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There is a big difference between a porch, a stoop, and a front yard. A porch or stoop is a place to watch and interact with life on the street, yet still act as private space. A yard is a barrier between your private space and the street--it keeps the street at bay. Parents want their kids playing in the yard because of the horrible dangers that come from playing in the street.
There is a big difference between a porch, a stoop, and a front yard. A porch or stoop is a place to watch and interact with life on the street, yet still act as private space. A yard is a barrier between your private space and the street--it keeps the street at bay. Parents want their kids playing in the yard because of the horrible dangers that come from playing in the street.
Not this stuff again! Yes, it's horrible that parents don't want their kids to play in the street. What a wonderful experience it would be to witness (or not) your child getting hit by a car, and the subsequent months in the hospital, or maybe the funeral. Give this bully pulpit of yours a rest!
As someone who has parented two children to adulthood, I thin what most parents want is for their kids to be safe. While you may find this very anti-socialist, you are not a parent.
There is a big difference between a porch, a stoop, and a front yard. A porch or stoop is a place to watch and interact with life on the street, yet still act as private space. A yard is a barrier between your private space and the street--it keeps the street at bay. Parents want their kids playing in the yard because of the horrible dangers that come from playing in the street.
I don't find that true. Well, I suppose it's true that parents don't want their kids playing in the street -- I teach my son that the street is for cars and bikes, the sidewalk is for pedestrians. I think that's common sense. (yards or sidewalks DO keep the cars at bay, admittedly, but I think that's a good thing. I don't want my kid to get run over. It does not, however, keep the general public or "street" life at bay. Just cars.)
I don't think front yards are barriers, though -- they're transitional space, and still very much connected to the public sphere. Parents who are afraid of the public wouldn't let their kids play out front -- they'd have them in back. The front yard is still very public. I think it's essentially an extension of the porch or stoop. It fulfills exactly the same function" "a place to watch and interact with life on the street, yet still act as private space." Isn't that about the very definition of a front yard?
No, because a porch or stoop is also a place to watch and interact with life on the street, yet still acts as private space, but it is not the same as a front yard.
There is a big difference between a porch, a stoop, and a front yard. A porch or stoop is a place to watch and interact with life on the street, yet still act as private space. A yard is a barrier between your private space and the street--it keeps the street at bay. Parents want their kids playing in the yard because of the horrible dangers that come from playing in the street.
I don't know. In a lot of new developments, the front yards are getting so small they are hardly more than a porch.
We played in the streets all the time. Then again, I grew up in a street pattern that minimized through traffic. No one really went down our street who didn't live in the neighborhood. Why you need 40 feet of road and two 6 foot sidewalks for a street that probably gets 10-20 cars an hour down it is beyond me, but it did make a good place for street hockey, basketball, touch football, hide and seek, BMX riding and skateboarding.
You'll have to ask a parent why they insist so strongly on big yards. I hear my neighbor's kids playing outside right now on the sidewalk. Their yard, like mine, is about ten feet deep, but provides plenty of space for them to play--the sidewalk is for scooting around on their scooters.
No, because a porch or stoop is also a place to watch and interact with life on the street, yet still acts as private space, but it is not the same as a front yard.
But what's the difference? I think they all have the same function. The form is slightly different, but I actually think the porch is, out of the three, the most private, most removed space.
In my previous neighborhood most homes did not have porches, but did have front yards. Many people had little sitting areas set up out front. How is that any different than a porch, other than the fact that it's not covered? We didn't have a formal sitting area, but had some lawn chairs we pulled out and moved around as needed. I also sometimes just sat on the stairs. Having lived in places with porches before, I didn't find much difference, other than perhaps that the front yard use actually connected me to the neighbors better. The porch was more private and more removed.
You'll have to ask a parent why they insist so strongly on big yards. I hear my neighbor's kids playing outside right now on the sidewalk. Their yard, like mine, is about ten feet deep, but provides plenty of space for them to play--the sidewalk is for scooting around on their scooters.
but weren't you just suggesting that the kids should be playing on the street?
Our yard was about 10 feet deep, too, and the kids ran around there (or on the sidewalk, but that was mostly for chalk and scooters).
I rarely, if ever, hear parents insisting on big front yards.
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