Jounal Entry 3: A City Lasting Longer than a New York Minute

This past week I went on a road trip with my father, and visited a few big cities like New York City, and Washington DC. I had always thought, that being big cities, with lots of people living there, and traveling there everyday, that these cities would be huge contributors to some environmental problems we face. After my trip, a realized these cities are actually fairly sustainable! So much tax money, and peoples time goes into making sure the daily operations of these cities have as small of a footprint as possible.
The first thing I noticed, and that just about everyone is aware of, is public transpiration. The subways where packed all the way from the very center of the city, to the outskirts and beyond. Each stop, and stations such as Penn Station were PACKED. Parking is also SOOO expensive, making people not want to drive. I could have never guessed how many people used the subway each day. Even busses were full.

  For shorter distances, the city encourages people not to take public transportation, as it still adds to the footprint. To do this, the city places rentable bikes called CitiBikes EVERYWHERE. There were thousands of them. For something like $7 a day, you can ride a bike all over the city for 30-minute intervals.
They also had these same bikes in D.C.

The city also has recycling bins place next to almost every trashcan.

These cities are not only sustainable in environmental way though. They are also very sustainable in such that everyday operations will be able to continue for a long time. New york City in particular, is an extremely dense city. Buildings are literally on top of each other. And with any city, in time, buildings and streets need to be updated. That being said, with a city that never sleeps, you can stop the normal operations of even one black! The city and construction workers have become extremely efficient with space. You very rarely find construction blocking a road or sidewalk. Instead, you find the sidewalks covered but tin roofs on which the constructions workers are working. Almost like an artificial ground lever for them. And even if the streets to have to be blocked, you can bet it wont be for long, or will happen in the wee hours.