Take a good look around our cities. What we see there will give us a terrible shock. No doubt massive skyscrapers are changing the city’s skyline. But does the congestion and shabbiness of our downtown escape our notice? Everyday newspapers splash stories of slums, tensions and crimes. Add to this catalogue overcrowded schools, traffic jams, noise, air and water pollution. We get an ugly picture of the acute and chronic problems that plague our cities are in trouble these troubles have a profound impact on the city dweller. The impact of the city on man is both negative and positive.
On the negative side. there is the pollution of air. water, soil. and also mental strain.
It is a trite accusation that the modem city, with its large blocks of flats, gives rise to psychological disturbances. Various are the causes of this mental disturbance. Mental unrest arises from the migration of people that breaks up the family nucleus resulting in the separation of married women from their husbands, parents from their children and in the isolation of individuals in new surroundings.
The city, in some respects, has become a frightening place to live. Certain factors of city life, such as the traffic jams. sophisticated light signs, the confusing road rules, and the necessity to run or jump in a split second to preserve one’s limbs and life, are difficult for people of a certain mental set up or of limited intelligence. These people prefer the quiet. peaceful and slow life of small communities. In big cities they turn into misfits and this brings about mental unrest.
Bad housing facilities and overcrowding of homes have been the bane of all traditional towns. A recent survey conducted by the World Health Organization has established a strong link between bad housing conditions and certain forms of mental disorders, Unemployment and poverty are two of the chronic ills that trouble the cities. These two ills are closely bound up with destitution. malnutrition, lack of hygiene and medical care. All these factors cause psychological disturbances in individuals.
One of the frightening aspects of city life is the ear rending noise made by motor traffic, trams and trains, factories in the neighborhood, and the sound of jet planes from aerodromes. Further, there is the bustle of human activity. The city -- dweller lives through this noise for twenty four hours a day. Noise contributes to nervous tension, ill temper and insomnia.
Our cities are beset with juvenile crimes. Juvenile mobs are found in both old and new cities. There is an increase in the crime wave. Various causes have been blamed for the increase in juvenile crimes in big cites. One underlying factor is the desire of the young to vent their feelings of spite on people who are enjoying the benefits to life which they are deprived of.
So far I have dealt with mental stress. There are two other equally pernicious forms of pollution, namely air and water pollution. which damage the health of the citizens.
People suffer from chronic diseases through the atmospheric pollution in industrial areas. Smoke from domestic heating by fuel oil, and car exhaust pipe fumes are major offenders in damaging health and promoting certain major types of disease among the urban population.
Inadequate water supply and poor sewerage systems also take a heavy toll of the city’s population and cripple the health of many. In the wake of industrialization and urbanization water pollution will continue to increase all over the world. So long as this situation continues, the world will be in danger of serious diseases spreading from the cities.
Not all aspects of city like are negative. Should this gloomy description of city life lead us to despondency? Are we to stop building cities? Urbanization is the future trend in the growth of society. Half a century from now, more than ninety percent of the people in developed countries will have to live in cities. It is therefore wrong to write off these cities as unhealthy places for human habitation.
On the contrary. city life has certain positive aspects. As centers of industry, art, science, education and political power, they are sating places of progress. They are the hub of innovation, and the fountain of creative thought. People living in the cities enjoy a higher standard of living and education.
Comfort and recreational facilities are highly developed in the cities. The mortality rate is low as medical care and public health are organized in an efficient manner and maintained at a high standard. In all the history of mankind, some of the best educated, highest paid. best fed and housed populations are to be found today in some of the most Urbanized parts of North America and Europe.
The problems of the cities are basically the problems of human society. According to President Johnson “they (these problems) call for generosity of vision, a breadth of approach, and a magnitude of effort”.