Like most people said, I think it depends on the kid. When I was younger, I rode the city bus alone all the time. Granted, I don’t live in NYC, but I live in a decent sized Midwestern city. There is crime here, though not as many, probably because there aren’t as many people. But I still rode the bus. I still walked to school almost every day (except when it was violently cold, as tends to happen in Wisconsin), and would walk to the park all the time in the summer.
I wouldn’t be afraid to let my kids walk to the park or school when they get to be that age. I live about two blocks from the school my kids would go to. Knowing that my husband and I would probably both have to work, they would probably be taking the bus to daycare after school anyway, but still…
People are indeed crazy about the safety of their kids out of all proportion to actual risk. I remember riding my bike five and a half miles to get to the base of the Channel 5 TV tower when I was 11…just because it seemed like a good idea. I wound up getting a ride back home from the chief engineer who recognized me from a commercial my dad and I had shot in their studio.
My first child is still safely in utero, but I foresee that my biggest hangup about letting the kid roam alone will be the fear that some well-meaning busybody will interfere with her. Kidnapping by non-family members is so rare, it basically doesn’t happen. Crazy old ladies taking the child by the wrist and marching them to the nearest police station? Totally plausible.
Like Dio I’m used to medium-sized Midwestern cities (um… okay, now he hops in tells me how big his city is), and my most surprising observation about New York City is that during the day and evening, there are SO many people around you at all times, you actually feel quite safe. The streets and subways are packed with normal people, and as a result, you all sort of cover each others’ backs.
Going back to Indiana and opening my front door at night gave me the willies, after my last trip to NYC.
This is my biggest fear, too, with the upcoming December release of Zeriel 2.0–I have every plan, given I live in what (last I checked) is the safest neighborhood in one of the top ten safest cities (really, it’s a town for 1/3 of the year when the kids aren’t at college) in the United States. I have no qualms about the kid biking the half-mile to the elementary school, especially since they can get there without leaving the sleepy neighborhood side streets–and by the time they’re 9-11, I expect they’ll be able to get on the bus and go to the city library without me having to hold their hand.
I’m just worried about some well-meaning busybody reporting me for letting the kid do stuff alone. Fortunately, there’s still an alive-and-well culture of kids playing in the neighborhood here with the knocking and asking to come out and play.