World Cities Day

Urbanization is the outflow of population from villages to cities or simply an increase in the number of city residents. This event has a lot of side effects that few people think about. On the one hand, this is very good - the more residents in the city, the more labor force, the city develops in socio-economic terms. However, problems are also growing - for example, people often have nowhere to live - they arrange their lives in slums, which are not suitable for a normal way of life. Man-made smog is growing - toxic emissions from cars, motorcycles - in some countries this is a real problem - for example, in Thailand, people wear special masks on the street in order to somehow protect their lungs. An important problem of cities is the problem of territories - cities grow, absorbing nearby settlements. These and other problems accompany the increase in the number of residents in the city. Relatively recently, in 2014, the UN General Assembly decided to establish World Cities Day as a way to increase public attention to the problems of megacities. The fact is that the number of city dwellers increases greatly every year - let’s say, if in the 50s of the last century they were about 30% of the total number of inhabitants of the Earth, then today it is already about 50% with an increasing tendency. However, the problems of megacities are not being solved as quickly as their population is growing. So, it was decided to celebrate World Cities Day on October 31 every year. On this day, problems of urban development are raised with particular activity and ways to solve them are sought. They organize events aimed at improving some areas of social life. World Cities Day was first celebrated in 2014 - that is, it is a very young holiday and, naturally, has not yet gained the necessary popularity. However, already in the first year of its celebration, a forum dedicated to this event was held in Russia. And in the future, the main goal of Cities Day is to raise the issue of megacities, prove its relevance and necessity, and inform society about it. So, every year on October 31, from now on, we - people of cities - must think about how to develop our home - our city. Of course, using the amenities of the urban environment is pleasant and comfortable, however, maintaining them at the required level, thinking through other things that develop society, and also cleaning up environmental “tails” is the main task of every city dweller.