Hacker News Reader

I suppose one could argue that cities in the early - mid 20th century weren't as heavily populated. I could be wrong, but I would also assume that noise levels were much lower and the streets much less congested. Looking at old pictures of city life, you often see kids playing in the streets. I don't think that would be possible today.

View on HN

> I suppose one could argue that cities in the early - mid 20th century weren't as heavily populated. I could be wrong, but I would also assume that noise levels were much lower and the streets much less congested.

That is wrong I think. Inner London for instance still hasn't recovered the population level that it had in the 1930's. There are also videos that show a lot of traffic, and huge numbers of pedestrians. Go back another 30-50 years and most of the traffic would have been horse-drawn carts, which means enormous amounts of excrement, and extreme levels of noise, because before the invention of pneumatic tires wheels were metal on stone.

True, European cities would still have been densely populated, but I was envisioning US cities from that time period since we are talking about the American 'burbs. (I could be wrong just as well.) I currently reside in DC and the old, original suburbs as well as what used to be considered the outskirts, have long been consumed by the metro area. Where it was once sparsely populated, it is now heavily populated, heavily paved and herds of cars as far as the eye can see.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com