Final Post: A Reflection On The Fast-Paced Urban Lifestyle

The city of Port-of-Spain has grown and developed economically over the years and has with it, encouraged a high population density. The economic opportunities offered by the city along with the high population had fostered an environment where everything is fast-paced. Persons of all demographic groups, social classes and walks of life have become roped into this fast-paced life and become akin to the city’s lifestyle. In the blog ‘Increasing Urban 

Congestion’, Anamika Roopnarine specifically discusses in her 8^th blog post, the life of street vendors in the city of Port-of-Spain. This directly relates to the 8^th post of my blog as well, where I talk about the hectic life of street vendors. Anamika highlights that street vending has been and continues to be a part of the culture and society of Trinidad. It has increased in Port-of-Spain where vendors even sell illegally and cause their competitors such as the established businesses to lose sales. These street vendors are therefore forced to adopt fast-paced lifestyles in order to make a living while also constantly on the lookout for police officers who may force them to relocate or stop sales for illegal vending.

City life is not just fast-paced during the day, but it also translates into the night. There is so much hustle and bustle at night in the city of Port-of-Spain from street vendors selling DVDs and clothes to nightclubs bursting open with young people. The blog “our City that Never Sleeps,’ created by Stephon Ramoutar, lends credence to this reality. In his first post he states that urban areas are continuously lively, even at night, because of the services such as night jobs and entertainment that the city has to offer. The restaurants and clubs are especially booming at night and never cease to entertain.

The fast-paced urban lifestyle poses serious problems and has detrimental effects on persons in urban areas. One such impact is the change in diets of city dwellers, as exemplified in the blog, ‘Urbanization, Today's Dietitian: Trinidad’ by Aria Laidlow. She alludes to the fact that the eating habits and diets of persons in the city have changed from traditional home cooked meals. She explains that persons are increasingly adopting a fast food diet due to their hectic urban lifestyles. As discussed in the 7^th post of my blog, this fast food diet is facilitated by the large number of fast food restaurants located in Port-of-Spain, providing accessibility to unhealthy foods. The unhealthy diets may pose severe health implications for city dwellers as well as individuals commuting to the city. This is just one of the many negative impacts of the fast-paced urban lifestyle.

The fast-paced life of the city thus seems unending, and exemplifies a cycle, moving from the hustle and bustle at the start of the day to the very end. The hectic city life for some is exhilarating and full of excitement. However, apart from these positive aspects, the lifestyle has its associated drawbacks for many, posing serious health impacts resulting from stress and unhealthy diets.

The video below shows a typical day in the City of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

References

Laidlow, Aria. 2014. How Has Our Urban Diet Changed Our Urban Form? Urbanization, Today's Dietitian: Trinidad. http://anurbandiet.blogspot.com/

Ramoutar, Stephon. 2014. First Post. Our City Never Sleeps.  http://ourcitiesneversleep.blogspot.com/

Roopnarine, Anamika. 2014. Increasing Urban Congestion. The Congested Urban Life. http://culthecongestedurbanlife.blogspot.com/

De-stressing in the city that never sleeps

Embracing the city night life in Carnival Village, Port-of-Spain

According to the article ‘Stressed in the City: How City Life May Change Your Brain,’ city life may cause increased levels of stress which was revealed after conducting multiple tests on the brains of city dwellers. The article stated that persons currently living in the city showed higher activity in the amygdala; the brain region that regulates emotions such as anxiety. City dwellers therefore have to balance the high-energy hum of city activity with more downtime. These results suggest the need to keep things in balance “so after a period of working hard, you balance that with a period of off-time as well.” This is illustrated in the picture above. Most of these persons would have worked hard on their jobs during the day and to relieve that overbearing level of stress, they come alive at night. 

The lifestyle in the city even in the night seems to be fast-paced with people wanting to relieve stress from a hard day at work to young adults experimenting with the fun side of city life. As depicted in the picture above, persons of all ages assemble by the hundreds at night in the Carnival Village in the heart of Port of Spain, at Carnival time. The stress of work was alleviated as some older folks were seen drinking at one of the stalls, while the younger teenagers paraded with gigantic helium balloons, accompanied by their parents taking in the live show, with corn soup in hand.

