In my post I'm talking generically about "why cities in 2024" not counting actual cities. Where I live now, is a spread area of single family homes and around here I still have a supermarket (grocery store) a 1' car, elementary school a 5', a golf club and paragliding at 7', a canyoning school at 10' alongside a generic store for wood, steel, cements, painting etc, at 15' a kind of multipurpose center (used as seasonal cinema/theater, cultural center, ...) and a medical clinic, at the same time distance various other commerce, all immersed in the wood.
The point is not what is there now in a specific place of the Earth but what we could do in various places on Earth. The society and the economy I've found here, arranged as described, do works very well. In the region there are a significant variety of human settlements ranging from the ITER nuclear research center, the European Design Center of Toyota, to various sheep farms and tourism. All spread in few hours car range in an economy that's still flourishing and alive even in the current global state of things. There are many different people intermixed, only around my home there is a home an USA-French top manager working mostly in the middle east and aside his home one of a retired chef of a small restaurant in Monaco, in the neighborhood at a walking comfy distance we are no more than 30 people, with 7 different nationalities and a variety of expertise and wealth. Oh, it's a small place, but there are many small places like that and they can thrive as well. From where I'm from I barely know my neighbors in the same building. Oh sure, I've study at the uni just 1km away from my old home, nice, but for what? If I have a child till the high school anything is there, for high school there are still some local options (but I might not like their quality) and I can buy him/her an accommodation elsewhere where he/she can star experiencing an autonomous life because yes, teenagers nowadays need to be autonomous and most of them are totally unable to be due to their glued, iper-surveillant parents. After their studies, after having started a career and a family they can choose whatever they want to live, after parent's death they can choose to go back or sell the old settlements and the society keep turning.
A day we will have flying cars? No issue, there is space for them. We have added p.v.? No issue again, there was already space for it. Geothermal heat pumps? No issues the tallest home is three story on it's own ground. The blacksmith shed 3km from here start to be used by the blacksmith and became something else? No issue is just a shed with a bit of space around, easy rebuilt and converted to something else. In a dense city NOTHING is possible or at least it's terribly costly and complicated. Just try to look why the USA can't build a high speed rail where they need it: it's simply too dense, in France was possible simply because a large slice of population leave spread in the country. A new airport? Good luck in a dense city that growing and growing have surrounded the once upon a time very on the outskirts. Good luck turning useless office towers in apartments. Good luck restoring a new working economy in a dense city. Just to get on-line retails delivery is a nightmare, while here switching from classic mailboxes meant for paper mail to huts-like ones for packages or adding remote opening to the entryphone was pretty simple and cheap.
That's why I'm saying the city do not work. I understand well that some want it, feel the need of it, feel depressed outside, I know personally a handful, personal or family friends, they have all the rights for their preferences but they also should acknowledge that such model can't stand anymore in the present changing world. It's not a matter of preference, it's a practical fact. Like those who love more and more frequently flooded zones, they love them, they have all the rights to love them, but they can't expect insurances pay an year after another big money for after-flood restoration.
The point is not what is there now in a specific place of the Earth but what we could do in various places on Earth. The society and the economy I've found here, arranged as described, do works very well. In the region there are a significant variety of human settlements ranging from the ITER nuclear research center, the European Design Center of Toyota, to various sheep farms and tourism. All spread in few hours car range in an economy that's still flourishing and alive even in the current global state of things. There are many different people intermixed, only around my home there is a home an USA-French top manager working mostly in the middle east and aside his home one of a retired chef of a small restaurant in Monaco, in the neighborhood at a walking comfy distance we are no more than 30 people, with 7 different nationalities and a variety of expertise and wealth. Oh, it's a small place, but there are many small places like that and they can thrive as well. From where I'm from I barely know my neighbors in the same building. Oh sure, I've study at the uni just 1km away from my old home, nice, but for what? If I have a child till the high school anything is there, for high school there are still some local options (but I might not like their quality) and I can buy him/her an accommodation elsewhere where he/she can star experiencing an autonomous life because yes, teenagers nowadays need to be autonomous and most of them are totally unable to be due to their glued, iper-surveillant parents. After their studies, after having started a career and a family they can choose whatever they want to live, after parent's death they can choose to go back or sell the old settlements and the society keep turning.
A day we will have flying cars? No issue, there is space for them. We have added p.v.? No issue again, there was already space for it. Geothermal heat pumps? No issues the tallest home is three story on it's own ground. The blacksmith shed 3km from here start to be used by the blacksmith and became something else? No issue is just a shed with a bit of space around, easy rebuilt and converted to something else. In a dense city NOTHING is possible or at least it's terribly costly and complicated. Just try to look why the USA can't build a high speed rail where they need it: it's simply too dense, in France was possible simply because a large slice of population leave spread in the country. A new airport? Good luck in a dense city that growing and growing have surrounded the once upon a time very on the outskirts. Good luck turning useless office towers in apartments. Good luck restoring a new working economy in a dense city. Just to get on-line retails delivery is a nightmare, while here switching from classic mailboxes meant for paper mail to huts-like ones for packages or adding remote opening to the entryphone was pretty simple and cheap.
That's why I'm saying the city do not work. I understand well that some want it, feel the need of it, feel depressed outside, I know personally a handful, personal or family friends, they have all the rights for their preferences but they also should acknowledge that such model can't stand anymore in the present changing world. It's not a matter of preference, it's a practical fact. Like those who love more and more frequently flooded zones, they love them, they have all the rights to love them, but they can't expect insurances pay an year after another big money for after-flood restoration.