Information on City Life Problems

Cities are exciting, dynamic places to visit and to live. Impressive and monumental examples of human civilization on the landscape, cities also facilitate a number of problems faced at times by urban inhabitants. This article briefly describes several interrelated city life problems and issues.

Poverty

• Often stemming from issues of class, social, and racial stratification and socio-economic polarization, urban poverty is an enormous problem in many cities. Concentrated poverty in cities also has an effect on all other city life issues.

Housing

• Housing in cities and where people choose to live can often lead to or be a product of problems inherent in the city. Gentrification of certain areas within cities can lead to the forcing out of lower income residents to make way for more affluent city dwellers.

Crime

• Issues of concentrated poverty and segregated residential areas can contribute to pockets of high crime rate areas within cities. Areas of higher crime rates often suffer from plummeting property values.

Health

• The urban environment can lead to physical and mental health issues unique to city dwellers. Additionally, proper access to health care has long been an issue in urban environments, with affluent residents having no problems of access but lower income populations often struggling to gain adequate health care.

Education

• Urban educational facilities often face problems of overcrowding, violence and disciplinary situations, instructor compensation, higher dropout rates, funding, facilities, and quality of education provided. In many cities, private schools offer affluent parents the opportunity to pay for a premium education for their children, but this leads to further problems for those in the public schools and for community cohesion.