Cities

[Mecharic]

Cities​

So yesterday I had to go to my relatives house for Thanksgiving and we went through Philadelphia (Go Eagles! Go Phillies! F*ck you Flyers!) and I was looking at some of the awesomeness that was Philadelphia and I was just like "dayum...".

Why did I go "dayum"? Well that's because I was thinking about it and I suddenly realized "holy sh*t we humans built this! A mountain of glass and steel filled with millions of people and so massive it creates its own weather patterns. And then we humans went and figured out how to supply such a giant all-consuming entity as a city." Philadelphia isn't even all that big for a city, just a few skyscrapers and a lot of suburbs and lower class housing. Look at New York (bottom) or Tokyo (top). Tokyo (metropolitan area) has a population of 37 million people - there are entire nations smaller than that single city. New York is sometimes considered the planets largest machine (due to the complexity of the interlocking infrastructures needed to support it) and the worlds largest megastructure.

So it got me thinking: just how awesome are cities? I personally think that cities are possibly the most important creation humanity has come up with so far, or at least in the top 10 with like the wheel, lever, and agriculture. Cities create their own weather patterns by warping air flow (heating it up with their layers of pavement & walls) and making completely new environments for creatures to live in. Cities are the only environment on earth created solely for humans and build solely by humans - no other living creatures are needed directly in a city for it to function. I think that alone is an accomplishment worth remembering.

And come-on, they're pretty beautiful, aren't they?


But what do you think about cities? Are they human wastelands that act as a blight upon the planets surface? Are they areas for human evolution to continue? Perhaps they're a new biome that will allow for new creatures to evolve? Are they a future we need to reach for or a past we need to shake off?

 

[Zack9699]

Based on simply personal opinion, I don't see much beauty in modern cities. Instead, I find beauty in nature, for many reasons might I add. Nature in of itself is much simpler than cities, and I find it very relaxing to spend my time outside.

 

[OldManJ98]

My thoughts:
First, I agree with most of what you said. Even though I live in a smallish New England town (26,000 people) I want to move to a city one day. I personally love the city of Boston, and not only cause it is my local city. I have been to many other cities. NYC is amazing, and I think DC is okey.

 

[Billy_Rage]

I live in a town of eight thousand, I have been to Bangkok, and Melbourne other towns and cities. I see the beauty in soaring towers of glass and ingenuity but I also see the beauty in snowy mountains and lush green forests. While cities have stunted humanities evolutionary growth, it has caused us to evolve in a technological sense.

So the cities are the way of the future, of course they would need to adapt to be more green but everything can be improved.

 

[Terence29]

While I do find cities and the way they are built fascinating, I can not at all say that I like them. I have lived in the outskirts of a small town in the middle of nowhere of south Germany for the majority of my life, a town with a population of about 13.000 people. Before I moved here, I lived in an even smaller village of not more than 2.000 people, after I was born south of Japan (I was too young to remember anything there). A few months ago, I spent a whole week in London and there are many things I discovered that I don't like about bigger cities at all.

The first thing I immediately realized on my arrival was the horrible air. It took me a while to being able to properly breath in the environment. I was not used to that. Second thing was the constant loud noises from everywhere. I am used to the silence, when being both indoors and outdoors. Entering a building or the hotel room where it was quiet was a big relief to me every time. Now to my third point, the huge amount of pollution. Despite the air pollution I have already mentioned, there was so much trash lying around in almost every corner. Even in the park people did not bother to find and use trashcans, and threw it into the grass and bushes instead. And when I arrived back in my hotel room, there was some sort of... black crust inside my nose and I was suddenly getting pimples on my face; something I have never had before, and never had again after I left London.

Of course I have actively been in other cites where most of the above points counted for as well, those being Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Würzburg (all in Germany) and I can't say I liked any of them. So in conclusion, while I do find cities fascinating, I really prefer the nature and countryside, which is also optically much more beautiful in my opinion. No city can top the beauty of the nature, or the surrounding forests and mountains of where I live. I would never live in a city on a long term, unless a college or a special workplace forces me to do so, but that is just my point of view.

 

[DarkPonys]

Well, living in the most liveable city in the world, Melbourne, I think cities are pretty cool. But I prefer the feeling you get when you go outside and just want to explore, or run around for no reason. Going into a forest almost feels like magic to me.

 

[HereticTakao]

Eh, from a personal opinion I think they are beautiful, though my opinion really can't be trusted since I don't live in a big city like NYC.

