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/