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-Short Attention Span Theater-
From food to tech, coronavirus to spur urban planning rethink
2020-03-20
[AlAhram] The coronavirus
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
 pandemic sweeping across the planet will force city authorities and planners to more seriously consider factors such as population density, technology, food security and inadequate housing, urban experts said.
As of Wednesday morning the outbreak, termed COVID-19, had infected about 200,000 people worldwide and killed roughly 8,000, according to a global tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Posted by:trailing wife

#17  Nothing will change, everyone will forget in a few months. Technology will be used to open doors for us and perhaps in the winter we'll see gas station attendants pumping our gas for us again.
Posted by: ruprecht   2020-03-20 21:42  

#16  Tax density not income. AKA land title taxes and you'll probably have lower ill health (and capitalism not marxism).
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2020-03-20 17:42  

#15  Hey Raj, I REALLY want to know what your tires are. Boston-area roads are 'greasy' when it rains. We lived in Cambridge for 8 years before moving to less urban areas. I haven't missed it (too much, maybe a little, the traffic not at all).
Posted by: Whiskey Mike   2020-03-20 13:59  

#14  Negative Population Growth was what cities have had for most of mankind's history. Only recent advances in medicine, food production and, importantly, sanitation engineering have given us the "weird" idea that living in major cities is healthy.
Posted by: magpie   2020-03-20 13:41  

#13  I'm told that, through most of history, cities have been population sinks.
Posted by: James   2020-03-20 11:53  

#12  Private property would help with the issue. As long as all rural areas are "for the people, for the farmers" no one even has the option of taking their $$$ and retiring to the countryside. I'd love to, but I can't. I can spend 10 million for a condo in the city, but buying just 2 acres in the countryside is not an option, at any price (other than renting out a whole village for 20 years from the local farmers). So, money is locked up in the cities.
Posted by: Beau   2020-03-20 09:16  

#11  Loved your comments, Raj. I am familiar with that drive and Boston in general having lived in Woburn for 2 years. I worked in Cambridge just across the river near MIT.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2020-03-20 08:07  

#10  All those Chinese ghost cities they built say just because the central planners build it doesn't guarantee the reliable urban sheep will come.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2020-03-20 07:18  

#9  There will probably be consideration of desirable population density levels

As long as they can use it to maintain their power in stuffing the ballot boxes, the pols will never allow dissolution of their means to that power.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2020-03-20 07:03  

#8  And - I dusted some snob asswipe driving his nice, pristine white Range Rover. You wanna drive fast, bunky? Any punk can speed on a straight, flat stretch - try doing it at 85 on a sweeping curve in the rain. Fuckin' amateur...
Posted by: Raj   2020-03-20 06:40  

#7  Well, I lived 3 months in a pup tent, and I hate nature!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-03-20 06:34  

#6  FWIW, I went into Boston yesterday around 11:30 AM. I've never gotten a better parking space in that High Street garage. I left around 6:30 last night and the place was a freakin' ghost town. Ima expecting the same thing when I go in today.

Also - a personal best was achieved on the drive back to Quincy - I covered about six miles on I-93 south (Southeast Expressway) in roughly 3+ minutes, topping off at 101 MPH, in the rain.
Posted by: Raj   2020-03-20 06:34  

#5  Many of the "advantages" are subjective. Yeah, I could walk to Severance Hall for the symphony when I lived in Cleveland, but most of the people there still had to take mass transit or drive to get there. Traditionally cities grew up along rivers or rail lines for obvious reasons. As we arrive at the age of drones delivering to the door the impetus for clustering at density levels that gives you Baltimore / Detroit / Chicago type human friction declines.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2020-03-20 06:13  

#4  /\ Urbanism is done.

Sounds like a no-brainer, because it is a no-brainer. I did it anyway. Googled COVID-19 in Ga. Fulton County, Atlanta and surrounding counties lead the pack of confirmed cases. The further you get from Atlanta, the fewer cases appear. There are a few Ga. counties with no incidents of the virus.

Duhhh, ok yes, it's a population density, numbers, possibly reporting thing. I get it. For grocery shopping and travel issues, I'm going with the lower reporting number Zipp codes.
Posted by: Besoeker   2020-03-20 05:14  

#3  ^Not gonna happen - too many advantages to urban living.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-03-20 05:01  

#2  Urbanism is done. Distributed systems and dispersed communities are the future.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2020-03-20 04:49  

#1  And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-03-20 03:15  

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