With all the recent momentum to move “back to the city,” it is well known that those moving back to the urban core are not traditional nuclear families. In fact, they are anything but. Check any gentrifying urban area and you find everyone from young singles and couples to aging baby boomers, but very few children. This presents a conundrum when young singles and couples who want to remain in the city are faced with child rearing and the question “should I stay or should I go?”

CEOs for Cities, a Chicago-based non-profit that brings together urban leaders to seek creative solutions to city issues, recently published a report that looks at ways for cities to attract and retain families. The report, called “Kids in Cities,” studies the drawbacks and obstacles parents face when raising kids in urban environments, and provides solutions for both parents and community leaders.

The study focuses on the value of children to cities, the pioneering urban parents who decide to live there, and three main concepts – safety, space and schools. Using those three concepts, solutions are fleshed out and will be tested starting fall 2007.

It is an exciting time. Solutions such as scavenger hunts and car-free zones are among the many ideas that will be tested over the next 18 months. It may be as simple as a scavenger hunt or kiosks with information geared towards children, or a school liason to negotiate school choices for parents, but the overarching goal is to make cities more transparent and welcoming to children, and get the “swing vote,” that is discontented suburban parents and tentative urban parents to commit to urban living.

The Kids in Cities report is for members only, but more information about the work of CEOs for Cities can be found at www.ceosforcities.org. Stay tuned for updates on the Kids in Cities effort at Joe Urban dot com.