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    Ravenous: Urban or Rural?

    Should we be encouraging a more urban or rural move? Population control will have a lag of a few generations!

    Started by: Calcien Raves:9 Badge Winner! Longbroading

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    We moved to Singapore in 2010. Personal and family reasons but it also seemed like an opportunity for our Kids. Things are not so good here now and the weather and floods are really beating us down. I'd love to be off grid a bit but is this possible for any but a small lucky or elite few given the land requirements?

    joelfirenze has mentioned some sort of hacker haven created in Singapore. Are any of these rumor\\\'s founded

    For those who want to be on the grid and to live in cosmopolitan environment, I think the city is an efficient and viable option. The commingling of different types of people helps us learn to adjust to an increasingly diverse polity. There are some conditions that would improve urban sustainability: we should promote expansion of cities in areas that are surrounded by enough good land and water to sustain an urban population. In areas with fewer agricultural resources, population centers should be smaller cities and towns. The main problem of urban life is managing the density, so the local environmental strains don't get too bad, and managing epidemics. This is really a problem. In rural areas and towns, we should promote the use of local resources so that energy does not have to be wasted on the transport of goods and energy to decentralized locales.

    remaking the suburban areas into agricultural production centers for urban areas is important to consider. Many people are commonsteading in the suburbs. the wild does not offer subsistence to the unitiated. seek urban centers and use commonstead methods like creating community gardens, fruit trees and shareworks.

    My family and I are living in a boat. So we have to moor in cities settled along the sea. That's the reason why I live half of the year in NYC. I can accomplish my need of culture and creativity. But cities being corrupted by quarantines problems, we live half of the year in countries on the Southern Hemispher where we help develop cities with a sustainable matter.

    I would think that the metro lifestyle is on the outs. We need more ground to grow more food. It might be in the best interest of society to adjust those urban areas that are located in formerly fertile areas ie. relocate mass portions of the population to infertily-located new-urban areas and raze those cities in fertily-located areas to create more farmland. Does anybody have any idea how very fertile Long Island was before we arrived there? It could be again...as could Manhattan.

    Where I live there's a mix of rural and sub-urban. I don't think you need to be "off the grid" if you don't want to live in an urban environment. In certain parts of Southern California we've paved over way too much viable top soil in my opinion. I think there can be something at least near a happy medium between rural and urban.

    I think what is going to "die" as a place to live is the suburbs. Those big lots would make fabulous large community gardens or CSA sites. Please don't move from the city tofarm country. I cry every time I see somebody take over viable farmland for "the view".

    I would have to say rural or in small towns where people can work at growing some of their own food. There are far to many people in the old urban centers that just take from others, I wouldn't want to subject my family to that.

    Urbanization is not going to be reversed. Perhaps in the developed low population density countries of the world, a trend may occur, but the world over, this is simply not going to reverse itself. However, city planners can begin to incorporate progressive ideas into design, with community gardens that can have a cascading effect on society, bringing people together etc. It also serves as a direct link for people to have with their environment, providing a teaching tool of basic ecology and agriculture for kids, a piece often overlooked currently in our urban youth who have never seen a plant produce something they can eat. Rooftop gardens, indoor solar gardens and the like are ways that food production can be supplemented in high pop. density places.

    I think increased urbanization is going to be necessary. Certainly, suburbs and exurbs are going to become inviable with the demise of cheap fuel and personal cars. The human population has grown too large to live in predominantly rural communities. But the cities of the future must be different. Building up must replace building out. Mass transportation should be the only type of transportation. Innovative urban farming is a must. A local,cultural, family focus will provide cohesion to urban communities as long distance travel becomes less common. New methods of building, providing energy, and disposing of waste are needed. Cities should begin transitioning to this new urbanization now.




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