The Problem Of Ghost Cities

In the summer of 1854, London was coming out as one of the most modern cities in the world. With nearly 2.4 million people living in the area at the time, the city’s infrastructure itself was having a hard time providing for the basic needs of its residents. The biggest problem existing within the city at that time was its waste removal system, or for better terms, its lack of one. Human waste was piling up everywhere, from people houses to the rivers and drinking water. This situation was the perfect breeding conditions for a number of diseases, and towards the end of that summer, one of the most deadly of them all took over. It took the work of both a physician and a local minister in order to discover the mysterious cause of the

The nature of World cities is one of dominance and influence rather than just size. They are powerful centres of economic and cultural authority within their region and on the global stage. They are

Currently there are around____ ghost cities in China capable of holding around_____ people. These ghost cities have and will most likely remain vacant because the avg. cost to rent or by one of these newly constructed residences is far above what the avg. Chinese is capable of affording. Despite the rampant vacancies the Chinese government still continues to fund massive construction indicatives.

I chose to read The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World. I found this book especially compelling because most people have never even heard of the cholera epidemic in London in 1854, nor its impacts on the cleanliness of today’s society. In his book, Stephen Johnson explained how in 1854, everyone living in London thought that all disease was spread through foul-smelling air (miasma). John Snow, a local doctor in London, wanted to know why so many people were dying of cholera, and others were not. He was the one that originally discovered that the epidemic was surrounded around a water pump on Broad Street, and Henry Whitehead was the one who proved that he right

Everyone knew that when one stayed in the water too long, one drowned. However, that was not the case. In Alden Nowlan’s, “The Fall of the City,” Teddy was a young boy who had a very vivid imagination. Although at times it went to the dark side, it was ultimately the mistreatment from his aunt and uncle which cause Teddy to destroy his city. For example, his uncle’s threats of physical abuse leaded Teddy drowned in his imagination, the only place where he can feel safer. Although Teddy hardly spoke back to his uncle, he was still threatened that he will not “be able to sit down the rest of the week.” The threat isolated Teddy from his uncle and Teddy felt as if he has no one to turn to. Without someone who truly understands his feelings,

Robert Desmarais is no ordinary caretaker, living as he does in a ghost town 8200 feet above sea level. He is also an historian, story teller, geologist, chemist and licensed blaster. He speaks of the people who inhabited this place as if he’d known them all personally, which due to the eerie nature of this town, he might well have. Robert is in the process of putting together a book on the history of the town. Hopefully it will be available before long, as just the few stories he told us made me want to learn more.

While abandoned buildings are familiar to most people, a generally accepted definition of an abandoned building, per se, has not been established (Shane, 2012). Because the term abandoned building means many things to different people, it is generally most effective to use a more inclusive definition (Shane, 2012). A swath of terms is associated with the idea of an abandoned building, such as property, lot, vacant, temporarily vacant, empty, dilapidated, and hazardous. These terms point to important considerations about whether a building is actually abandoned or just vacant for a time, for instance, while repairs are scheduled and made, or because the house serves as a seasonal residence (Shane, 2012). Typically, three conditions are associated with the classification of an abandoned building: (1) The owner can no longer claim property rights, (2) the property must have been vacant for some time, and (3) the building is considered a health hazard or a hazard to community welfare (Shane, 2012).

Mainly, Johnson wrote this book to prove that one week in 1954 was one of the defining moments in what people today know as modern life. First, he proved that the first fateful week of September ultimately influenced the way cities organized themselves. Second, he proved that the events of the Broad Street Outbreak changed how disease was studied and viewed. Third, he proved that urban intelligence could come to understand a massive health crisis of which most people refused to see the truth.

I decided to read The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson, for my reading assignment. I originally chose this book, because I was interested in viral and bacterial outbreaks in general. I soon realized that the outbreak itself was not the central theme of the book. The author’s message was the making of the idea of large scale metropolitan living as a sustainable concept; unlike past failures, like Rome's collapse. He was able to prove how scientific thinking made that concept a reality.

Two economic factors affect supply in a stable housing market, price of related goods or similar houses, and the price of the good, best represented by style or size in the case of the housing market. The affluence of a community typically determines how much homes sell for in those communities, and therefore communities where a lot of people want to live become areas where average home prices are high. (Kumar, 1) There is little space in these affluent communities, and therefore little supply. A good example is New York City, where no homes are available, only apartment buildings, and very few apartments are actively exchanged each year.

Why do people wish to leave New York so badly? Leaving New York is full of sad goodbyes and lasting memories. It might be a forceful pulling away if someone does not want to go. The authors seem to be attempting to escape the insanity. They all have a different take on what it means to leave New York and their personal viewpoints on why they left. Whether it was for sanity, love, less hardship, or more money. Between Fitzgerald in My Lost City, Didion in Goodbye to All That, Ptacin and Strayed in Why Writers Love New York and (Then Leave It) each had the same idea which is that leaving New York is the best thing they ever did regardless of what there is to offer they found more. The city shatters one’s illusions one by one the illusions one has of the city will eventually be destroyed.

Ten million dollars is a lot of money. When this money has been generated over years of increased taxes, and is to be put back into a community, it’s important to know that this money is being used wisely. Ten million dollars is the amount of money that the Budlong Woods community is using in their “Tax Increment Financing Redevelopment Area Project.” This paper will investigate the current state of the Budlong Woods community, as well as the specific focus areas of the redevelopment project and determine whether Budlong Woods is on track to be Chicago’s next successful neighborhood.

Albert Einstein once said, “look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better”(“Albert Einstein Quotes”). In The Lost City of Z by David Grann, the author takes the readers on a journey as he recounts his experience following in Percy Fawcett’s footsteps. He gives the readers insight on Fawcett’s life up until he disappeared in the Amazon in 1927 never to be heard from again. He then goes on to describe his journey gathering information on Fawcett’s last expedition, and relives Fawcett’s journey through the Amazon. David Grann’s The Lost City of Z analyzes his own experiences figuring out what happened to Percy Fawcett and teaches readers that if they look further they will find what nature has concealed.

Italo Calvino’s extraordinary story, Invisible Cities is a literary accomplishment. Invisible Cities contains of an impressive display of discussions between Marco Polo, the legendary Venetian explorer, and Kublai Khan, the famous Conqueror. The two settled in Kublai Khan’s garden and Marco Polo details, or for all one knows invents, depictions of several wonderful cities. Considering these cities are not ever actually seen, yet only recounted, they are unnoticeable to the emperor. In consideration of the fact that they might not actually exist, they may be truly obscure to all but the reader, who is captivated by the dazzling, foreboding input of Marco Polo. “If I tell you that the city toward which my journey tends is discontinuous in space and time now scattered, now more condensed, you must not believe the search for it can stop. Perhaps while we speak, it is rising, scattered, within the confines of your empire…” (164). The main topic is Marco Polo and the cities he has traveled, or one city in several structures. These expeditions involve cities of memory, trading cities, cities of desire, thin cities, continuous cities and of the sky. The outcome is an intensely intriguing achievement of literature that urges surpassing the borders of the fictional book. Between these enlightening depictions of unfamiliar settings, Calvino allows his readers to indulge in the discussion between two men, one in the middle of his career, the other in

Part two of Death and Life explains several conditions for city diversity based on the observations of different American cities and discusses in depth the four factors that Jacobs believe are critical for the development of a city. The basis for generating diversity lies in these conditions, and cannot be secludedly achieved by planning and designing. This part lays out the foundation and is the basis for the rest of the book. It shows urban planning and many possible remedies for creating equal diversity, and studies why these are not applied and the effects of it not being so.