I am from the suburban area of Warrington, Pennsylvania. Warrington is located in Bucks County and is 25 miles north of Philadelphia. It is considered an automobile suburb because mostly everyone uses cars to get around and there aren’t many sidewalks aside from ones in neighborhoods. There are about 24,000 people living in 13.8 square miles of land. There are a couple farms throughout my town but in the past few years a lot of big shopping centers have been popping up making my town more urban than it has ever been. I’ve lived here for my whole life except for when I am away at school and I couldn’t imagine growing up anywhere else. It is so close to Philly that I can take the train and be there in 30 minutes or I can drive to New York City or Washington D.C. and be there in about 2 hours. I really like the location of my town because it is so close to so many other fun cities.

The first city I am going to talk about is Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts. This town is pedestrian-oriented with many sidewalks for people to get from different shops, go to work, or just take leisure strolls. My town is nothing like this one because we only have sidewalks in neighborhoods and for the most part people only use them leisurely. Our shopping centers do have a lot of shops and sidewalks but some of the shops for one center are across a busy road and spread out even more. I think that it would be beneficial for my town to consider placing more sidewalks all throughout because right now everyone uses their cars to get to places. By adding more sidewalks this puts less pollution in the air than cars and promotes a healthy lifestyle.

The second town I chose is Detroit, Michigan. Urban farming is very important here because this area is known as a food desert and this type of sustainability not only helps people in need but helps the environment as well. I really liked the urban gardens and think that with all the new construction going on in my town that some of these buildings should consider making them more environment friendly. My town has a couple farms that help produce some locally grown food but what I noticed is that there are a few abandon buildings that have been sitting there for almost 15 years doing nothing. It would be in my town’s best interest to clean up these hazardous areas and make this land something that gives back to the community like maybe a community garden.