Author and neighborhood organizer Mike Lanza spoke at the first Harker Speaker Series event of the year on Sept. 14 to share his insights into how neighborhoods can be great places for children to grow up and lead fun, fulfilling lives.Lanza made the point that many kids spend too much time in front of screens, be they television sets, laptops or tablets. On average, he noted, kids spend about eight hours each day consuming visual media. Their lives are also highly scheduled, with sporting events, lessons and other activities. “They have no time on their own in the world to do things,” Lanza said.Lack of unstructured play time leads to several problems, he said, among them obesity, depression and lack of creativity. He added, however, that taking away screen time and sending kids off into their neighborhoods won’t work on its own, because many neighborhoods are “boring.”

To remedy this problem in his Menlo Park neighborhood, Lanza made changes to his home to make it into a place where neighborhood children could play whenever they wanted, including a driveway that could be drawn on, a picnic table in the front yard, a whiteboard fixed to a fence and a playhouse where kids can write on the walls.

“We’re defacing everything we can,” Lanza said. “We want this place to look like kids live here. We want them to feel like they own this place.”

As a result, neighborhood children regularly engage with one another in outdoor activities, and families have come to know one another much better.