The decline of the mega cities, is it happening in your country

We have a world audience and members here and I'd like people to chime in on what they see and hear about their mega cities in the decline. In my opinion the days of making cities beautiful to live in stopped when elected officials were brought in to control the wealth of these cities. From my experience as a real estate broker in California, I saw first hand how the "rent control" was supposed to help. Actually after awhile the opposite started taking place and when that happened, yes, this is very true, new foreigners with hopes and dreams and MONEY started paying high prices for rental apartments because they had insight. It was true at the time that they left their country because they felt it too was becoming a "sh..hole " world they were about to live in . So with high prices, they raised the rents over time.
What I'm leading up to is this: good and wise people move out of the cities and then with mismanagement from the govt. the cities over time become like "open door prisons" for the people that didn't get out. (this could be the new trend nowadays ) In Tokyo, because the young can not find new or even jobs that can pay the rents, they move back to their hometowns. Right now one can find apartments like you can find mosquitoes on a hot summer day, but now the mosquitoes can't find someone to bite. This is true in this sense, landlords can't find tenants. No tenants, high taxes and the list goes on to where the economic changes of these neighborhoods change from a place to where it was cool to live in to now trashy neighborhoods.
Its just the way it works out. Failed leadership leads to the decline of its surrounding. Just ask a new farmer who doesn't ask his neighbor how to farm and plant his crops/or animals.
We as a human race are losing the "natural" instinct along with generations of wisdom how to survive, why, well, I mentioned this many times. Convenience is what destroys civilization. The corona virus shows how quickly this role has played out.
I really think in the future, one will not be able to move out of large cities and those in small rural communities will be controlled on every aspect of their life. We were not meant to live that way.
What is happening in Hong Kong now may very well be on everyone's front door step in the future everywhere.
What are your thoughts?

a reply to: musicismagic

I remember Governor Cuomo saying people were fleeing New York State and New York City last year.

140 people @ day are leaving Illinois. Not sure what percentage of them are leaving Chicago.
Source: www.chicagotribune.com...

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: musicismagic

I remember Governor Cuomo saying people were fleeing New York State and New York City last year.

140 people @ day are leaving Illinois. Not sure what percentage of them are leaving Chicago.
Source: www.chicagotribune.com...

I left the Quad Cities back in 78. Reason, no real jobs other then John Deere and Oscar Meyer meat plant.

a reply to: musicismagic

Sadly it will cause almost forced gentrification and jack up real estate costs. It's a huge issue here in the Toronto area.

a reply to: musicismagic

I tend to agree with your observation. I live rural, and a few years back a place would be on the market for literally years, now as soon as one comes up for sale it has a sold sign on it within days. They are being bought by people who have received a high price on their city real estate and have bought the rural one and have change left over.

originally posted by: anonentity
a reply to: musicismagic

I tend to agree with your observation. I live rural, and a few years back a place would be on the market for literally years, now as soon as one comes up for sale it has a sold sign on it within days. They are being bought by people who have received a high price on their city real estate and have bought the rural one and have change left over.

And this is what has happened in New Zealand also. But the govt. stopped all that. Too much money stopped the normal way of life and the NZ govt. realized that with the corona virus. But many foreigners got in before March 3rd of this year.

I pretty much disagree entirely

In the future, gone will be the days if rural living.

Exponential population growth and future jobs only REALLY being in tech with lead to growth and development of new megacities, and will eventually repopulate the existing ones.

The rural/urban population gap since the inception of this country has been trending towards urban environments at a pretty constant rate.

This is the real reason conservatives are on edge and why Trump was elected.

Look at the votes by county. As cities sprawl out, then double back over with density, metropolitan areas claim more counties, and more voting power. All it will take is time.

Our future IS what it always has been envisioned as, high population megacities, bladerunner type settings. Its inevitable.

I've been all over the world and no matter what country you are in, big cities suck. I don't care if you are walking down the streets of Paris, London, Rome, or San Francisco, they are dangerous, dirty, and oppressive to the human spirit. Istanbul, Cairo, Seattle, or Tel Aviv: They are all the same, concrete forests where you can get mugged any time of day.

Stay away if you can.

