The City vs. the Country

Our world is changing rapidly and one of the biggest changes is that more and more people are moving into urban type environments. New cities are developing everyday and the time of rural living seems to be dying out. Many other changes come along with this move to city living. One interesting statistic I found recently was that the number of 18-year-olds who have a drivers licence and/or own a car is down by over 30% since the early 90's. What are the pros and cons to changes like this? During this meetup I hope we can discuss the following issues:

1. What are the pros and cons to city vs rural living?

2. What are some of the known and unknown changes that come along with this progression into the urban environments?

3. What will new cities look like and how will they develop?

4. How does this impact our views on locally developed or grown products vs mass produced? Should be promoting locally grown, harvested goods or put our energies into more mass produced good to help sustain an ever growing, hungry population?

Of course there are many other issues surrounding this topic we can discuss as well. Below are some podcasts that discuss and highlight some of these issues that would be worth listening to before this discussion.

TED radio hour: the future of cities: http://www.npr.org/2012/06/15/154800562/the-future-of-cities

Freakonomics: Why cities rock- http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/02/18/freakonomics-radio-why-cities-rock/

Freakonomics: The inefficiency of local food- http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/11/14/the-inefficiency-of-local-food/

Freakonomics: The cities of America's future- http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/04/20/the-cities-of-americas-future/

Radiolab: Cities- http://www.radiolab.org/2010/oct/08/

Triumph of the City: Edward Glaeser - Harvard Thinks Big
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cESaKSs6uw

Stewart Brand on Squatter Cities
http://www.ted.com/talks/stewart_brand_on_squatter_cities.html