Susan in NC’s Reviews > Metropolis: A History of the City, Humankind's Greatest Invention > Status Update

“ There is something surreal about imagining the gleaming skyscrapers, luxury holiday resorts and marinas full of superyachts that will emerge here, on the tip of one of the biggest, poorest and most dysfunctional cities on earth, where the majority survive in the informal economy on a dollar a day.”

“ In the words of a Nigerian journalist, a journey on an iconic dilapidated yellow danfo minibus, the prime means of getting about the city, is a microcosm of Lagos itself: “crazy and funny, breathtaking and intriguing, and of course, risky and life-threatening.””

“ Sensors in bins report to garbage trucks when they need to be emptied; those embedded in parks monitor moisture in the soil and switch sprinklers on and off according to need; street lights dim and brighten in response to pedestrian and traffic volume. Artificial intelligence used in this way can cut energy and water costs by 50%. It can also make the city more efficient in other ways.”

“ Faced with a future of superstorms, the vast impermeable concrete layering of modern cities and suburbs has made them unable to absorb excess water. Chicago, Berlin and Shanghai are learning (or relearning) how to mimic natural hydrology as an urgent flood-prevention tactic. Trees are vital because they are capable of absorbing large amounts of water.”

“ Animals behave very differently in cities. Those species that can adapt to a totally different environment thrive. These are known as synanthropic species—ones that benefit from association with human populations.”

“… despite the increase in mammalian hunters and avian raptors, the populations of small animals and birds they prey upon also increase. This is known as the urban “predation paradox.” Enjoying a superabundance of food left by humans, they turn their attention away from small mammals and birds’ nests towards picnic sites, bins and roadkill.”

“ Low-density urban sprawl, automobile-centric cities and the everyday lifestyles that go with it are the product of cheap oil, and utterly dependent upon it. It is therefore a finite metropolitan form. But in the meantime, car-dependence has made the modern city an engine of poisoning smog, environmental fragmentation and climate change.”

“ In Britain, France, the Netherlands and elsewhere the picture was similar: the decaying inner city became the home of immigrant communities as their middle- and working-class communities trekked out to more salubrious suburbs, satellite towns and planned new towns.”

“ The American suburbs, with their distinctive look and feel, were not the manifestation of national taste or individual choices; they were largely the creation of the state. Founded in the wake of the Great Depression, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) provided billions of dollars insuring the mortgage market.”

“… real-estate agents and mortgage brokers directed them towards the ideal FHA home, which was typically in a new out-of-town development. The reason suburbia exploded in the 1950s was because the government wanted it to, and subsidised it with billions of dollars.”