The As A Way Of Life

For those only weakly committed to city living, particularly middle-class people who have serious difficulty with social diversity and who have clear housing alternatives, the "problem-free" suburbs become tempting. After an incident such as a car break-in or a bicycle theft, a "last straw" can make them leave. (249)

Life in the city is often chaotic and fast-paced. It is as quick as a television dinner. Often, people are forgetting the art of appreciation. Things go unnoticed like a pebble under a shoe, like sparkling windows on corporate buildings. Now, people are typically giving more time to their technological devices- which is not necessarily a terrible thing. If anything, it speaks more of an imbalance. There is a wider disconnect in every day social interactions (communications) and public spaces (location). It has been noted by a creator of public spaces, Goldberger, that people are “there but not there”. They have closed themselves off from experiencing what is right in front of them. For example, the average adult spends seven hours on a technological

Urban studies aims to develop an understanding the modern city metropolis. As Savage et al. have pointed out, the urban encompasses far more than just the physical city itself; understanding the city help us to understand many aspects of modern life (2003, pp.4). Many of its features, such as mass media and public transport systems have spread throughout society over the past century. Sociological studies of urban life began with the landmark publication of 'The City' in 1925 by sociologists Robert Park, Ernest Burgess and Louis Wirth from the University of Chicago, students of Georg Simmel who shared his belief that the urban environment changed man's

Chicago serves as the best example for diversity. If we walk down on Devon Street, the area, which is located between western and California serves many communities. You could see Indian, Russian, Pakistani and Jewish shops, all side by side. When looked in closely shop-by-shop we see different cultural shopkeeper carrying material of that specific culture. When looked in from far distance that place will be known as Devon Street and not as a specific cultural shop name.

I thought cities had more diversity, more poverty, and low income household than suburb areas and this was supported by the above data. I learned that the increase of wealth and income in a small community hinders the rest of community where middle and low income families live. The ability to live in a “good” neighborhood is linked to income. Income can be one of the factors that determine how a region can be segregated. Even in the city, the income of the household separates the lower income families from the higher income families. High income families tend to live together and low income families tend to live in the same

New York is one of the most diverse cities in the world. There are many cultures, races; languages mixed together creating “culturally diverse pot”. “Diversity is the existence of a wide variety of cultures and subcultures represented within a society” (CCN, 2016).

Is there social capital present from an urban life? In some instances, it is present and absent in others, so what is the so-called "big picture" regarding whether or not it is present or absent overall? For evidence of the increasing presence of social capital, I will use as evidence my own personal experiences and observations. From my experience, city life can only alienate you if you let it. Putnam may be quick to blame electronic media for giving us excuses to decline social capital, or he

Cities are generators of economic life and source of changes in the world. Thereby, Jane Jacobs in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities puts into relief the role of cities on the social and economic levels, while denouncing the disastrous consequences of urban renewal programs. To that extent, in chapters 2 and 3, she discusses "The Uses of Sidewalks”, arguing that over all people need safety and trust in their city. Therefore, first she claims the necessity of keeping streets and sidewalks safe because they are the “vital organs” of cities (29). Secondly, she argues that the functioning of cities should be organized in order to foster human interaction in which “casual public

Today’s biggest cities are a paradox; on one hand, they are hotspots of tolerance amid the ever regressive mindsets of rural towns. They are products of millions being forced to live together in harmony, generating immense innovation and piquing their own curiosities. Yet as they churn out the rich and famous, the bright allure of urban places belies an ugly truth. Socially isolated strangers huddle together on a crowded subway platform. No one talks.

The intensification of rapidly changing stimulations in the city requires the individual to “create a protective organ” manifesting itself in a “matter-of-fact attitude”. This attitude rather than concerning itself with emotions takes on a rational mentality and gives rise to intellectualism. In other words, instead of letting constant encounters with unexpected smells, objects, actions, noises, events, people agitate the nerves and react emotionally, the individual approaches everything in a logical manner. This rational mentality of a purely intellectual individual inevitably leads to a blasé mind set, an apathetic outlook to that which is happening around them. This blasé attitude is a necessary response against the threat of individuality.

In Jane Jacobs’s acclaimed The Life and Death of Great American Cities, she intricately articulates urban blight and the ills of metropolitan society by addressing several binaries throughout the course of the text. One of the more culturally significant binaries that Jacobs relies on in her narrative is the effectively paradoxical relationship between diversity and homogeneity in urban environments at the time. In particular, beginning in Chapter 12 throughout Chapter 13, Jacobs is concerned greatly with debunking widely held misconceptions about urban diversity.

Despite the negative factors of living in urban environment, there are a great number of positive sides that affect the life quality of people who live in urban cities. Perhaps, the

As individuals in the city, we preserve our individuality. People are enslaved to time, working under the clock. Structure of the city makes the people have less time for themselves. Everything is moving and it's either you leave or get left. Simmel suggest that To becomes a true individual you must face all the struggles. Mark abolishing all the trials and tribulation. City life was just too fast paced for people to have time for interaction or time to stop and explore the environment. too many complex groups and relationships, as are found in the city, can increase the level of stimuli and contribute to the blasé metropolitan attitude. That reveals that the blasé attitude is a defense mechanism to help us preserve emotional energy. The city

In a book ‘The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety’, by Jane Jacobs, she abstract that ‘her basic notions of what makes a neighbourhood a community and what makes a city livable’ . She stated that ‘Great Cities are not like towns, only larger. They are not like suburbs, only denser’ . In her perspective of view, the great cities are differ from towns and suburbs in basic ways, they are full of stranger. Strangers are not only common in a public assembly, it even more common

Wirth was more interested in urbanism as a way of life rather than trying to understand the shapes of cities. He argued that urbanism cannot be simply understood by measuring population of cities. Rather, it must be understood as a form of social existence. Wirth states that cities are the “initiating and controlling centre of economic, political and cultural life that has drawn the most remote communities of the world into its orbit and woven diverse areas, people and activities into a cosmos.” (Wirth, 1938, p.342). Although Wirth recognised that in the density of social life in cities led to formation of neighbourhoods that had distinct characteristics, he insisted that the more these city areas became affected by the wider patterns of city life, the less community characteristics would survive. (Giddens and Sutton, 2013, p.211). It is clear to see that Wirth believed that urbanism, alienated people from one another, and weakened close bonds and families. Although he still recognized the advantages of urbanism which created cities full of tolerance, freedom and