Indeed, Port-of-Spain is the city that never sleeps! There seems to be no age barrier when it comes to night life as every age is catered for. From night clubs to theatres, no person is excluded. The fatigue of persons during the day is counteracted by the pull of the nightlife, reviving city dwellers yet again.

For further reading follow the link below
http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/22/stressed-in-the-city-how-urban-life-may-change-your-brain/#ixzz2u5ktsjRi

References

Stressed in the City: How Urban Life May Change Your Brain. (2011). Retrieved March 30, 2014, from http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/22/stressed-in-the-city-how-urban-life-may-change-your-brain/#ixzz2u5ktsjRi.

The exhaustion of the urban hustle

A long and tiring day in the City

Winding down to yet another day in the city, exhausted business professionals, shoppers, and children alike, relax while patiently awaiting their preferred mode of transport to take them home. Life in the city understandably leaves persons tired and in need of some form of relaxation.

After disembarking the buses and water taxi, these persons who entered the city along with city dwellers, have come to accept the rigors of a typical day in the city. The school children become accustomed to the rush in the morning to reach the bus stop in order to get a ride to school. Their attention span is constrained, thereby severely limiting their output. The business professionals overtime become somewhat resigned to the ‘eight to five’ lifestyle of having to awake before dawn to be punctual at work. For them, spending at times up to two hours in traffic has become the norm. A long dreary day in most cases at their places of employment follows, then having to trudge their way to their cars or await transport to go home. In comparison, city life for the shopper differs from that of the average person as it is filled with excitement and thrill. Nevertheless, the end of their day is as any other; mired in exhaustion and fatigue.

One of the most daunting tasks of urban life is subjecting oneself to spending hours in traffic to reach the city. Hall and Barrett (2012) lend support to this by stating that city life is affected by the increasing dominance of the car. Additionally, urban researchers, Harriet, Poku and Emmanuel (2013), also put forward the view that economic activity and quality of life is severely hindered by an ineffective urban transport system in terms of scarce transport facilities such as, road space, effective management and sufficient parking space.  Weisbod et al, (2003) state that traffic congestion impairs the productivity of b0th the business person and shopper, through reduced access to job sites and stores, respectively. This monotonous activity also significantly impresses upon persons in the city, a dreary feeling lasting throughout the day, which makes working more difficult, and leaves them feeling more drawn out towards the end of the day.

Each person in the city, be it the business person, the shopper, the salesperson or even the school child; each has their own experience, but for the majority, each day in the city culminates with a sense of relief, only to be subjected to the repetitive motions continuing from the previous day.

References

Harriet, Takyi, Poku, Kofi, & Anin, Emmanuel. (2013). An Assessment of Traffic Congestion and Its Effect on Productivity in Urban Ghana [Electronic Version]. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4, 225-234.

Weisbrod, G. Vary, D. and Treyz, G (2003). Measuring the Economic Costs of Urban Traffic Congestion to Business. Journal of the Transportation Research Board. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from Transportation Research Record, #1839.

Hall, Tim. and Heather Barrett. 2012. Urban Geography 4th edition. London and New York: Routledge.

Fast pace, fast food

The value placed on fast food in Port-of-Spain

Life on the go has fostered an environment, particularly in cities, where nutritious diets and proper eating habits are neglected in favour of the less nutritious foods. This unhealthy lifestyle is facilitated by globalization whereby multinational corporations such as KFC, Wendy’s, Burger King, Subway,and others, were invited to set base in countries around the world. One such country, is the developing country of Trinidad which currently houses a large number of fast food restaurants especially in Port-of-Spain.

