30 Jul '14 16:22>
Originally posted by sh76I believe high density cities are much more efficient. I guess people should be allowed to live in suburbs if they wish and if they can afford it. I think the real problem is that in many places the people paying for it are not necessarily the people benefiting (living there) from it.
What say you?
Also, there is often not much choice available.
I believe solutions include making people pay the full cost of living in suburbs, as well as appropriate government policies that do not unduly promote suburban sprawl. Also, making city living more desirable can make a big difference.
In my home town of livingstone there is a major problem of sprawl caused by corruption in the town council, where giving out new plots of land is a good way to get bribes. In addition it is generally cheaper to get new land outside the former boundaries than to redevelop land within the boundaries. So we end up with poorly developed property being passed over for new land development. The result is the utilities cannot keep up and everyone complains about the high rates and poor service.
But people in high density areas do not pay appropriately lower utility bills even though they cost the utility companies much less.