Quote:
Originally posted by Yorick:
Actually Moridin, I don't think you'll find population spread due to people wanting to get away from the city. It is a matter of economics. Where is the most expensive land - that is wher most people want to live/own land? In the centre of the big city. Manhattan, London and Paris are way more expensive than the outskirts of Perth (Australia, not Scotland). Economics proves you wrong on that point bro... 
|
I beg to differ on this point! I agree that the center of any city is expensive to live in, due mainly to the competition of business which can afford land space and residential that cannot! However, if you look outside the actual downtown area and just go out one or two miles it is a vastly different story! Take Minneapolis for example. We have housing in downtown, expensive but not terribly so...but if you travel just 1.5 miles from the center of downtown you are in the middle of the least expensive place to live in the entire metropolitan area! A four bedroom house costs about $100,000 in this area compared to a 4 bedroom in the suburbs for more like $250,000! If you want to bring economics into it, it is actually more expensive to live in the suburbs.
One of our local newspapers did a one-week special look at Urban Sprawl here in the Twin Cities...it is a very well written and well researched article. Here are some excerpts from why urban sprawl exists (and yes it is mainly due to the car!)
----------------------
``In America there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is.'' -- Gertrude Stein
As Stein recognized, boundless space and the opportunity it provides for growth and movement have always been at the core of the American dream.
People choose places to live for different reasons, but for many Americans a place in the country amid ample acreage remains a potent ideal.
In this sense, the steady occupation of land at the fringes of the Twin Cities area can be seen as the fulfillment of a collective vision.
``We've got this fixation in our heads that the only thing we can build is a country house,'' says Kunstler, who also notes that Americans have a ``deep traditional antipathy toward cities.''
The simple facts of geography have also helped encourage sprawl here. With no large body of water, high mountains or other natural impediments to expansion, the Twin Cities have been able to spread out easily in all directions from their central cores. Today, Minneapolis-St. Paul is one of the least dense major metropolitan areas in the nation, with only Atlanta and Kansas City averaging fewer people per square mile.
Another historical factor -- wealth -- also helps explain the Twin Cities' lack of density. ``This has always been a pretty prosperous place,'' Adams says, noting that the Twin Cities for many years had the lowest poverty levels of any metropolitan area in the nation. And because money buys space, Twin Citians have generally steered clear of high-density housing.
Here is the link if you wish to read more
Sprawl
------------------
Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig
I've got to admit it's getting better, it's getting better all the time
Bossman of Better Funny Stuff.....of the Laughing Hyenas!