 While hustling to work on mornings with minimal time, the opportunity cost of cooking a nutritious meal before leaving home, is having to purchase unhealthy food at a fast food restaurant to satisfy ones energy requirements and palate. In the pictures above, it is evident that these unhealthy eating choices driven by busy lifestyles, is impacting all demographic groups from young people to working class adults. A recent article in the Trinidad Express Newspaper highlights the health implications of a fast food diet stating that “our teeth are digging our graves.” Between 13-15% of the population of Trinidad currently suffer from diabetes which is linked to an unhealthy lifestyle. According to the article, we are increasingly becoming more Americanized in our eating habits and cooking less meals at home. This is due to the hectic lifestyles of persons particularly in cities, with less time devoted to cooking a nutritious home-made meal. Not only do hectic lifestyles cause health problems, but also the associated stress levels resulting from a hectic lifestyle. The video below delves into  the health implications of a busy urban lifestyle. Our diets are becoming increasingly representative of our busy lifestyles.

         How Stress Caused By An Urban Lifestyle May Affect Ones Health

McDonald's fast food restaurant

The picture above shows one of the mutinationals dominating the fast food market with its affordable prices and accessible locations. This establishment in the picture is situated along the Arapeter Avenure where multible restaurants with healtheir food choices line the narrow two-way street on either side. It is so conventiently located to defer the competition by enticing customers. A recent article suggests that fast food restaurants proliferate in cities worldwide. To curb the deleterious effects, an aticle in a US theguardian Newspaper states that cities need better planning for health. Land use planners should take into consideration the development of parks and gyms to encourage physical activity and healthy lifestyles. Additionally, new establishments offering healthy food choices would certainly go a long way in helping customers with busy lives to adopt a healthy lfestyle and to rethink their food preferences. The city of Port-of-Spain contains little green space for recreation or physical activity, thus enhancing the negative effects of fast food restaurants located at almost every corner.

References

Castillo, Kimberly. (2014, February 2). Breaking the cycle...sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits. Trinidad Express. Retrieved March 28, 2014, from http://www.trinidadexpress.com/featured-news/Breaking-the-cycle-243265941.html.

Boseley, Sarah. (2014, February 26). Sick cities: how to beat pandemics that spread like we live in one big metropolis. Theguardian. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/feb/26/sick-cities-pandemics-spread-metropolis.

The double sided coin of the urban shopper and salesperson

The urban lifestyle of the 'shopaholic'

A shopper withdrawing money from an ATM

The hectic life of the city envelops everyone including the shopper. Life for a shopper in the city is filled with excitement, hustle and satisfaction after having met ones wants and needs. For bargain hunters coming to the city to shop, the fast service represents the catalyst for shopping activities. The life of even the shopper in the city is thus, facilitated though globalization. Globalization has given rise to banks being established along key motorways so that busy individuals can have quick access to banking facilities in the city. With adequate money, urban life for the shopper is quite the opposite to that of the average person with errands to run. The carefree shopper may actually enjoy the fast-paced life, having to run to the fast service to withdraw money, then scurrying from one shop to the next hoping to capitalize on the apparent bargains. In any city, shopping is a definite activity taking place and is woven into the fabric of the city.

For a more informative depiction of shopping, feel free to view the video below of shopping in the city of Hong Kong.

The urban lifestyle of the street vendor

Street vendor in Port-of-Spain

On the other side of the coin, entrepreneurs particularly street vendors in the city as seen in the picture above,  also experience fast-paced lives but from a different perspective. Their lives in the city revolve around anticipating sales and attending to the needs of every customer. Similar to the business person, time is also money for them, and at times their receipts certainly do not reflect their effort. The hazards faced are many since the majority of street vendors are illegally vending. As such, they are forced to be always on the look out for police officers patrolling the city streets. Those vending in front of established business places, oftentimes incur the wrath of their competitors. According to newspaper articles, Illegal vendors in Port-of-Spain especially on Frederick, Queen and Henry Street, are constantly threatened with forced removal from officials (Clyne, 2014). This exacerbates the rush of urban street vending. 

References:

Clyne, Kalifa. (2014, April 2). Crackdown on illegal vending. Trinidad Guardian. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://www.guardian.co.tt