Work for City Planners (Blog 6)

Do you have your favorite city and do you want to live in it?  The city is one of the most remarkable symbols of human civilization, which is an array of cultures, history and technology, with millions of dwellers. There are so many famous cities in the world like Paris, New York and Singapore. However most of them have limitations including pollution, water shortage, traffic congestion and so on. Therefore, why don’t we design our own cities? I played a PC game called City XI which provided an excellent opportunity to develop my own city. It is a mock city system including almost every component of a modern city. Actually, the city planner is a significant job to provide inhabitants with comfortable residential areas. So let me tell you some work of a city planner.

My City

  First, it is important to develop industry and locate the factories in proper places. Each department of industry like heavy industry, high-tech industry and manufacturing should be balanced in reasonable proportion. City planner should adjust measures according to local conditions. For example, the city is located in a basin with abundant petroleum, developing heavy industry is a wise choice. Besides, industrial areas and residential areas must be separated, because air pollution and noise will decrease citizen’s living condition and food production. However, I find that Singapore does not do well in this; for example, a chemical factory called Jurong Island is next to our community. Hence, before constructing, a city planner will plan the usage of each land first.

You Can Even Build Rio de Janeiro

  Second, one of the most irritated things of modern cities is the traffic congestion, so a city planner will take it into consideration. With the population increasing and buildings burgeoning, cars will totally block the road, especially in rush hours. My suggestion is still planning first. After planning land usage, the next to contemplate is constructing road network, more specifically, building main roads, avenues, highways and expresses. Besides, developing mass transit will relieve traffic congestion, however, it will take up a large portion of budget. To some extent, Singapore’s high MRT fare is reasonable because maintenance fee is quite expensive.

  In addition, there are many other findings: providing citizens with adequate jobs and establish more utilities and city services including hospitals and education. Moreover, citizens are like us who need leisure activities rather than work and sleep. Hotels for holidays, sports centres, threatres, churches, museums and even casinos are badly needed. From my observation, Singapore government invested plenty of money in diversifying citizens’ spiritual world; for instance, community centres intersperse in the whole island. Certainly, these will take another portion of budget. In short, to plan a city is a strict job and to be a city plan is not easy.

the Beautiful Night Scenery of My City

  However, joy still exists in this job because you can design your own city, namely, construct your city in certain style. In my city, I created a central business district where skyscrapers raised up, and a district full of universities which highlighted my city’s strong academic atmosphere. Everything becomes possible in your city. Even Singapore, a well-organized bustle metropolis, can be established. In conclusion, planning a city is such a complicated task that it requires patience, investigations and knowledge. I benefit a lot from this game from which I obtain the knowledge in city planning, population, architecture and business. If you have interest in planning a city or want to major in civil engineering, just have a try to fulfill your ambition!