Some Advantages and disadvantages of living in the city Can be easy access to public services or contamination , Respectively.
The cities are the oldest form of urbanization, with more than 10 thousand years of antiquity. They carry out economic, administrative and political activities that influence the localities nearby.
They need infrastructures such as roads, educational centers, health, aqueducts and transport that allow the activities of residents and foreigners.
They can be defined from a determined number of inhabitants and the square kilometers where they reside.
For example, Australia defines cities from 1,000 inhabitants. Its borders are defined by municipal development legislation, which is appropriate for each country, which also establishes the powers of municipalities and parliaments.
Municipalities are responsible for overseeing public service activities such as regulating traffic, providing primary health care, supervising cleaning contractors, education at pre-school and primary levels, as well as citizen security coordinated with Regional and national authorities.
The municipal parliaments are responsible for overseeing, controlling and legislating the management of municipalities. A city where several municipalities can form a metropolitan area, allowing easy access to the main public services of education, health, recreation areas and the development of manufacturing and commercial activities.
Cities have Noise pollution , of the air , Water And soil. Other disadvantages are: limited space for the development of new urbanities with all basic public services, evasion or non-collection of municipal taxes, lack of citizen security and deficit of public transport units.
The 10 advantages and disadvantages of the most important cities
To enumerate the benefits and disadvantages of residing in a city, we will focus mainly on those that belong to the European Union.
5 benefits of residing in a city
1- Public transport
In the European Union (EU), more priority is given to the use of public transport, which reduces noise and air pollution by the carbon dioxide emissions produced by the use of the private vehicle.
The closeness between the sleeping cities and the central areas make this important advance possible. Bicycles are also encouraged to be used on bicycle lanes.
2- Recycling
The EU is educating, promoting and implementing the recycling Through the classification of waste into fully identified waste containers in public places.
In this way, waste management is performed with fewer complications. Environmental projects have been carried out through the Benchmarking , To improve the accounting and measurement of environmental management.
3- Conservation of green spaces
The conservation of green spaces in the cities is an EU goal, it seeks to carry out projects for the reduction of urban expansion, paving and the loss of natural habitats.
Green spaces need to be managed in a strategy that implies urban competition policy requirements.
4- Promotion of the sowing of green areas in roofs in buildings
The aim is to create new botanical gardens in EU cities. These projects are sponsored by municipalities and environmental organizations.
The aim is to reduce noise and run-off by 60%. All the absorbed water evaporates and returns to the atmosphere .
5- Access to public services of education, health and culture
Educational, health and cultural facilities allow citizens of the EU to be satisfied with them, demanding continuous improvements.
This is due to the combination of public policies of the States to make citizenship of these services easier to access, from which human beings strengthen their values And principles of a diverse society, open and in search of more justice.
5 disadvantages of living in the city
1- Violence
The advent of violence in depressed areas has increased because of unemployment around large cities.
These violent acts range from micro-trafficking and smuggling to trafficking in persons. This phenomenon happens with severity in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
2- Collapse of public services
Large health centers in EU cities may suffer from truncation or collapse when providing services to patients due to the saturation of these by citizens, who instead of going to primary health centers, Hospitals.
3- Lack of essential public services
The lack of essential public services such as water, electricity, health and education can be caused by the disorderly growth of large cities in developing countries. Municipalities and national governments should coordinate measures to reduce this situation.
4- Lack of spaces for people with functional diversity
In developing countries, cities lack spaces for people with functional diversity.
There are more inclusive initiatives in cities such as Mexico City and Santiago de Chile occupied in this area.
5- Shortage of real estate offer
The shortage of real estate for rental and sale in cities is a social problem in developing countries, since there are cases of coexistence of 1 to 3 generations of the same family.
Land ownership should be encouraged and a housing rental market should be active. In Venezuela the housing deficit exceeds two million five hundred thousand homes.
Governments of developing countries must promote public policies to solve the problems of urbanism existing in capital and main cities.
They should also promote the development of rural areas for productive and residential use with the feasibility of offering public services and driving harmonious growth in their cities and remote areas.
Organizations for the development of cities
There are organizations dedicated to studying development parameters and problems in cities, such as:
- At the regional level, the European Commission (EC), Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
- At the global level, the United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) conduct studies on the development parameters and problems that cities present.
References
- Adonis, A. and Davies, B. (2015). City Villages, More Homes, Better Communities . London, IPPR
- Bottino, R. (2009). The City and Urbanization. Historical Studies. Rio de la Planta, Uruguay. Recovered from: estudioshistoricos.org.
- European Commission (2016). Quality of Life in European Cities 2015 . Luxembourg, Office for Official Publications of the European Union.
- Life in the City. Innovative solutions for Europe's urban environment. Retrieved from: ec.europa.eu.
- The Dawn of an Urban World. Retrieved from: who.int.