And in terms of inevitability, I doubt it. High Bandwidth Internet is already proving you don't need to be stuck in an office tower with thousands of others. There's no real reason for commuting to a hellacious cubicle environment if you can work and be seen from home. Why do you need to be within virus transmission range of thousands? It's not cost-effective, plays hell with the environment, and is simply unnecessary--especially with services like Starlink where Internet access equity will no longer be an issue.

Not sure about our cities here in canada but was just talking to my dad who fishes alone many miles into the bush and he said he has seen camps set up, mostly old rv and vans, in really remote areas. There are always some homeless folk camping but he said the increase in number recently seemed substantial. He did speak to a french couple who got stuck here and had to have money wired from france to buy an rv so they could park up a logging road. No money for hotels and no regular campgrounds were open. A shift has happened but not sure where they are coming from specifically or why.

originally posted by: igloo
Not sure about our cities here in canada but was just talking to my dad who fishes alone many miles into the bush and he said he has seen camps set up, mostly old rv and vans, in really remote areas. There are always some homeless folk camping but he said the increase in number recently seemed substantial. He did speak to a french couple who got stuck here and had to have money wired from france to buy an rv so they could park up a logging road. No money for hotels and no regular campgrounds were open. A shift has happened but not sure where they are coming from specifically or why.

Money is every thing. They will call you communists/thief if you have no money. That is the agenda. There will be no peace till all mafia get fked over. People start taking power back and government start working for the population to produce jobs. We are already living in a dystopia. This was done by all the rich and greedy. Their main plan is to send everyone to war in other countries before total take over. The #1 target is China right now. #2 will be Russia, then Europe like WW2.

Do you see that same agenda going on?

Opium War -> WW1 -> WW2

China -> Russia(Austria Hungary invaded Russia first) -> Europe.

a reply to: musicismagic

Atlanta is certainly changing, growing, investing and improving, but most of it is gentrification. Entire areas are being redone, re-developed into almost self contained communities, new apartments and housing going up, surrounded by shops and stores. Ponce City, for example, Midtown/Old Forth Ward, as shops below and apartments above, plus the belt line connecting similar communities, and these are all middle class developments.

Tons of similar developments are also happening all over the city, even toward the West and East Sides.

Personally I like the open space of living in a rural community, but the city does have its appeals (and I've considered moving to be closer to work). Then again, after the lockdown and Covid #, I would go crazy stuck inside an apt or condo and not having private space to walk outside, sit on the porch, and have land where no one bothers me.

a reply to: Lucidparadox
The rural life will disappear as the cultural revolution advances giving everyone land to farm with the same results as in the great leap foreword, where million starved.

a reply to: musicismagic

I agree with your sentiment about people leaving the Cities for a better life out in the Suburbs/Countryside. One reason being the Cities have become Shxxty places to live. example: Gang Culture, Murders, Rapes, Drugs, Prostitution.... all these things are rife in the Cities, along with Jihadi's and other terrorist groups wanting to cause harm. Add to that refugee's and asylum seekers bring their way of life into another Country, you have a perfect storm brewing.

Also viruses spread more easily within a packed community of people as we are seeing with Covid-19 and if these Refugee's keep arriving on our Coast, one day we will see that Ebola spread out from Africa or some other disease.

Cities aren't the place to live now... they used to be back before 2000 but over these 20 years they have just become nasty places to live and they are more dirty than the Countryside and Suburbs!

a reply to: musicismagic

I live just outside of Toronto and just got gentrified back into my folks place. It happened two weeks before Canada shut down.

I hate cities, even the town I'm in is too much. My family has a small piece of property a few hours north, on water, I imagine my future is there.

I moved from the city to the seaside.
Virtually every house here now is either converted to flats or on AirBnB.
Any house with more than 2 bedrooms is out of any of the locals price range.
The kids can't afford to live here any more as the only jobs are hospitality at minimum wage.

This Covid scam has given the town 3 winter incomes in a row so hopefully the money grabbing rental market will collapse and maybe get some more properties on the market at real prices.

