15 minute cities

[redback]

I hope you're right. With 350 million people you are a lot different to Australia with our 25 million mostly along the coastline.

 

[Tetters]

Have a look at the definitions of global cities. The subject is huge. Mankind appears to be suffering from a similar plight to sheep. This of course is just for those who feel the necessity of investigating.

 

[redback]

Have a look at the definitions of global cities. The subject is huge. Mankind appears to be suffering from a similar plight to sheep. This of course is just for those who feel the necessity of investigating.

Yeah, New York now includes Long Island, North and central New Jersey, Northeast Pennsylvania and the Hudson Valley. Probably more than 20 million people. Yet, rather than sheep the urban warriors are seen as privileged. Stylish apartment, coffee maker, boutique shops, gym around the corner, three flights overseas every year, cocktail bar, library down the street, membership to the art gallery and invites to new exhibits, meetings with friends in cafe bar etc. The lifestyle of some of these sheep is envied.

 

[redback]

Water - rivers and beaches. Adelaide sprawls 170 kilometers along St. Vincent's Gulf.
Back in the time of the First Nation it was a five-river swamp because the rivers never got past the sand dunes along the beach front. After WW1 &2 the creeks were 'harnessed', concreted and made to drain directly into the sea. For a long time, even in my time, Adelaide and Yemen were the only two ports in the world that ships did not take on water.
But 'necessity is the mother of invention' and now the water is quite good. In fact, we are trained from birth to conserve it. Five-minute showers once a day unless going out at night. Dishwashers only used when handwashing is not possible. Micro-sprinklers and drippers in the garden. Storage of river flows in winter into underground aquifers via bore holes. Still, we cannot support many more mouths and the limit is coming fast. Just the new suburbs built this year will test our water resources in a drought year.
I know Great Britain, Canada and USA have abundant water but what of the pollution?

 

[Meadowlark]

... The lifestyle of some of these sheep is envied.

That is truly funny. As in... Oh, I so wish I had a membership in the art gallery. Do they take Organic gardeners?

Envy, not hardly.

 

[Ruderunner]

You're not talking to a city folk or a suburbanite. I'm a fringe dweller. Yet here we are exchanging ideas (on a tool invented in a shed) just like city folk. One of the reasons that smaller regional towns are shrinking is the rejection of strangers - in particular migrants with different ideas and cultures.

Let's be clear, there's a difference between migrants and invaders. One is invited and expected to follow house rules, the other climbs in through the window and helps themselves to your belongings.

As for difference in ideas and culture, sure, everyone has different views. But, those that enter a country ought to make an effort to fit in rather than demand the hosts change for them.

 

[redback]

That is truly funny. As in... Oh, I so wish I had a membership in the art gallery. Do they take Organic gardeners?

Envy, not hardly.

Swap that for membership at an all-night jazz lounge in the 'city that never sleeps'. Or for speculation on the world's biggest stock market. Whatever they are doing in those concrete canyons is more popular than getting dirt under your fingernails.

 

[redback]

Let's be clear, there's a difference between migrants and invaders. One is invited and expected to follow house rules, the other climbs in through the window and helps themselves to your belongings.

As for difference in ideas and culture, sure, everyone has different views. But, those that enter a country ought to make an effort to fit in rather than demand the hosts change for them.

Being anonymous in the city is more appealing to most migrants than being in a small minority. The language, the customs, the food, the sport are all foreign and they are more likely to meet their fellow expats in a big city. This is the case (with some exceptions) in Australia where the main population centers are bursting while the interior is deserted.

 

[Ruderunner]

There's nothing wrong with upholding the traditions of your homeland, and it's not unusual for groups to form to do that.

It's the groups that won't make the effort to fit in their new location that create the static. Here in the US There's entire communities that don't speak English. That's a problem.

(Insert Andrew Dice Clay line here)

 

[redback]

USA is good at integrating all nations into its population and has been since the beginning. Spanish is a second language in the southwest. But even where I live the locals, who have always lived here, are scared by the population onslaught coming their way now. They say it was better the way it was. It happens to be the truth. Everybody knew the old guy with his dog who wandered the streets and they all said g'ay to him. Now corporations are vying for main road properties, and no one stops to chat with strangers. The local population is dwarfed by the thousands of newcomers.

 

[redback]

Recycling. A circular economy. Pollution is not just from factories. The supermarkets and fast-food joints seem blind to the waste products littering all the streets. The waste collection depots must be full of plastic waste waiting for an equally massive reuse concept. Cities will start to clog up and smell badly if all this waste is not sorted soon.
Return to natural materials like wood and wool seems the best solution. Gardeners have a brilliant no-waste system in composting.

 

[Ruderunner]

Well this is getting way off topic but, regarding garbage and cities, have read up on San Francisco?

As for the immigration thing, unchecked immigration, including illegal immigration is a problem no matter how you look at it. In the same way the incoming population needs to adjust to the customs of their new home, the locals need to be able to adjust to their new neighbors. In controlled amounts, this is easy and even beneficial. If uncontrolled you get resentment on both sides.

 

[redback]

The number of boat people trying to come to our Australian island would be in the hundreds of millions. Unfortunately, when we stop them, we are called cruel. It's a matter of a well-run country being targeted by the peoples of chaotic countries. We are partly to blame because both sides of politics did agree to withdraw foreign aid. Foreign aid is now back in fashion despite the level of national debt.
The garbage and cities bit is trying to prove the city involves problems and solutions on just about all matters.

 

[Tetters]

You might be interested in looking at C40 cities.

 

[Ruderunner]

The number of boat people trying to come to our Australian island would be in the hundreds of millions. Unfortunately, when we stop them, we are called cruel. It's a matter of a well-run country being targeted by the peoples of chaotic countries. We are partly to blame because both sides of politics did agree to withdraw foreign aid. Foreign aid is now back in fashion despite the level of national debt.
The garbage and cities bit is trying to prove the city involves problems and solutions on just about all matters.

America has been dealing with that since at least the 80s. It seems to have ramped up over the last decade with some cities claiming to be sanctuaries for immigrants, legal or not.

However, those claims of welcoming immigrants have been proven to be hypocrisy. When our border states have tried sending excess immigrants into these sanctuaries (located far from the border) the sanctuary government throws a fit and complain that they are unequiped to take care of the immigrants.

I'm sure you heard about how Martha's Vineyard lost it's mind when just 100 immigrants were sent there.