OΔ-Cities are the solution to the ecological and social dystopia of Oβ-Cities.

 

The problem is the present design of cities only a few stories high, stretching outward in unwieldy sprawl for miles.  This sprawl literally transform the earth, turn farms into parking lots and wastes enormous amounts of time and energy transporting people, goods and services over their expanses.   Paolo Soleri (1919-2013) 

Las Vegas – the ugly side visitors don’t see

Since the advent of motorised transport, once compact and walkable cities have spread out to become fat and flabby Obese Cities, or ObeCities.   Everyone accepts that human obesity is a big social problem – it is unhealthy, un-attractive, un-natural, and a big drain on public health services.  Obese Cities should also be recognised as the source of many, if not most, of our  social problems, including obesity itself..!

The spread of Obesity 1975-2014

The real “INCONVENIENT TRUTH”

Most of our environmental, health, social, and even political problems, can be attributed to SPRAWL (but never mentioned in Al Gore’s film of that name)

OA-Cities will eliminate the CANCEROUS GREY GROWTH of OB-City suburbia and its pernicious side effects, such as…

• “PROPERTY LADDER” OBSESSION which has led to unaffordable homes.
• PUBLIC SERVICE – expensive (council tax) and often inefficient 
• PUBLIC TRANSPORT – inconvenient, expensive, and often unavailable 
• PUBLIC PARKS – most are unattractive “Green Spaces” and unsafe at night
• COUNTRYSIDE – Concreted over, as a sacrificial offering to the Great Car Deity
• LOSS OF FARMLAND – good agricultural land lost to shoe-box housing estates
• DESTRUCTION OF WOODS & FORESTS
• RUINATION OF HISTORICAL TOWNS & VILLAGES by pounding motor traffic  
• WILDLIFE CARNAGE ON THE ROADS – wildlife in rapid decline
• ISOLATION & SEGREGATION from friends, family, and community facilities
• SOCIAL DEGENERATION breeding uncouth yobs and obese slobs
• CRIME  & VANDALISM on the increase everywhere, but especially in big cities
• SCHOOLS – ill-disciplined and increasingly run by the inmates students
• PROBLEM NEIGHBOURS 
• LONELINESS – ObeCities – where millions live lonely lives amongst crowds
• HYPERCONSUMPTION, HYPERWASTE & HYPERPOLLUTION
• TERRORIST ATTACKS which will get much worse in coming years 
• OBESITY which can be linked to Sprawl, ie.,ObeCities  

• and much much more…. 

Lets remind ourselves of some the consequences of sprawl.

Traffic congestion, noise, fumes, road rage, wasting several hours of every day in an endless series of highly stressful car commutes to work, shops, school, library, gym, restaurant, and numerous other errands.   Lets also add to the pot – crime, vandalism, loneliness, depression, obesity, mental sickness, etc.   And, whilst on a roll – lets throw in bad weather too..! 

Stop and sit near a busy junction during the so-called “rush hour” – a relative term nowadays when a “rush hour” can last up to 16 hours a day – and watch the endless line of cars sometimes roaring past other times crawling, and observe the taut and tense faces of the drivers swearing at the windscreen and gesticulating angrily.   So why do they do it?  No choice you say unless you move to a quiet village, and then where do you work?  Besides, they are too EXPENSIVE..!   (wonder why?)  So here you are day-in day-out fighting every inch of the way, cursing the traffic, weaving in and out of lanes, fuming at other “stupid” or slow drivers (all “other drivers” being slow and stupid of course), going around in circles looking for and cursing over the lack of parking spaces.    Of course in very big sprawling cities like London and Sydney many people sensibly use the trains – but even this usually involves driving to the station and leaving their car there all day, whilst others are ferried to the station by their partner.  My niece used to live in Hornsby on the outer edge of Sydney and, although she would walk to the suburban station and from the central station to her work, she would spend at least 3 hours a day just getting to and from work.  And for many people who live on the outer suburbs of big sprawling cities it takes them as long as 4 hours.  This is an ABSURD amount of wasted time..!

Every day they put up with this manic, satanic, OVERCROWDED, highly stressful and noisy ritual and yet, when someone comes forward with a solution which offers a release from this hell on wheels, they say – “On, no, I wouldn’t want to live in a human hive..!!”   WTF are they thinking?  

You are living in a kind of hell because when you went inside you made a Faustian pact with SPRAWL – the great car deity and its vast retinue of zombies, of which you are one..!

THE PRICE OF SPRAWL IS VERY HIGH

I suspect most of those who claim they wouldn’t want to live in a high-density area, but choose to spend up to 4 hours a day commuting, secretly envy those who can afford £1 million for a 2-br flat in densely-populated central London, despite the much smaller living space.  Even if the average (door-to-door) commute is “only” 2 hrs per day, in effect this increases the work day from 8 to 10 hrs, except that those 2 hrs of commuting are unpaid.   Yet most people would probably grumble “exploitation” if their employer offered to subsidise a flat just 5 minutes walk from their office in return for 2 hrs extra unpaid work per day.     The hideously inflated prices of central London are the price of sprawl.