[beej71]

I grew up in the 70s in a town of 30,000 and consider that time free-range. There was no public transit, only bicycles.

[buu700]

Manhattan is one thing, but I would never let my kids go to the 70s unsupervised.

[saintfire]

This is the helicopter parenting the article is condemning. Children made it through the 70's just fine.

[spicyusername]

    just fine

Just a dash of survivor bias here I believe.

I'm pretty sure the data shows the opposite actually, that compared to today some percentage more of them didn't make it out.