Modern cities all over the world face the same problems. One of them is poor housing. People often live in old houses or huts that don’t have electricity or sanitation. As city population grows governments don’t have the money to build modern apartment buildings.
Cars and industries are polluting city air and rivers more and more. Waste that people throw away is burned or ends up in landfills. All of this makes modern cities an unhealthy place to live in.
Especially during morning and evening rush hours cities become packed with vehicles . Daily traffic jams make it impossible for people to get to work in time. City authorities are spending more and more money on public transportation and are talking other steps to reduce traffic in cities. A few years ago the London mayor made people pay to drive their cars into the city centre.
Cities of today face many social problems. Crime, alcoholism and drug addiction is especially high in cities. Many young people are unemployed .
Larger multiethnic cities face conflicts between groups with different cultural backgrounds. Blacks and whites in the USA and South Africa had a violent history in the 20th century.
Even though residents of cities have a higher standard of living there remain many poor people. Government organizations work hard to get rid of poverty. They try to give such people better education and jobsA city is a place where thousands or even millions of people live in a very small area. Cities are much larger and more important than towns or villages. Today, about half of the world’s population live in cities. Today’s modern cities often have three characteristic areas. The centre of the city is called downtown. It consists of stores, banks, government buildings and cultural attractions. Many people come to work in the downtown area. In large cities the downtown area is full of skyscrapers.