10 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF LIVING IN THE CITY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Some advantages and disadvantages of living in the city are the easy access to public services or the greater leisure offer (advantages), and the pollution or the higher level of criminal acts (disadvantages).

Cities are the oldest form of urbanization, more than 10,000 years old. In them, economic, administrative and political activities are carried out that influence nearby towns.

They need infrastructures such as roads, educational and health centers, aqueducts and transport that allow the activities of residents and foreigners. They can be defined from a certain number of inhabitants and the square kilometers where they reside.

For example, Australia defines cities from 1,000 inhabitants. Its borders are defined by municipal development legislation, appropriate to each country, which also establishes the powers of city councils and parliaments.

The municipalities are in charge of ensuring public service activities such as regulating traffic, providing primary health care, supervising contractor companies in charge of cleaning, education at the preschool and primary levels, as well as citizen security coordinated with the regional and national authorities.

The municipal parliaments are in charge of supervising, controlling and legislating the management of the municipalities. A city when it consists of several municipalities can form a metropolitan area, allowing easy access to the main public services of education, health, recreation areas and the development of manufacturing and commercial activities.

Cities have problems of noise, air, water and soil pollution. Other disadvantages are: the limited space for the development of new urban developments with all basic public services, evasion or non-collection of municipal taxes, lack of citizen security and deficit of public transport units.

Advantages of living in the city

1- Public transport

In cities, more priority is given to the use of public transport, which generates a reduction in noise and air pollution due to the carbon dioxide emissions that are produced by the use of private vehicles.

The proximity between dormitory cities and downtown areas make this important advance possible. The use of bicycles is also encouraged through cycle paths.

2- Recycling

With recycling policies, the recycling process is educated, encouraged and put into practice through the classification of waste in fully identified garbage containers in public places.

In this way, waste management is done with less hassle. Environmental projects have been carried out through the benchmarking tool, to improve the accounting and measurement of environmental management.

3- Conservation of green spaces

The conservation of green spaces in cities is a goal of the main cities of the world; It seeks to carry out projects to reduce urban expansion, paving and the loss of natural habitats.

Green spaces need to be managed in a strategy that involves urban competition policy requirements.

4- Promotion of the sowing of green areas on roofs in buildings

The aim is to create new botanical gardens in large cities. These projects are sponsored by municipalities and environmental organizations.

This seeks to reduce noise and runoff by 60%. All absorbed water evaporates and returns to the atmosphere.

5- Access to public education, health and cultural services

The educational, health and cultural facilities allow the citizens of large cities to be satisfied with them, demanding continuous improvements from them.

This is due to the combination of public policies of the States to make these services easier for citizens to access, of which human beings strengthen their values ​​and principles of a diverse, open society in search of more justice.

Disadvantages of living in the city

1- Violence

The advent of violence in depressed areas has increased due to unemployment in the surroundings of large cities.

These violent acts range from micro-trafficking and smuggling to human trafficking. This phenomenon occurs severely in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

2- Collapse of public services

Large health centers in cities may collapse when providing services to patients due to saturation of these by citizens, who instead of going to primary health centers, go to hospitals.

3- Lack of essential public services

The lack of essential public services such as water, electricity, health and education can be caused by the disorderly growth of large cities in developing countries. Municipalities and national governments must coordinate measures to reduce this situation.

4- Lack of spaces for people with functional diversity

In developing countries, there are cities lacking spaces for people with functional diversity.

There are more inclusive initiatives in cities like Mexico City and Santiago de Chile that are busy in this area.

5- Shortage of real estate supply

The shortage of real estate for rent and sale in cities is a social problem in developing countries, since there are cases of 1 to 3 generations of the same family living together.

The governments of developing countries should promote public policies to solve urban planning problems in capital and major cities.

They should also promote the development of rural areas for their productive and residential use with the feasibility of being able to offer public services and guide harmonious growth in their cities and more remote areas.

Organizations for the development of cities

There are organizations dedicated to studying development parameters and problems in cities, such as:

• At the regional level, the European Commission (EC), the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
• At a global level, the United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) carry out studies about the development parameters and problems that cities present.

References

1. Adonis, A. and Davies, B. (2015). City Villages, More Homes, Better Communities. London, IPPR
2. Bottino, R. (2009). The City and the Urbanization. Historical Studies. Rio de la Planta, Uruguay. Recovered from: Estudioshistoricos.org.
3. European Commission (2016). Quality of Life in European Cities 2015. Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union.
4. Life in the City. Innovative solutions for Europe's urban environment. Recovered from: ec.europa.eu.
5. The Dawn of an Urban World. Recovered from: who.int.