Urbanization Mania Sweeps into Chongqing
Chongqing, one of the fastest growing municipalities in China, garnered the attention of an Economist article this week. Like other western metropolises, Chongqing is flush in government subsidies as the Chinese state attempts to rectify the wealth imbalance currently favoring coastal cities. Mass urbanization projects in China unfortunately are often poorly planned and executed. Shoddy housing, poor roads, and faulty electrical grids are endemic in areas where city legislatures are more concerned with reaching statistical goals than providing sustainable living environments. The drive for profits married to a lack of a genuine oversight also leads to rampant corruption.
As the Chongqing leadership attempts to “urbanize” 6,000,000 rural constituents over the next twelve years they need to establish innovative approaches to development that promote a higher quality of life. The municipal population otherwise faces a bleak future already experienced by many cities that are prosperous on paper but live in cramped and polluted conurbations. China and the planet can only handle so many mega-cities like Beijing and Guangzhou that don’t take sustainable development and alternative energy resources into full consideration. To the detriment of the environment and the health of residents, a lack of foresight still pervades some of the largest urban planning strategies ever implemented in human history.