 

[Jamtrav]

The lights in the city are so...BRIGHT AND ANNOYING

 

[Made_By]

No city is betetr than this one

 

[krios41]

sure, city's are a-maze-ing! cleanest air you'll ever breath, no noise at all, very clean streets. love it!

oh oops, wrong pictures
#obvioussarcasmisobvious

 

[krios41]

Aren't those cooling towers from a Nuclear Power Plant? Which means that the "pollution" is boiled water, aka, steam. Also known as not real pollution.

Click to shrink...

i know, but it's more the looks of it that i chose that picture, nuclear waste isn't polution per sé but it's definitly something negative, and be honest, who likes it to look the whole day at such things? i certainly don't

 

[Mecharic]

i know, but it's more the looks of it that i chose that picture, nuclear waste isn't polution per sé but it's definitly something negative, and be honest, who likes it to look the whole day at such things? i certainly don't

Click to shrink...

Nuclear Waste is less damaging to the environment than a Hydroelectric Dam... to dispose of Nuclear Waste you just need to bury it deep in the earth (which is where it came from) but hydroelectric dams wreck all hell with river systems.

 

[krios41]

Nuclear Waste is less damaging to the environment than a Hydroelectric Dam... to dispose of Nuclear Waste you just need to bury it deep in the earth (which is where it came from) but hydroelectric dams wreck all hell with river systems.

Click to shrink...

i agree
BUT, if shit hits the fan in a nuclear powerplant...

everyone remembers tsjernobyl?

 

[Mecharic]

i agree
BUT, if shit hits the fan in a nuclear powerplant...

everyone remembers tsjernobyl?

Click to shrink...

Here's a fun fact: a large part of the Chernobyl disaster area (anything within 30 miles of the plant) has been declared a wildlife refuge! That's right people, humans are literally more destructive to the environment than a nuclear meltdown. In fact, many animals that were driven out of the region by human expansion have migrated back into the region and are thriving in the forest and meadows there. Birds have even been found to nest on the shell covering the plant itself, with minimal ill affects. Indeed, trees, which are considered one of the most radiation-vulnerable life forms on the planet, have turned cities and pavement back into mixed deciduous forests in the 28 years since the region was evacuated by humans. Endangered species and even species extinct in the wild (and reintroduced) have come to call this place home and have no problems keeping up a stable population in the region.

So yes, a nuclear disaster does cause a die off initially, but the creatures that survive said die off end up far more resilient and have far larger populations than creatures in areas inhabited by humans.

[This was once a large town in Chernobyl. You can see the plant in the background by the way. In the middle of a forest that has grown since humans left.]
​

 

[krios41]

Here's a fun fact: a large part of the Chernobyl disaster area (anything within 30 miles of the plant) has been declared a wildlife refuge! That's right people, humans are literally more destructive to the environment than a nuclear meltdown. In fact, many animals that were driven out of the region by human expansion have migrated back into the region and are thriving in the forest and meadows there. Birds have even been found to nest on the shell covering the plant itself, with minimal ill affects. Indeed, trees, which are considered one of the most radiation-vulnerable life forms on the planet, have turned cities and pavement back into mixed deciduous forests in the 28 years since the region was evacuated by humans. Endangered species and even species extinct in the wild (and reintroduced) have come to call this place home and have no problems keeping up a stable population in the region.

So yes, a nuclear disaster does cause a die off initially, but the creatures that survive said die off end up far more resilient and have far larger populations than creatures in areas inhabited by humans.

View attachment 45935
[This was once a large town in Chernobyl. You can see the plant in the background by the way. In the middle of a forest that has grown since humans left.]
​

Click to shrink...

i know of the animal and plantlife thing, i once had a speaking excersise and gues what? it was about mah favorite horse the prjevalski horse (r whatever) it flourishes there...
so, my conclusion (i like opinions): citys can look nice and all, i agree on that, but it certainly isn't the msot quietest and doesn't have the cleanest air, but hey, who cares, in a couple years all we do is breath Co² right? oh, i'm such an optimistic guy ^_^

 

[Mecharic]

i know of the animal and plantlife thing, i once had a speaking excersise and gues what? it was about mah favorite horse the prjevalski horse (r whatever) it flourishes there...
so, my conclusion (i like opinions): citys can look nice and all, i agree on that, but it certainly isn't the msot quietest and doesn't have the cleanest air, but hey, who cares, in a couple years all we do is breath Co² right? oh, i'm such an optimistic guy ^_^

Click to shrink...

#AgeOfThePlant!

