• jack [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    18 hours ago

    I'm on day 5 of a5 day visit to Montreal with wife and baby. Coming from Cleveland, which is above average urbanism by American standards, this city is incredible. And it's especially incredible for children. There are high quality public playgrounds absolutely EVERYWHERE. Our vacation has consisted entirely of: get coffee, go to playground, get on Metro, go to playground, get vegan lunch and more coffee, go to playground, get vegan dinner. All on foot surrounded by a seemingly endless stock of high quality, dense housing. Families are everywhere. My son, not even a year and a half, is thriving to an incredible degree. It makes me sad that I need to take him back someplace so much more hostile to children.

    Obviously this is still a capitalist city in the imperial core, so it has issues on that front. But I'm blown away. The overwhelming feeling is that it's unethical to raise a child anywhere but the best possible urban environment.

    • mathemachristian [he/him]
      ·
      18 hours ago

      I am so so grateful to be living in a building cooperative. There are playgrounds everywhere, like every 200m there is another playground, and there are big parks with fruit trees. We just got home from picking apples, tasting different varities, it was a blast. The buy-in is pretty high, but my wifes on disability so the government paid for it, although there are options for low-income people.