Posted on 03/20/2020 10:23:17 AM PDT by george76
The relentless march of urbanization, in the United States and around the world, has been coming for a long time. ..
America went from 8.8 percent urban in 1830 to 25.7 percent in 1870, then to a majority in 1920, and up to about two-thirds by the mid-1950s. We were 80 percent urban by 2010. North America has the most urban population in the world. But it is not alone in seeing an accelerating trend. The U.N. estimated that, in 2009, half the world’s population lived in urban areas for the first time in human history. Over 4 billion people live in cities today, six times as many as did in 1950. In 2000, there were 371 cities of a million or more people in the world; by 2018, that number was 548.
...
the dark side of urbanization has always included infectious disease. Humans did not evolve to live in such close proximity. Close physical contact spreads germs, which is why medieval and early-modern cities were so pestilential. London became the first city to break two million people in the early 1800s, and it suffered terrible outbreaks of cholera (then a brand-new disease) in the following decades. While sanitation has solved many of the old problems of disease, apartment buildings and mass transit still force people together in much closer quarters than houses and cars. And today, the most densely packed Western cities face the greatest risk, with Paris and San Francisco taking the extreme step of “shelter-in-place” orders, and New York’s mayor openly pondering the same thing.
Disease is far from the only risk of concentrating people and critical institutions in crowded spaces. Terrorist attacks are disproportionately aimed at cities, where easy targets range from landmark buildings (the World Trade Center) to packed trains (Madrid).
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
UN Agenda 21 ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
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Dick G
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I think Agenda 21 was aimed at depopulating the countryside and cramming everyone into enormous cities where they could be closely controlled.
People should do what they want to do, but I would like to see a “back to the land” trend where people “work from home” in states like Idaho (or wherever) and have a patch of ground where they grow a nice garden and learn some level of self-sufficiency. Disperse people and allow them to live a homestead existence if they choose.
Nothing much stops anyone from doing that day, of course, but if it became a social trend it might be nice. And if companies catch on that telecommuting is workable then more people could choose wherever they wanted to live.
They have nothing to say now.
Those high rise condos are all accessed by the same parking decks and the same elevators.
It only takes one.
Long Live Urban Sprawl!
ok, removed
I feel so blessed to be rural. There are only 52,000 people in my entire county that includes small towns. The biggest town is Athens, pop. 13,500. The median age is 41. We have rural sprawl instead of urban. Social distancing is the norm here. The downside is that there are no state of the art hospitals unless you travel to Chattanooga or Knoxville. Neither are that far, thank goodness!
Some challenged living in smaller communities, still better for many people than most cities.. imho
Having visited Manhattan last year, it’s a scary place for me without COVID19. Although the 9/11 memorial is outstanding.
We’re not all sqished together in the small communities. We don’t have any bars, honky-tonks, mass public transit, or even a mall. We do have a liqueur store and they are doing drive up sales. I’m guessing all the kids being home from school are fueling those sales. Most of our dine-in restaurants are still dining in. People just sit farther apart. Two or three of our local factories will be off next week. Most things here are business as usual.
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52,000 people; damn that’s crowded, there’s only 12,700 people here in my county, biggest town is Weaverville with a population of 3600.
Still overcrowded in my opinion, positively metropolitan.
Me, too!
Our scariest experience was being in Grand Central Station. As thousands of people rushed in all directions going to and from trains, while we stuck close to pillars in disbelief. We took trains from Jersey City to Manhattan and back while we stayed in NYC during a trip to Philly. Manhattan is crazy (but we liked it).
Wow! My little town is a megatropolis compared to that!
Thank God I’ma country boy!!!
Love this idea too. I’ve gotten into a bunch of homesteading youtube channels. It looks like a wonderful life. Maybe we can do it in a small way when hubby retires.
People should do what they want to do, but I would like to see a “back to the land” trend where people “work from home” in states like Idaho (or wherever) and have a patch of ground where they grow a nice garden and learn some level of self-sufficiency. Disperse people and allow them to live a homestead existence if they choose.
Nothing much stops anyone from doing that day, of course, but if it became a social trend it might be nice. And if companies catch on that telecommuting is workable then more people could choose wherever they wanted to live.
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