 

[CanteringCodfish]

I bet she's happy she lives in a city..... Right?
From Friday 5 to Tuesday 9 December 1952, 4,000 to 12,000 people died prematurely from smog (smoke/fog) that descended over london. Over 100,000 citizens were made sick. Go Cities!

 

[Mecharic]

I bet she's happy she lives in a city..... Right?
From Friday 5 to Tuesday 9 December 1952, 4,000 to 12,000 people died prematurely from smog (smoke/fog) that descended over london. Over 100,000 citizens were made sick. Go Cities!

Click to shrink...

1) #China
2) #1952, #NoRegulations

Look at a city in a fully developed nation with proper environmental regulations, those are the kind I like

 

[CanteringCodfish]

1) #China
2) #1952, #NoRegulations

Look at a city in a fully developed nation with proper environmental regulations, those are the kind I like

Click to shrink...

My point is that Cities really hhaven'tchanged that much. There were deadly smog issues in 1952, and even now in china, people have to wear masks to prevent lung disease.

 

[Mecharic]

My point is that Cities really hhaven'tchanged that much. There were deadly smog issues in 1952, and even now in china, people have to wear masks to prevent lung disease.

Click to shrink...

That's because China, like most of the world in the 1950s, is going through an industrial expansion and turning from a mostly agricultural society into a mostly industrial society. China's cities will look like New York once China finishing its expansion phase.

 

[G0atfather]

I like both

Cities:

and

Nature:

 

[BulbousDevourer]

Cities are cool to look at, but IMO nature is a lot more interesting than some dirty, loud, overcrowded city.

 

[Crugnor]

Cities are undoubtedly Humanity's greatest idea and creation. Where would everything else that Humanity has produced come from if the sheer industrial power of cities wasn't present? It's one of the few things that we've made that rivals the complexity of nature itself. On top of that, I find cities and nature equally beautiful - and we have a mixture of both in New Zealand. How great is it to know that every time you turn a street corner, there's some form of trees or plant flourishing?

To dilute that statement, cities are beautiful for their simplicity, yet also their complexity, just like nature.

 

[wafflecash]

There is places like New York City and then there is places like De- (Gunshots are heard) troit
saying this as a person that lives there pls don't flame me to death

 

[Ryciera]

My opinion is biased. I've lived in a small city my entire life.

Cities are amazing things. They take a lot of thought and a lot of innovation, and are great social opportunities. Being around a lot of people better equips another person for being social, which is engrained in humanity anyway. And with the right planning and right work, cities can be even better.

I won't deny, at this point in time, they're less than ideal. I want to say most cities are not sustainable on their own and some are potentially detrimental toward health. Salt Lake City, where I live, has a high autism rate, and while they don't know exactly why this is, many speculate it has to do with the atrocious pollution here. On top of that, we have very high asthma rates, and I've developed mild asthma at a stage later than childhood, along with my mother and father, all living here since I was born.

That said, cities have potential to become even better than they are today. They're the hub for creation, technology, and expansion, but obviously there are some negative effects of being in a city. Yet, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans a few years ago, this gave them a new opportunity to completely rebuild their city from the ground up. With that in mind, the city began focusing on a means of becoming much more 'green' than the average city. They focused on keeping it environmentally friendly and self-sustaining.

Meanwhile, here in Salt Lake, more trees are planted throughout town, more solar panels are erected, rent-a-bikes are planted all around town with bicycle taxi companies that frequent the downtown area. We have an incredibly good transit system for busses and trains that run frequently throughout the valley, and on 'red' days, when our pollution is off the charts, people are prompted to stay indoors and use public transit. All that mixed with mountains only 15 minutes away and a lot of public nature spots (grottos, hollows, gulleys, and nature trails) makes it kinda worth the pollution and noise.

Cities are pretty awesome. And they have potential to get even more awesome.

 

[A'mika]

As a completely random aside, there are approximately the same number of people in the country of Canada (the SECOND LARGEST country in the world) as there are in the city of Tokyo, Japan.
At least, if the numbers that I heard last year are still approximately correct.
... yeah.

 

[james_block2]

Depends. The city itself? they can range from bland to amazing. (I personally like cities that don't look like... every other city. I like the ones that look like they actually have some cultural input.)

Though I agree that pollution associated with large cities, particularly in the form of smog, is both dangerous and detrimental, I don't believe that is the subject of this thread. You don't necessarily have to bring up cheese when talking about milk.

Cities themselves, as long as they are well-kept, are orderly, organized, and productive pieces of a society.

I'm usually not that interested in nature unless there's a really good spot. Like e2782's picture.