You know that urban neighborhoods are more ethnically
diverse than small surrounding cities (aka suburbs), right? With a more diverse political spectrum,
right? And big cities are where more and
more people are congregating for better quality of life, right?
Turns out all of that is wrong. Central cities are full of singles, urban
neighborhoods are more uniform with respect to ethnicity AND political
philosophy, and have the highest levels of economic inequality in the
nation. They are also lonely places where
no one except the hipster singles interact outside of their immediate circle of
friends.
It all makes sense.
What pulls people outside their homes isn’t just the mating game of the affluent
Young Urban Singles that Microsofties are the poster boys/girls for. There is much more ethnic diversity,
political diversity and meeting-your-neighbors in surrounding small cities,
because that’s where the child-raising is happening and kids pull you into
church and PTA activities.
One of the stats that runs particularly counter to popular assumptions
is that high-density megacity neighborhoods that are multi-cultural are NOT
highly interactive. It turns out that
having to navigate a half-dozen different social and cultural norms, and people
whose goals, needs and preferred living style are at odds with yours (seniors
who want quiet at night and parents of babies who are anything but, comes to
mind), along of whom are right on top of you, without adequate soundproofing or
privacy, does NOT cause neighbors to reach out and connect, kumbaya. It
creates the stereotypical city culture of everyone living parallel lives. Parallel lines never cross, you’ll recall. As someone who has lived in moderate to
megacities, yes, indeed.
So what on Earth am I talking about? A fascinating library read by Joel Kotkin
[The Human City], focused on the kinds of human environments cities and small
surrounding cities create. It turns out
that it’s not what I – or maybe you – thought it was.
Let me explode more barriers that are holding you back from living the life that you want to live! www.soaringdragon.biz. Email for a FREE Getting Unstuck session today. victoria.leo.reiki@gmail.com
