Display with Ergo Stand

All video, audio, and music production by me, John Simmerman

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along please visit my links below:
– Website
– Twitter
– Newsletter
– Podcast landing pages
– Facebook
– Instagram

Background: Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman. I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time I’ve been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a “Culture of Activity” for “All Ages & Abilities”.

This is one of my personal Active Towns channels and it features my original podcast episodes: conversations, and personal reflections profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them. Click here to access my YouTube Channel for my video content

Thanks for tuning in, I hope you find this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2022

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. Any donations collected are used specifically to support the organization’s mission.

To make a donation to Advocates for Healthy Communities