2013.10.08《雅思写作The lay…

The layout of acity（城市应该如何布局？）

In many cities,planners have laid out schools, homes, shops, offices in specificareas which were widely separated from each other. Do you thinkadvantages of this policy overweight disadvantages to the cityresidents?

It’s noexaggeration to say that urban planning is a heart-wringing taskfor every city governor. Instead of speaking for the approach –which I term as the sprawling layout – that separates educationareas, offices, dwelling sites, shops etc. far apart from eachother, I am more inclined to the other way round; that is, tointegrate theses sections organically together to maximise theconvenience for unbanites.

The sprawlinglayout of a city means that much land has to be taken over toconstruct the urban area, which brings about a bundle of problems.Their farmland coming to naught, many farmers become city dwellers.This seemingly honourable and pride-taking title, however, turnsout nothing short of a nightmare for them. With few or noeducational qualifications and special vocational skills, many ofthem will be reduced to inferior job seekers who trudge to and froto find an average, if not decent, job to sustain their families.On top of that, environment pollution is likely to be exacerbatedby the emission of rubbish, sewage and exhaust gases from thewide-stretching urban area.

Cost is anotherissue that deserves due attention. With this layout, city plannershave to invest more funds in ameliorating infrastructures likeroads, water supply and drainage system, street lamps, publictransit system, communication facilities, power grid et cetera.Moreover, a considerable part of the money will have to beearmarked to employ those city managing and constructing staff,say, dustmen, policemen, thereby pushing up the personnel cost.Then think about the cost of time, and imagine how a shopaholic’szeal will be dampened the moment she finishes her hour-long ridefrom home to the shopping mall, and how a couple will be exhaustedby the routine hassle of driving their kid to school and backhome!

The proponentsof the sprawling city pattern may base their reason on theassumption that it has durability. They believe that with theexpansion of population in the future, every section of the citywill provide spacious room for the new immigrants, be theyemployees, staff of the newly-stationed enterprises, communityresidents, or students, to name but a few. Despite this, cityplanners must not sacrifice the current generation’s convenienceand life quality to meet the needs of the uncertain future. Afterall, they have the ability, and are obliged to balance city’slayout and citizens’ life quality, and the intangible future is farfrom a pretext for their laxity or even inability.

 

Actually, thiscomplicated and somehow head-splitting issue simply boils down toone question: how to construct the city so as to offer the mostpossible convenience for urban residents. It indicates that citygovernors are expected to be people-oriented when planning theurban zone, and that all the measures and policies must be carriedout in the best interest of theunbanites.