From the mountains to the city, part 1
In about a month I'll be on vacation in a small town in the mountains. Last year, I had some thoughts about the experience of a small town compared to where I live. I think I'll write about that again for Futurism when I go. Recently, I went into the city for my little brother's high school graduation, so I want to write about what I think it would be like to live in the city, compared to living where I do now, in the suburbs.
Welcome back to Futurism, where I speculate a hopeful future thanks to solarpunk ideology. I hope you'll join me.
Cities in the US, much of America, and quite a few other parts of the world are overwhelmingly built for cars. Raleigh, North Carolina, the city I visited recently, is no exception. Particularly, Raleigh has a lot of one-way roads which prove challenging for drivers. There are no bike lanes in any part of Raleigh I've been to, and the sidewalks I've seen are definitely not maintained. Despite Raleigh's car-hostile design, it is the primary way for most people to get around, because most people who are in Raleigh don't live there, instead living in a nearby suburb or "commuter town", like Cary or Fuquay-Varina, where they have to drive to get to work.
Also the only public transport Raleigh seems to have is a bus service (and maybe an Amtrak station). At least there seem to be a lot of buses.
I like cars, they're cool and all, but god damn are they inefficient transportation machines and overly efficient murder machines, and god damn does the infrastructure to make them usable cost us so much money and space.
My grandma came from that mountain town to here to watch my brother graduate. After we had gotten back home from Raleigh, and in response to my dad mentioning how the site was on the edge of the city which made it easier to get back onto the highway home, she mentioned that there were "too many people" here (for her comfort, etc).
This is something a lot of people from small towns feel when visiting the city, and hell it's how I feel when visiting the city. It's a much busier place than out here in the suburbs.
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I saw someone online, iirc on Fedi under the #solarpunk tag, mention that to restore nature and make the most efficient use of land, we should be getting more people to live in dense cities. I think they're right, but there's more we need to think about, too.
Sometimes, people live in areas where they have a deep connection to the land. This is probably why people still live in Flint, Michigan despite it being uninhabitable for years.
More often, people don't live in the city because of cost. Obviously living in the city would make it easier to get to work and other things in the city, but it's too expensive to live there, between rent, utilities, and parking. Because it's in the city, and things are easily accessible there, the land value goes up, which means it's more expensive to buy land, which ironically but unsurprisingly makes it more difficult to sell. It's bought up by wealthy development and real estate companies anyway. This is a capitalism issue more than anything else.
Other reasons like transportation availability or lack thereof exist, but more than that (and less than the cost), a lot of people like the quiet, simple life afforded to you by living in a place with less people. They like being able to know everyone, it gives them their sense of community. (That's why people in small churches prefer small churches, too.)
Cars certainly contribute to it, but the construction of cities are like heat sinks. So it gets pretty hot in the city.
Also, especially after September 11, 2001 and numerous movies in which things fall from the buildings onto people in the streets, people [who don't live in the city] are uncomfortable [with the idea of] being in a narrow space between sky-scraping buildings.
Personally, I don't quite like how insanely dense these places are, even despite half of them being just parking lots. It kinda makes me feel claustrophobic. I don't know if I'm just unfamiliar with the areas I've been (we really only go once every couple years for the museum and such), but I can't wrap my head around where things are in Raleigh (or even what areas constitute "Raleigh").
I think it was Jason from Not Just Bikes who said, "Cities aren't loud, cars are loud." While that's definitely true, at least the last part, there's a lot of other noise in a city too, particularly chatter and AC (and that'll definitely be a bigger problem thanks to the climate crisis). Even where I live now it's pretty damn loud outside, mostly because of AC units but yes, also because of cars.
I think there are a lot of things that dissuade people from living in a city, cost and quiet at the top of them. And these kinds of dissuading issues with cities are at odds with making better use of our land, pulling people out of the suburbs (and some other small towns) and into the city.
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