. Cities are a technology for poverty reduction; New York City’s GDP equals that of Russia with 6% of the people and 0.00005% of the land. Covid-19 has catalysed a naive or hypocritical romanticism of villages that believes cities are undesirable technology because of their hostility to migrants, infection hotspot tendency, and diminished centrality to the future of work due to digitisation. However, Covid-19 can be seen as an opportunity to catalyse good urbanisation by empowering our cities with more power and funds.
Urbanization : Opportunities and Challenges
- Urbanization yields several positive effects if it happens within the appropriate limits. Some of the positive implications of urbanization, therefore, include the creation of employment opportunities, technological and infrastructural advancements, improved transportation and communication, quality educational and medical facilities, and improved standards of living.
- Urbanization attracts people to cities and towns which leads to a high population increase. With the increase in the number of people living in urban centers, there is a continued scarcity of houses.
- The problem of joblessness is highest in urban areas and it is even higher among educated people. It is estimated that more than half of unemployed youths around the globe live in metropolitan cities.
- Twenty-six of the world’s 33 megacities are in developing countries because their rural areas lack rule of law, infrastructure and productive commerce.
