Modern, cities and the problems they face

A city is a place where thousands or even millions of people live in a very small area. Cities are much larger and more Important than towns or villages. Today, about half of the world’s population live in cities.

Cities have become very attractive places because they offer people not only jobs and work but also many things they can do in their free time. You can go to museums or art exhibitions, relax in public parks, listen to music at concerts or eat out at expensive restaurants that offer food from all over the world. Big department stores give you the pleasure of buying many things without leaving the building.

Modern cities all over the world face the same problems. One of them is poor housing. People often live in old houses or huts that don't have electricity or sanitation. As city population grows governments don't have the money to build modern apartment buildings.

Cars and industries are polluting city air and rivers more and more. Waste that people throw away is burned or ends up in landfills. All of this makes modern cities an unhealthy place to live in. Especially during morning and evening rush hours cities become packed with vehicles. Daily traffic jams make it impossible for people to get to work in time. City authorities are spending more and more money on public transportation and are talking other steps to reduce traffic in cities. A few years ago the London mayor made people pay to drive their cars into the city centre. Cities of today face many social problems. Crime, alcoholism and drug addiction is especially high in cities. Many young people are unemployed. Larger multiethnic cities face conflicts between groups with different cultural backgrounds. Blacks and whites in the USA and South Africa had a violent history in the 20th century. Even though residents of cities have a higher standard of living there remain many poor people. Government organizations work hard to get rid of poverty. They try to give such people better education and jobs.

The city of New York, for example, has a population of 8 million, but its metropolitan area includes many other cities around it a total of about 20 million people in all. Problems facing New York.

· New York as an urban centre faces big problems, just like many other cities in the world. Many of the problems arise in because of the large population found in the city.

· There is a shortage of adequate and decent accommodation. Many people migrate to New York in the hope of enjoying the facilities in an urban centre, but find they do not have enough money and so end up living in very poor housing.

· The port of New York, and the city as a whole, experience fog. Fog is very thick mist. It is a serious problem, because when it occurs road traffic finds it hard to move owing to the poor visibility, and likewise ships find it difficult to move safety.

New York port in the fog.

· The fact that New York is made up of islands means that it is surrounded with water. The problem with this is that there is a lack of space for expansion of the city.

· Pollution is another problem facing New York City. It happens because New York has many industries and cars disposing of waste products, especially gases into the air but also liquids into the water. Pollution means making the environment dangerously impure.

· Congestion: New York is overpopulated and therefore experiences congestion in terms of housing as well as from traffic. There are very bad traffic jams during rush hours, from 7.00 am to 10.00 am and from 4.00 to 5.00 pm. The port, too, experiences congestion, with too many ships wanting to use the facilities.

· The city also faces the problem of slums. A slum is a part of the city with poor living conditions, such as inadequate housing poor hygiene and many other problems. These slums are mainly found in Halrem and the Bronx.

Poor housing in Harlem/The Bronx

· The crime rate is quite high. This is partly because of the high number of unemployed people living in New York. Serious crimes like murder, robbery and violence take place in some areas are. Unemployment is common in New York. So many people migrate there with the hope of finding jobs that not all of them can be successful. Therefore many people in the city are unemployed.

· Commuting from one place to another presents a problem, because many people live far away from their work places. This involves a considerable loss of time each day. It can be difficult to commute from one inland to another.

· Waste disposal is also a problem facing the city of New York. Owing to the large population and the many industries, masses of waste accumulates and causes a problem of contamination to the environment, as well as being difficult to dispose off.

Tokyo

Tokyo has the same exact problems that face any big city in the world.

Many people are answering questions based on Live in Japan and not the city itself.

Pollution, overpopulation, traffic, are all problems Tokyo faces, the same problems other cities around the world face. The only exception would be the crime rate in Japan is lower than most other world cities, not to say crime does not exist (it does).

People keep saying it is expensive, well of course, it is a major city, tell me a major city that isn't expensive? Tokyo, London, New York, all expensive. Someone said lO dollars for lunch, don't know where they lived, but I work and live in a major Japanese district and spend no more then $4 US dollars on a good lunch. Just like any other place in the world, you just go to know where to go.

Other problems such as racism etc is prevalent in any society.

But if we were to talk about TOKYO as the subject asks, Tokyo there are many single working women, I happen to know many, and I can tell you, they are' not looked down a pon. As fo^r being a foreigner, well it helps if you speak and know the culture! I know foreigners who live here years, don't bother to learn the language or anything, well yeah, they always complain about stuff. If you're going to live in a country, try to learn the language don't you think? This is the same in any country not just Japan.

As for trains, yes they don't run 24 hours a day, but very very few world subways operate 24 hours a day. New York City runs trains 24 hours a day, and they are in a billion dollar deficit and supported by tax payer money. Trains in Japan are operated by private companies and have to make a profit as private companies. If no profit, you close like any other business. Other major city subways and trains also close at night. This allows stations to be cleaned, trains and tracks to be maintained etc. One thing about Japan Is trains run almost exactly on time, you can set your watch to it

In short, the problems of Tokyo are the same problems faced by any major city in the world, besides the different culture and country, it’s the same stuff.

