For cities seeking to hang on to their young families, Toronto offers an example to keep an eye on For young adults in U.S. cities, the life cycle of urban living can seem as prescribed and predictable as the life cycle of a butterfly. Head downtown after school, get a job and career, meet a partner, have a child, and then, as if called by some great migratory urge, wait until right before the kids hit school age and head to the suburbs.
While major cities have seen steady, and many hope sustainable, growth in their young-adult populations since the recession, the same can?t necessarily be said of families and children. Between a lack of affordable family-friendly housing stock and neighborhoods without enough playspaces and child-friendly streets, cities can seem designed to discourage parents from staying around and raising children. Just try getting a stroller through the New York City subway system. Demographics reflect how these hurdles are discouraging family life downtown. In Washington, D.C., between 2000 and 2010, the city?s population of children decreased by 14,000. In Seattle, in the midst of a tech and real estate boom attracting high-income young workers, just 2 percent of the city?s affordable apartment stock has three or more bedrooms. In San Francisco, which famously has 80,000 more dogs than children, the population of children dropped from 22 percent in 1970 to 13.4 percent in 2010. A survey that year found that half of the parents of young kids we...