PARTING THOUGHTS ON SEVILLE

We departed Spain yesterday after a month of learning Spanish, eating tapas, and enjoying so many different parts of the country. We are very thankful for our time there -- and also for Spain's Eurocup victory on Sunday (except for my oldest son who switched his allegiances from France to Italy).

Stop off at pocket park playground after dinner in Seville.

On our last night in Seville, as we walked through the central city for dinner, I continued to be struck by Seville's urban landscape and how it supports raising families with children in a dense environment.  On that last night we walked twenty minutes to dinner through car-free pedestrian corridors, stopped off at a pocket park playground, and enjoyed our passage through numerous public plazas, taking in the sights and sounds of the people gathered there.

We came across many other families with children doing the same as us.  In Seville, which has a population density six times greater than Austin's, children are very much a part of the urban fabric. Throughout our walks in Seville we saw families walking out of 5-story apartment buildings, tots riding their trikes in public plaza, and parents pushing babies in strollers.  (At some point, with all the babies we kept seeing, I began to worry that maybe there was something in the water!).

In Austin, where urban densification and redevelopment has pushed families outside our city's urban core, I am excited about the lessons that dense but also family-friendly cities like Seville can offer our city to draw and retain more families with children in the urban core.

Now in Paris. Potential future blog posts to come.

Other tidbits from our 4 1/2 weeks in Spain:

• ice cream cones consumed by our family: 75+ (not kidding!)
• chocolate croissants consumed: stopped counting
• sangrias consumed: unknown
• do my jeans still fit: not telling

Seville

Seville

POPULATION & DENSITY: SEVILLE VS AUSTIN


Seville:
city population: 703,000; metro area: 1.5 million
city size: 52 square miles
population density: 13,000/sq mile
summer climate: super hot

Austin:
city population: 790,000; metro area: 1.7 million
city size: 272 square miles
population density: 2,653/sq mile
summer climate: super hot

View of our Seville hotel (see swimming pool on left)
and area around the Cathedral.