> Regardless of autonomous cars, proximity and density will always be a decisive feature of cities, which is what allows humanity to thrive and innovate.
Population density is correlated with increased rates of mental illness.
You're suggesting that dense cities drive people crazy (sorry if you aren't), but it's not clear whether it's like that, or that crazy people tend to gravitate towards center with high population densities.
It's not, and that's a good point. But it sounds more logical to me. Could you give some reasons why people with 'mental illness' would gravitate towards centers?
(mind, I'm asking this with the assumption that mental illness is much broader than just homeless schizophrenics, so to speak. I can definitely see why they might gravitate towards heavily populate areas. But they usually don't pay rent.)
Yes, homeless moving to centers where it's easier to find shelter and people to give you money while begging were my first example; of course 'the homeless' includes many subgroups like the schizophrenics who don't have the mental ability to live a 'stable' life, over the alcoholics and drug addicts whose sanity is affected by chemicals, to people who are just down on their luck (usually combination of illness, no job, no family, etc.)
But other drivers might be that certain demographics are more prone to living in cities as well as developing mental problems: immigrants who are under a lot of stress because of having to adapt to a new language and environment; people in high-pressure jobs like lawyers and people in finance; criminals; etc. (being a criminal is very stressful and most non-psychopath criminals who have been living such a lifestyle for several years or more develop stress-related physical (ulcers, ...) and mental problems because of it, potentially on top of the mental problems they had before).
Or maybe people with mental problems find it easier to be anonymous in a city, where they don't have to (or at least less) deal with the social pressures that outsiders in small communities are under.
Furthermore, while statistically there are more people with mental problems in cities, some classes of problems (like depression) happen more in more rural areas.
I'm not saying one or the other; we don't know. Every now and then there is a study in the popular press with a populist headline like 'cities cause mental problems', and it's also an idea that fits nicely with people's preconceptions about cities=bad, country life=good. The papers those articles are based on are not conclusive though, and the literature shows a much more nuanced image. I work in academia and peripherally work with social scientists who study cities and people living in studies, and they are much more uncertain about the health implications of cities. There are sometimes unexpected feedbacks in complex systems that can cause very unintuitive dynamics.
Population density is correlated with increased rates of mental illness.