Should Urban Growth be Restricted?Vocabulary and Expressionsrepercussion A

Should Urban Growth be Restricted?
   City growth comes from their great power of attraction. People come to cities because they expect to benefit from several opportunities: education, health services, employment, shopping, entertainment, and public facilities, even if they know life may be difficult there. No one has yet discovered a way to stop people coming to cities, even in authoritarian countries. I understand that Queen Elizabeth I tried to stop the growth of London in the 1580s-1600s. The Abercrombie Plan of 1944 tried to stop the growth of London. But it didn’t work and London became a much better place to live in. Authorities should understand that managing cities is the need of the hour, not restricting their growth. Rapidly growing cities present such challenges as traffic congestion, environmental degradation and lack of civic services, which leads people to think that maybe restricting city growth is the optimal solution. However, these challenges should not become reasons for restricting city growth. Restricting urban growth may have negative effects, especially in developing countries. It would reduce chances for the coming of new dynamic flow of young people ready to chase a place in big cities. They are the sources of city vitality.
   If we cannot limit the growth of cities, we should then think about organizing the growth of the cities and guarantee the quality of life for the urban dwellers. Some people may ask me what a well-managed city is. I think a well-managed city should provide access to affordable housing and physical infrastructure, and a healthy living and work environment ensuring transparency and equity of operations. In China, for example, growth and urbanization have increased rapidly in the past 30 years through investment in infrastructure and the management of urbanization. The government has developed internally consistent and effective practices across every element of the urbanization operating model: funding, governance, planning, sector policies and shape.
   Therefore, I strongly suggest that city growth needs to be responsive to the land market, linked to infrastructure and planned to promote ways of improving residents’ quality of life, creating pleasant urban environments.