From my perspective, the problems were:

· Overcrowding (limited living space, crowded trains/public transport, traffic)

· Sexism (Men leering at/touching women, women's careers are often limited to the lower ranks in a company, unmarried women are looked down upon)

· Racism (Some areas are openly anti-foreigner, foreigners (especially non-white foreigners) are routinely refused for jobs, criticism of non-Japanese Asians is accepted in the media)

You are right, it is overpopulated for such a small island. The rush hour on the train is a nightmare. It's like human hamburger. If you want to drive it’s impossible and it's expensive (and you pay to use highway) You can't do anything about this cause it's just too much people

· 2nd: man and woman are not equal. But it works both ways. All man has to work and MARRIED woman can't get good jobs. This is changing as time goes on because many young woman works now. The other way around is the train problem. Like I said trains are crowded. Some Japanese woman can yell "pervert" anytime and he'll be kicked out Some time it's true and sometimes he's innocent but all people believe the girl. They don't even get a fair trial and it's getting ridiculous.

· 3rd: There are too little foreigners. Like 99% are Japanese. People stare at you if you're not Japanese. Especially Africans and brown people. If you are a Asian or American it's better but not by much. If you live there they get bullied all the time. (I've experienced this) Solving this takes time and a lot of people. Someone is going to have to tell that it's racism to these people.

Mexico

Mexico faces significant environmental challenges affecting almost every section of the country. Vast expanses of southern and southeastern tropical forests have been denuded for cattle-raising and agriculture. For example, tropical forests covered almost half of the state of Tabasco in 1940 but less than 10 percent by the late 1980s. During the same period, pastureland increased from 20 to 60 percent of the state's total area. Analysts reported similar conditions in other tropical sections of Mexico. Deforestation has contributed to serious levels of soil erosion nationwide. In 1985 the government classified almost 17 percent of all land as totally eroded, 31 percent in an accelerated state of erosion, and 38 percent demonstrating signs of incipient erosion.

Soil destruction is particularly pronounced in the north and northwest, with more than 60 percent of land considered in a total or accelerated state of erosion. Fragile because of its semiarid and arid character, the soil of the region has become increasingly damaged through excessive cattle-raising and irrigation with waters containing high levels of salinity. The result is a mounting problem of desertification throughout the region.

Mexico's vast coastline faces a different, but no less difficult, series of environmental problems. For example, inadequately regulated petroleum exploitation in the Coatzacoalcos-Minatitlan zone in the Gulf of Mexico has caused serious damage to the waters and fisheries of Rho Coatzacoalcos. The deadly explosion that racked a working-class neighborhood in Guadalajara in April 1992 serves as an appropriate symbol of environmental damage in Mexico. More than 1,000 barrels of gasoline seeped from a corroded Mexican Petroleum (Petryleos Mexicanos-Pemex) pipeline into the municipal sewer system, where it combined with gases and industrial residuals to produce a massive explosion that killed 190 persons and injured nearly 1,500 others.

Mexico City confronts authorities with perhaps their most daunting environmental challenge. Geography and extreme population levels have combined to produce one of the world's most polluted urban areas. Mexico City sits in a valley surrounded on three sides by mountains, which serve to trap contaminants produced by the metropolitan area's 15 million residents. One government study in the late 1980s determined that nearly 5 million tons of contaminants were emitted annually in the atmosphere, a tenfold increase over the previous decade. Carbons and hydrocarbons from the region's more than 3 million vehicles account for approximately 80 percent of these contaminants, with another 15 percent, primarily of sulfur and nitrogen, coming from industrial plants. During the dry winter months, untreated fecal matter also becomes airborne. The resulting dangerous mix is responsible for a wide range of respiratory illnesses. One study of twelve urban areas worldwide in the mid-1980s concluded that the residents of Mexico City had the highest levels of lead and cadmium in their blood. The volume of pollutants from Mexico City has damaged the surrounding ecosystem as well. For example, wastewater from Mexico City that flows north and is used for irrigation in the state of Hidalgo has been linked to congenital birth defects and high levels of gastrointestinal diseases in that state.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, the government enacted numerous antipollution policies in Mexico City with varied degrees of success. Measures such as vehicle emissions inspections, the introduction of unleaded gasoline, and the installation of catalytic converters on new vehicles helped reduce pollution generated by trucks and buses. In contrast, one of the government's most prominent actions, the No Driving Day program, may have inadvertently contributed to higher pollution levels. Under the program, metropolitan area residents were prohibited from driving their vehicles one day each work week based on the last number of their license plate. However, those with the resources to do so purchased additional automobiles to use on the day their principal vehicle was prohibited from driving, thus adding to the region's vehicle stock. Thermal inversions reached such dangerous levels at various times in the mid-1990s that the government declared pollution emergencies, necessitating sharp temporary cutbacks in vehicle use and industrial production.

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 45967