Why I Love the City
A lot of my friends are moving out of the city. They 're buying houses in the suburbs because they want to get away from the noise, smog, traffic, and crime of the city. One friend says, "There's too much air pollution in the city. I prefer the suburbs, where the air is clean." Another friend complains about the traffic: "There are too many cars downtown! You can't find a parking place, and the traffic jams are terrible." Everyone complains about crime: "The city is full of criminals. I rarely leave my house at night—it's too dangerous."
Before my friends move out of the city, they usually recite the advantages of suburban life: green grass, flowers, swimming pools, barbecues, and so on. Yet after my friends have lived there for a year or so, they realize that suburban life is not so pleasant as they were expecting. What causes this change? Their gardens! They soon learn that one unavoidable part of suburban life is yardwork. After they work all weekend in their gardens, they 're much too tired to take a swim in their pools or even to cook some meat
on their barbecues. And they have another complaint: they can't live in the suburbs without a car. Most of my friends moved to the suburbs to avoid traffic, but now they have to commute to work downtown. They sit on a busy freeway two hours every day!
My opinions about urban life are very different from my friends'—I live downtown? and I love it! Why? Well, first, I love nature—flowers, green grass, trees, and animals. In the city, I have all the advantages of nature: I can walk through the public park, smell the flowers, and sit on the grass under the trees. I can visit the animals in the zoo. Yet I have none of the disadvantages: I don't have to do yardwork or feed the animals. Also, in the city, I can get everywhere by bus? if there's a traffic jam, I can walk home.
快速学习It seems that everyone is moving to the suburbs to avoid the crime of the big cities. I have a theory about urban crime, however, so I feel safe downtown. The criminal life will reflect changes in society: if people are buying homes in the suburbs, the criminals will soon follow. Criminals want to avoid noise, smog, and pollution, too. Soon, overcrowding and crime will be problems of the suburbs instead of the city!
People on the Move
The history of the American people is, in part, the history of the movement of the American people. They moved from the colonies of the East Coast to the open spaces of the West. They moved from the country and the farm to the city. More recently, Americans have been moving from the cities to the suburbs.
Open Space; The Move West
Pioneer Americans began moving from the East Coast to the West 250 years ago. They moved west for many reasons. One reason was the availability of unlimited open space and land for farming. Americans liked large open spaces, and they also liked the freedom and independence to develop the land in their own way. Some of the land became farms. Important minerals were discovered in some areas, so some of the land became mines. Other large areas became cattle ranches. There seemed to be enough land for everybody. But it was a difficult life—a life of endless work and hardship.
The Cities
After 1860, the Industrial Revolution changed the United States. Americans learned how to manufacture steel. They began to produce petroleum. The automobile was invented. Factories of all kinds began to appear, and cities began to grow up around the factories. Farmers and other country people moved to the growing cities in order to find jobs and an easier life. In the early 1900s, the cities were busy, exciting places. However, there was also a lot of poverty and hardship.
The cities grew up—the buildings got taller—and the cities grew out—they spread out from the center. Private houses with yards and porches disappeared. Apartment buildings, each one taller than the next, took their place. More and more people moved to the cities, and the cities got bigger and bigger.
Some cities could not spread out because there was no room to do so. These cities, of which New York is the best example, became more and more crowded. More people meant more cars, trucks, and buses, more noise, more pollution, and more crime. Many cities became ugly and dirty. Some people and some businesses began to leave the cities and move to the suburbs outside the cities.
The Suburbs
The move to the suburbs is still happening. Americans are looking for a small piece of land that they can call their own. They want a house with a yard. However, they do not want to give up the good jobs they have in the city. In many cases, companies in the suburbs give them jobs. In other cases, Americans tend to commute to and from the cities where their jobs are. In recent years, more and more businesses are moving to the suburbs. They are attracting many people and the suburbs are becoming crowded.
What Next?
Americans have watched their big cities fall slowly into disrepair and die. Many middle-class people have left the cities, and only the very rich and the very poor are staying behind.
Concerned Americans are trying to solve the problems of noise, dirt, crime, and pollution in the big cities. They are trying to rebuild bad sections of the cities in order to attract and
keep business people. They are trying to make their cities beautiful. Now many Americans are thinking of moving back to the cities.