Longtime resident Calvin Anton taught children the basics of urban planning at the Peabody Institute Library West Branch last week.
During the Urban Planning for Kids program, the kids were given sets of building bricks of different colors and were encouraged by Anton to create structures like parks.
Anton is a graduate student in the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Urban Planning and Community Development program and a housing specialist with Metro Housing Boston. He talked about how a project deliverable for one of his graduate-level classes pertains to the significance of urban planning for children between the ages of 3 and 5.
“As planners, we try to address people’s voices, or at least make people heard,” Anton said. “And so for kids, when somebody’s building a park, or a city is making decisions, typically kids aren’t included. And so it’s to get their voices heard and kind of get what their thoughts are.”
Anton also said that typically, only certain careers are encouraged for children, such as doctors, lawyers, or firefighters.
“It’s allowing their thoughts to kind of be incorporated into what their vision is for their city, and at the same time exposes kids to an alternative career,” Anton said.
Anton also said it is beneficial to teach kids about urban planning at a young age.
“The planning field is really misunderstood, even though it has such a consequential impact for communities,” Anton said. “So to expose kids to it at a younger age, I think it would be extremely beneficial to inform how cities function and what primary use planners can do and the impact they can have on people’s lives.”
Anton added that urban planners are prepared to deal with the problems of the future.
“We’re built to go ahead and try to mitigate society-led problems, whether that be the climate disaster, or climate change more broadly, or to plan for better traffic flows,” Anton said. “It might be to produce more affordable housing, and Massachusetts is in an affordable-housing crisis right now.”
