With its streets without cars, its green lessons, its leisure centers on every street corner and its healthy meals in the canteen, this city rethink everything at the height of a child.
To think a city at a child’s level is first to give up the obvious. The one that makes the car a reflex, the asphalt a standard, the school a closed place and the city center a space reserved for active. A city really thought out for children is not content to place a few colorful benches and two play areas. She reviews her priorities. A European capital illustrates this approach perfectly. Among the major metropolises, it embodies what a city can be really suitable for children.
In this city, there are no longer any lines of motor cars on in front of the schools: 220 streets were pedestrianized during the entry and exit hours, sometimes permanently. Children arrive on foot, by bike or scooter, on protected tracks. Around, traffic is reduced, slowed down, diverted. A change that is not only worth for the surroundings of schools. Despite criticism from motorists, the limitation to 30 km/h extended to the whole territory nevertheless allows parents to move more freely. The bike has gained ground, the tracks are numerous, continuous, secure. It is no longer an option reserved for sports adults: families have taken it up.
Inside the schools, lessons have changed their face. No more overheating concrete. In 131 establishments, the floors were vegetated, planted trees, shadow corners installed. These spaces reduce the temperature of several degrees, allow children to move, blow, play differently. Some classes are even done outside, in gardens or developed spaces, in more than twenty schools. Language learning is also enriched in several establishments that offer innovative educational approaches. Students follow digital workshops in places open to all, such as the Tumo Center, where they learn to code, to film, to create. In short, in Paris, education no longer stops on the walls or programs. Paris represents the most successful example of this urban transformation, even surpassing cities deemed like Amsterdam and Antwerp for their quality of family life, according to a study published by the Clean Cities Campaign.
In summer, 20,000 children participate in the activities offered in the 400 leisure centers distributed in the city. Open, animated, accessible places without condition. Added to this are the libraries, the games, museums that multiply slots and free offers. Finally, on the food side, the changes were radical. In nurseries, meals are now 100 % organic. At school, lunches are offered from 13 cents for the most modest families.
