Thursday, 15 August 2013

Blueprint for New York neighbourhoods

New York has many neighbourhoods and a great diversity across them all. There’s a mayoral election coming up which, along with the ongoing context of recession, sharpens the acoustics for debate about social policy.

United Neighborhood Houses is an umbrella agency for settlements and has just published its detailed and pragmatic Blueprint for neighborhoods. Recommendations are set out under these main headings:

A. Support Quality Educational Investments That Prepare All Young People for a Productive Future

B. Enhance New Yorkers’ Ability to Enter and Succeed in the Workforce

C. Build, Support, and Sustain Healthy, Livable and Inclusive Communities

D. Making Government Work for Neighborhoods.

There are plenty of curious insights and factoids along the way. I was particularly struck by this one: 

'By improving their English one level, immigrants can increase their annual wages by 35%.'

Source: Akbulut-Yuksel et al, 'The effects of English proficiency among childhood immigrants,' 2011.

 

15 Aug 2013 16:59:11 | Social policy

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Intolerant neighbours ‘a major barrier’ to children’s play The latest Playday survey was published last week, with some insistent messages about play in the neighbourhood: More than a quarter of adults (28 per cent) cited intolerant neighbours as a major barrier stopping children playing out where they live. The same proportion of parents fear being judged by neighbours if they let their children play unsupervised outdoors. Almost a third (32 per cent) believe allowing their children to play ball games or make noise outdoors would cause problems with other residents. ‘It is hardly surprising that a quarter of adults (25 per cent) felt that a more friendly community and better relationships with neighbours would encourage young people to play outside more often.’ Some 40 per cent of adults said that children playing out where they live improves community spirit; and 45 per cent said that it helps families to get to know each other. It’s clear that reticence is self-reinforcing: 60 per cent of parents said they would feel confident to let their kids play out if others were playing too. Play England and their partners are doing their best to crank up the action, but this is not a new issue and these figures illustrate the perversity of the British attitude towards young people. In interview on the Today programme this morning Cath Prisk, Director of Play England, alluded to the social costs of children not playing out. It needs a cultural shift in attitudes, which in turn requires a bit more effort from policy makers than we’ve yet seen.
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Troublesome neighbours? And what if your neighbours are elephants? Here’s a neat solution, on the Practical Action blog, using rows of palmyre trees. Local people can harvest the nuts and leaves, then - ‘once mature, one row at a time can be cut for wood, while still retaining the integrity of the boundary.’

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