D.C. group honors Spokane, Seattle for kid-friendliness

Spokane can add another designation to its list of positive attributes.

It’s kid-friendly, according to a national organization that advocates education as a way to stabilize the world population.

Spokane ranked second behind Des Moines, Iowa, among 80 large cities in the newly published ranking by Population Connection, a grass-roots organization based in Washington, D.C.

The Lilac City received an A-plus grade overall as one of the best cities in America in which to raise children.

Last Saturday, Spokane was named an All-America City by the National Civic League for the first time since 1975.

In the Population Connection’s honor roll of kid-friendly cities, Seattle was ranked No. 1 among the country’s 20 major cities.

The report ranks 100 of the largest cities in the nation in terms of population, health, education and community and Spokane received either an A or and A- in each of these categories, said Peter H. Kostmayer, president of Population Connection, which advocates sexual education and opposes Bush administration policies on abstinence-only education.

“Spokane does well on teen pregnancy,” Kostmayer said. The city has 11 percent live births to teenage mothers, which is the national average. That compares with 19 percent in Cleveland and 18 percent in Birmingham, Ala., which ranked the lowest among cities in the Kid-Friendly report.

Spokane also stacked up well against other cities on other key factors included in the report, including:

• Population under 18 years of age, 24.8 percent.

• Infant mortality rate, 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births.

• Residents with a high school diploma, 88.1 percent.

But the city scored lower in other categories, including:

• Eligible women not receiving Title X services or other health services, 56 percent.

• Kids living in poverty, 16 percent.

• Rate of violent crimes, 709 per 100,000 population.

Kostmayer acknowledged that many of these problems are not as much the fault of cities as they are the result of policies handed down from Washington, D.C. Programs such as Title X, he said, are underfunded and though Spokane’s teen pregnancy rate is average by U.S. standards, the nation as a whole has the highest rate in the industrialized world.

“You can’t tell a 17-year-old child that the only way to avoid pregnancy is to avoid sex,” Kostmayer said. Though abstinence is important, he said, comprehensive sexual education must include knowledge of contraception to be effective.

Included in the Kid-Friendly Cities report was praise for the Spokane County’s teen pregnancy prevention program, Your Choice, Not Chance. The program, which provides support groups and mentors for teenage girls at risk for becoming parents, collaborates with many agencies and community groups.

The ranking by Population Connection comes a few days after the All-America City designation, based partly on Spokane programs to get young people involved in the community. Spokane also has recently won Tree City U.S.A. recognition and was recognized as an intelligent community internationally for its high-tech infrastructure.

“It’s great,” said Mayor Jim West of the Kid-Friendly designation. “It’s one thing after another.”