When I reflect on my childhood in Vancouver, my best memories all involve public spaces. Frolicking in Stanley Park’s water park. Flipping through books at Book Warehouse on Broadway. Wandering through the Kids Market on Granville Island.

These days, with our increasing reliance on cars and condos, the landscape of our city looks quite different—and I’m worried we are losing the sense of exploration and wonder that walking in our neighbourhoods can provide.

With rising costs of living, more remote work opportunities, and climate change concerns, it is beneficial to the betterment of all—regardless of age—to consider how we can alleviate Metro Vancouver’s car dependence. We need to do a better job of preserving and creating local areas that are not only pedestrian-oriented, but welcoming of our youngest residents.

Other cities do this well. On a recent trip to Osnabrück, Germany, Rosa Sasages—a Chilliwack mother of two young children—came across a development that demonstrated a more kid-friendly approach to public space.

“There was a playground with a fence all around it, with two doors to get out,” Sasages says. “There was a pathway all around, and there were restaurants, cafes, and bars where parents could sit on the patios or indoors enjoying a drink or snack. The kids played and could come and eat then continue to play.”

Vancouver certainly has something to learn from other places around the world.

Luke Williams is an urban planner based in Cape Town who specializes in consulting for early childhood development spaces. He thinks the average built environment should be better designed to welcome children.

“We have organizations within Cape Town that really push the pedestrian-friendly movement,” explains Williams. “That’s a good starting point to incorporate spaces that include everyone. As long as you can walk, you can use that space.”

St. Georges Mall, a popular tourist destination in Cape Town, is a prime example of a pedestrian-only area in the middle of a city centre. Darling Harbour, located in Sydney, Australia, is a similar attraction, with lots of intertwined places to eat and play.

Residents of all ages enjoying the same public space: sounds idyllic, right? Outrageously, not everyone thinks so.

Williams has been working on a primary school project over the past two years, and the neighbouring property is not happy about it.

“The property beside the school had a number of complaints, particularly noise. We even had to get an acoustic specialist to do a study,” he says. “I contacted about three or four specialists … Most of them laughed at me, and said that they typically only go on construction sites. The results showed that the noise was perfectly acceptable for the area.”

These kinds of complaints are also happening closer to home. In Port Moody last year, a resident complained about a playground being built across the street from her, claiming it would devalue her home. Earlier this year, an apartment complex’s strata (also in Port Moody, coincidentally) attempted to prohibit other children in the neighbourhood from playing on its playground.

From a legal perspective, as a former property manager myself, I kind of get it. Issues pertaining to liability, safety, and risk are significant enough for strata corporations to take action—however ridiculous those actions might be. From a human perspective, though, it feels a bit like the trope of an elderly old man shaking his fist at the kids on his front lawn. If policies turn something as joyous as a playground into a potential risk for other residents, then the system is undeniably broken.

For its part, Vancouver is set to explore more pedestrian-friendly living when Water Street goes car-free this summer as part of a pilot project.

Will it be effective? It’ll likely depend on who you ask. It’s definitely worth trying, though, and I’d argue that the positives will drastically outweigh the negatives. After all, the built environment isn’t immovable like the mountains and water that make up the rest of our landscape. We’re the ones who built it, so we should be the ones to change it.