Brendan - I'd be interested in your ideas for solving some of these problems. Do we need more green space, better welfare systems, better education, more sidewalks, more community centres, less McMansions, more McMansions, more environmentally sustainable energy use? and if so, How do we get there?

How do you convince parents that they need to control their kids less? How can it be that we hear about parents on the "mortgage treadmill," and too busy to have children, but they still have time to over-control their kids. Some parents do and some don't? Are the ratios changing? Is that good or bad?

It seems like you have thrown out a million thoughts without any proposals or solutions. Maybe that was the idea?

hi ericc,

all very vaild questions for which there are no easy answsers! my overall pitch in response is that we need to plan and mould our cities much more consciously with human needs in mind; viz., a humane city. i am a child of the australian suburbs and believe that they have, relative to cities overseas, provided us with wonderfully peaceable, humane and generally green lifeworlds. i continue to live in an australian suburb with my family. i think they are still the best place for children. the newer high rise environments have been created through wild market driven processes that have produced many failings, especially from the vantage point of children. and now, the newer suburban models seem also to be robbing children (and others) of lifespace, and seem premised on the new household debt economy that is behind, and which will ultimately shatter, the current economic 'good times'. nothing sustainable about where we are going.

i am present writing a book for allen & unwin -- 'australian heartlands: making space for hope in the suburbs'. it will hopefully present longer and more convincing answers to your very insightful questions. thanks for your interest, brendan