
At Pike Place Market, seniors and kids work well together - wallflower
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/at-pike-place-market-seniors-and-kids-work-well-together-and-schools-and-daycares-nationwide-are-noticing/
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sandworm101
>> ... regularly invites older adults to interact with the children.

I'm not convinced about this. I know a couple teachers. They are always
getting sick right after the school year begins. Kids are germ factories.
Their immune systems are still in a learning mode. I'm not sure that it is the
safest thing for elderly people to spend time with large numbers of random
children.

Anecdotally, a few years back my city created an "inter-generational
playground" in a local park. It did not go well. Old people cannot play the
physical games that kids want to play. Sand and grass were removed because it
was difficult for older people to walk on. Net result: kids falling onto
cement. We need to keep kids more physically active, not restrain them to
safely accommodate the presence of elderly people in the playground.

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LeifCarrotson
> Their immune systems are still in a learning mode. I'm not sure that it is
> the safest thing for elderly people to spend time with large numbers of
> random children.

Their immune systems seem to be in hyperdrive in my experience; a painful,
wearying plague that puts me on my back is barely a speed bump for my
son...just more sniffles and snot production. I think it's more their hygiene
habits are still in a learning mode!

As a parent and spouse of a preschool teacher, though, the kids aren't
randomly selected to go to these events. It's just common courtesy to not
bring your kid to interact with other kids, visit friends in the hospital, or
visit with seniors when they're sick. The trouble comes when parents schedule
themselves to be unavailable when their kids are supposed to be at a child
care or event that prohibits sick kids and then rationalize/deny the symptoms.

But as far as the seniors go, my infant/toddler/preschooler is perpetually the
most popular person in the building when we go to visit Great-Grandma at her
assisted living center (assuming there aren't other kids about). People come
out of the woodwork when he giggles, and the nurses all say that it's great
for them. Carpeted rooms with chairs and toys/activities that need some grown-
up help are probably better formats for interaction than a concrete
playground, though.

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viburnum
Pike Place Market is so great and popular, cities should really build more
markets like it (including Seattle).

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mc32
I have a bit of an issue with places which get coöpted and eventually
dependent on tourism. Some tourism is good, but places which depend and target
tourists don’t serve the local community as well. I hate when things become
spectacles.

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mikestew
I’m of two minds. I rarely go there as there are “too many tourists”. Even
when I worked within walking distance, I wouldn’t eat lunch there for the same
reason. OTOH, were it not for those icky tourists, would Pike Place stay open?
I know of similar venues across the country that were on the verge of being
torn down until they were turned into tourist-attracting spectacles.

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mc32
There is that dilemma. Traditional role (serving locals) vs modern role of
serving tourists who're looking for something that defines a place (among
other reasons). I understand that things change, the economy changes and
things modernize. It's not all that different from gentrification. I guess, in
a best of both worlds, it would be measured and not so kitsch.

I think things jump the shark when in the manner of "the measurement becomes
the goal" So, like if something incidentally attracts some tourists that's
great --but once the location targets and begins to specialize with tourists
in mind, then it's changed, for the worse, with respect to the local
community.

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mywittyname
Markets are not places where locals and tourists go for the same reasons.
There's little overlap in what a tourist would buy compared to a local: most
tourists aren't interested in deals on toilet paper and dish soap, and locals
aren't interested in City Name Tchotchkes. Most locals find supermarkets and
malls to be far superior places to shop.

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bobthepanda
That’s mostly a function of only malls and supermarkets really being legal to
build though. You couldn’t build something like Pike Place Market today in
most communities.

And as far as malls go, those are also dying in large numbers in the States
now that their traditional department store anchor tenants are shriveling up.

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neonate
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