Interesting article on city life and the brain

[shootingstar]

Perhaps what some people may object is the hyper pacing of some big metropolitan cities downtown.. I notice how much more "faster" paced in terms of people walking, etc. in Toronto whenever I go back to visit family and friends. I find I have to consciously relax/be contemplative for an hr. or so. Cycling helps. Then (shrug) it's fine. I did live there for over 15 years.

Vancouver is "slower", which to some people from the rural area, they think it's more hyper than a rural area.

It maybe the density of crowds.

There are calm people who live a big chunk of their lives in a big city.

Pam, I know what you mean about having on-call medical care for independent elderly. My partner's mother was in such a facility, new apartment building right in the downtown core of Vancouver.

As for the retirement community thing...my parents are not anything like yet maybe soon in a few years. They live within 5 min. walk from grocery store (which we're all glad), across from an elementary school, parkette and a 5 min. walk from transit bus stop. They just live in a family oriented residential neighbourhood. They've been there for over a decade. They moved from a city of 200,000.

This about 5 kms. from downtown Toronto...which is relatively close given Toronto's width of 60 kms. radius in the amalgamated city with over 2 million people. I think it might be well over 3 million counting all the other suburbs ringing it..

Sounds terrible? No, Toronto has a ravine park system that runs through the middle of the city (I used to bike it everyday for work commuting.) and lots of ethnic neighbourhoods, etc.

My partner retired 10 years ago but then later started up his own little company for part-time. Are/were we living in a retirement community? Nope. Really, you can't beat living in an neighbourhood if our LBS is 3 min. down the street, with 10-15 min. walk of stores, restaurants, etc., light rail transit stations (2), etc. Sporting goods stores are 15 min. bike ride away, etc. Even (3) farmers' markets at least 6 months of the year are in the heart of downtown.

This is in the heart of downtown Vancouver. Which to me, is tame compared to Toronto, traffic wise and crowd wise.

But if living in the country helps a person. Great and if you have a car, even better. Right? I dunno, when turning 80 yrs., think about your own driving abilities. Scary.

Not all cities are horrible places. Some cities are genuinely working hard to make them more liveable rather than places to escape from.

[PamNY]

The main city thing that I think really adds stress is noise. Of course crime would as well; I am lucky enough to live in a safe neighborhood.

But crime can happen anywhere, so I don't know if that counts as an urban stress.

And I am exceptionally good at using city parks -- today I went to one Trader Joe's instead of another because I could use a route that allowed me to walk through Central Park. Takes an additional 15-20 minutes but worth it.

[Jolt]

The main city thing that I think really adds stress is noise. Of course crime would as well; I am lucky enough to live in a safe neighborhood.

But crime can happen anywhere, so I don't know if that counts as an urban stress.

And I am exceptionally good at using city parks -- today I went to one Trader Joe's instead of another because I could use a route that allowed me to walk through Central Park. Takes an additional 15-20 minutes but worth it.

Noise is definitely a big contributing factor, but even worse IMO is crowding/congestion. Walking down a sidewalk where you're elbow to elbow with random strangers just sucks, as does not being able to see very far ahead because you're short and are right behind a bunch of taller people. Of course, being familiar with the city probably helps one avoid those situations as much as possible (like your example about walking through Central Park to get to TJ's).