I think open air prison is an apt metaphor for the decay in mega cities. They also contain record numbers of immigrants of both the legal and not-so-legal types which while often colorful simply add to the cacophony of urban life. Crime goes up, those capable of moving out do so and often end up in places like where I live; a small city of around 100,000 where crime is low and jobs are available. There is a lot less traffic, tension and all the negatives of mega-cities here (Lynchburg, Virginia). The people are conservative and generally friendly - kind of antithesis of New Yawk where everything runs at 2x and people talk at 3x and every conversation sounds like a fight could break out any second. Some people just aren't wired for that kind of environment. Life in the suburbs of a small city is idyllic in my opinion; plenty of natural areas and parks, we have the James river for kayaking and fishing. A 30 minute drive and I can be on the Blue Ridge parkway looking down from the mountains. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Money can't buy peace of mind and spirit and there is no amount of urban planning or government programs that can fill that empty hole.

originally posted by: UKWO1Phot
I moved from the city to the seaside.
Virtually every house here now is either converted to flats or on AirBnB.
Any house with more than 2 bedrooms is out of any of the locals price range.
The kids can't afford to live here any more as the only jobs are hospitality at minimum wage.

This Covid scam has given the town 3 winter incomes in a row so hopefully the money grabbing rental market will collapse and maybe get some more properties on the market at real prices.

Yeah it could be a real leveller this Corona thing in the UK. Be good to see the house prices really take a plunge all over the UK as so many young adults now just on minimum wage and struggle to pay the inflated rental prices nevermind save for a mortgage

To the OP our British cities are pretty horrible places. As listed above totally out of control prices for buying housing / also rental prices. Very dangerous place too, lots of violence, knife wielding maniacs, gun toting gangs, yobs on the street corners causing general mayhem and insane levels of vandalism and destruction, whole armies of drugged up samck heads like a scene from Thriller all over our cities, general urban decay, lack of decent jobs in the cities too now our manufacturers largely pulled out and will do even more following the end of EU Brexit transition period these being replaced by minimum wage warehouse jobs and institutions called education and dissibility taking up the numbers to appear like we have very little unemployment. Masses of fake asylum seekers all over the place with all the crime that brings with it, roads that are genuinely becoming familiar in the Third World nations, even our main roads now are barely driveable with monstrous pot holes in the them that local authorities just don't repair any more. A legal system that has collapsed in its entirety, our prisons are so full they don't imprison you for most crimes any more................. Indeed even if you do suffer from crime the Police don't have the feet on the ground to even turn up any more and hardly ever properly prosecute those they arrest. Horrible Nazi like National Action types inhabiting the city pubs, people just lying around sleeping in doorways, drugged up and living in bushes in the parks. A general feel of horribleness once one enters one of our cities.................... In short very bad places to be and getting worse by the day. Those that can get out to the suburbs / countryside but even there you get the cities scum coming out to rob you and your vehicles / sheds. If you are a farmer in the UK its close to be one in South Africa, you are constantly feeling like under siege as the cities vagrants come out to rob and pillage. In short Britain' s cities are pretty much as bad as you can imagine and getting worse by the day

Forgot to mention that the Countryside is great for Mental Health reasons and also filled with fresh air unlike the cities!

a reply to: ufoorbhunter

The main problem is when people rent you lose the community of the people who would be there long term, so generally the renters don't care because they can move on.
If you own an house in the area of majority of rentals the place turns to #e.

originally posted by: UKWO1Phot
a reply to: ufoorbhunter

The main problem is when people rent you lose the community of the people who would be there long term, so generally the renters don't care because they can move on.
If you own an house in the area of majority of rentals the place turns to #e.

Being honest and realistic UKWO1Phot I never really gave that much thought but yeah it is something alright. On our street all the houses when moved here were owner owned, now all the old dears seem to be doing what you say and selling them for 3/4 of their value and then carrying on living in them so they can continue with some dough in their pockets. Then when they pop their clogs the places became rentals. It's true how they turn to #e when this happens.

Even the council houses have changed totally. Originally they were largely occupied by very old people who'd had them from when they were built, true respectable types, they'd wear suits and be very nice to talk to. Wowzers, twenty years down the line what a change, when they died off they were replaced by dolies for life scum who have no desire whatsoever to work, just breed with the local mingers to reproduce more dolies for life on benefits, they don't want to work at all, then the best of it they're all going on about the immigrants............... Lol, somebody has got to do the work around here when the local lazy scum are too bone idle.

Gone to the dogs in a generation, heavens only knows what it's gonna be like in another decade but who cares, I'll be living in Cape Town by then