It seems that since I was a kid, American public spaces have become, or at least believed by many parents to have become, dangerous venues for our youth. When I was a youth in my Midwestern college town, I could hop on my bike after school or on the weekend and go where I wished – the playground, the library, the toy store, a friend’s house – and my parents were okay with that. Thirty years later my kids never went any of these places without me or their mom coming along, functioning as security and transportation-captain, and making the excursion more of a planned logistical event than it ever was when I was a kid. Continue reading →