Urban Problems are Nothing New

As the 21^st century progresses more and more people will live in cities.

It is clear that there are many problems involved with this rapid and concentrated growth. When we asked our class to name a few, they came up with pollution, overcrowding, high housing prices, and noise. If you've been to any big city, you know that the excitement fast pace comes at a cost.

It's not just modern day Tokyo, Los Angeles, or New York that suffer from these urban ailments. We have plenty of documentation that the ancient Romans were complaining of many of the same things. The solemn silence of the ruins we see today is deceiving. Once these streets were alive, full of traffic, commerce, and eating drinking, living and dying. At its height, Rome was home to 1.2 million.

The Romans were successful at solving some of the problems of city life, and were less successful at others. Since Rome fell in part because she was overextended, maybe it it wise for a world that may soon host 11 billion souls to look back and learn from them.

Some Roman failures in adapting to city life include air and noise pollution, fire prevention, and sewage treatment. Even with no cars, we have descriptions or Roman cities that describe a thick brown smog, arising from dust and industry smoke. Those who could not afford better housing were crammed into the Roman version of cheap apartments called Insulae, and these were notoriously prone to fires. Although the Romans had sewage drains, they had no way of treating the effluent and it went into the Tiber just as it was, the same river that might be used for drinking and washing further downstream. Noise was bad enough that we see and emergence of writing with poets longing for the quiet countryside.

One thing that the Romans were successful at was ensuring water supply. They built well-engineered aqueducts and plumbing systems that were wildly advanced in that time. And, considering we can still walk on them today, their paved roads aren't that bad either.

Next time you look at Roman ruins, think of them as a lesson in the management of urban ecosystems. They leave us records in stone of what works in sustaining populations, and what makes them fall.