CITIES Why in Crisis?/Conclusion of Big-City Problems in Western Lands

New York is hardly the only city that has difficulty providing needed services. Actually, a number of large cities have proved to be vulnerable to disruption from a wide range of causes.  In February 1998, Auckland, New Zealand, was crippled for over two weeks by a devastating power failure. Inhabitants of Melbourne, Australia, went without hot water for 13 days when gas supplies were shut off because of an industrial accident at a production plant.

Then there is the problems shared by virtually all cities-traffic jams. Architect Moshe Safdie says: "A fundamental conflict-a misfit-exists between the scale of cities and the transportation systems that serve them. . . . Older cities have had to adapt their down-towns to traffic volumes unimagined at at the time they were built." According to the New York Times, in cities such as Cairo, Bankok, and Sao Paulo, traffic jams are "the rule."

In spite of all these problems, there seems to be no letup in the ongoing move to the cities.As an article in the UNESCO Courier put it.,  "rightly or wrongly, the city seems to offer progress and freedom, a vision of opportunity, an irresistible lure."  But just what does the future hold for the big cities of the world?  Are there any realistic solutions to their problems?

Next time: CITIES Why in Crisis?/What FUTURE for Cities?

From the Awake! magazine