The Impacts of Terrorism on the Urban Form - Essay Example

Impacts of Terrorism on the Urban Form Introduction Terrorism is one of the issues that have rocked the contemporary environment. In previous years, the issue was not that advanced and excess. However, with the changing times, there have been different groups of people that have come up with radical ideologies that seek to motivate them to carry out acts of terror. On 11 September year 2001, there was one of the most recognized terrorist attacks on World Trade Centre towers. These attacks led to the death of thousands of people. Different people have had different opinions regarding these attacks having some people stating that these attacks were holy. However, these attacks were carried out by international terror network, Al Qaeda. In the attack, there was a loss of about 30% of the downtown class and 3.5% of office space occupied in Manhattan. These attacks among other small ones that have taken place in other cities around the world have left people in wonder of the consequences that they have. Other pessimists state that New York is still vulnerable to attacks even after the creation of The Homeland Security Agency that was meant to prevent the terrorist attacks even further (Samuels 29). Most of the attacks normally leave the Cities in a mess and this is because of the manner in which there are many injuries and generally slowing down the progress of organizations and other personal businesses in the city. Moreover, these attacks have led to the destruction of numerous office spaces in the city that are normally used by valuable businesses in the success of the country. With the destruction of the office space, there are many funds invested by the government to see that they are reconstructed. After the attack on the tower, various problems have come up in the city. One of the problems that have existed in the city is the outbreak and the spread of anthrax in important offices such as the Postal Office that has led to the slowness in activities taking place at the office. This essay assists in understanding the issue of terrorism with relation to the development of urban areas. There is also the discussion of the manner in which the economic stature of the country relates to the current rates of terrorism in urban areas. After this, there is critical analysis of the impact of terrorism on urban development in this century. There is also slight analysis of the future of cities after the impact of a terror attack. Analysis Despite the fact that experts in the field have stated that the main purpose of urban areas is the development of business and the general increase in organizations to assist people in living stable and standard lives, there are other roles played by these urban centers. One of the most important though not widespread roles made by cities is that they are used as avenues of protection. The reason is that most of the urban centers have accumulated many people over the years because of the lucrative employment opportunities. With a huge number of people in a compact area, there is a less possibility of the attacks taking place as compared to areas that have less people. One of the impacts that terrorism has had on urbanization is that people have acquired the mentality that when most people get to live in one place together and in plenty they are actually safe which has led to an increase in movements to urban areas. The theory of safety with regard to living in congestion only works in rural areas and other small towns. However, this is not the issue in urban areas. Actually, it is the opposite because urban places are vulnerable given that people are busy to take time and take safety measures. With this, terrorists take this as an advantage where they get to attack these uninformed people in a manner that they are not vastly prepared for. Moreover, terrorists know that the huge masses in the cities are very critical to the development of the GDP of the country and consequently attack in order to injure the state of the country’s economy. Movement to urban areas has been a great impact of terrorist attacks taking place in small towns. The second impact is regarding the future effects of terrorism on the growth of urban areas. In recent years, most of the attacks that have taken place have done so in urban areas. With the increase in attacks on urban areas, there is bound to be a less movement of people to urban areas. Quite contrasting this, the attacks have currently instilled fear on people living in urban areas. The consequence of this has been people moving from urban areas and actually moving to the areas near the big cities where they have ease of access to there job in the city. This makes people highly populate the areas near the urban areas (Samuels 54). With the reduction of people in the cities, people seek to build more offices in the areas where people have moved and in the near future, the current large cities will have fewer offices as compared to areas surrounding the cities. Another effect of terrorism is on the transportation costs. With terrorism attacks, people have always been cautious with regard to travelling. Of recent times, many of the terrorism attacks have always been on transportation modes that have made people fear travelling through these means (Bruno). Cities have always had a reputation for being congested and the lack of space. Because of this, people have always had the ability to acquire goods and services at cheaper rates. With this, there is less transportation of goods and this makes the people in charge of transportation increase their costs. With the increase in the prices, many people tend to move to urban areas where they get to have less transportation costs and the consequent of this is having an increase in the number of people living in these urban areas. An increase in the number of people in urban areas leads to an increase in terror attacks in the urban areas. Another impact that terrorism has had is on buildings. Buildings are normally very expensive to construct and take many years to develop as good a building as the twin towers that were attacked in New York. Physical destruction of the buildings is the most critical impact of all the impacts that have taken place. In an area such as New York, Manhattan and especially the downtown areas of the city have received the greatest effect (Mark 420). Every downtown of a big city is known to have a large number of people and this is through the many offices that exist in the areas. The areas normally have large buildings housing these offices. When the twin towers collapsed in New York, the effect was on many offices and this is because of the manner in which they were congested. After the collapse of the first tower, and given the height of the building, many adjacent buildings also collapsed from the impact of the falling of the humongous building. Another recognizable impact of terrorism on the growth of towns is with regard to deformity in the young children and in fetus. With the increase in attacks, many people have suffered from damages in their nervous systems where they do not have the ability to breathe appropriately. Some people get serious problems such that they have difficulty breathing in congested areas (Aston 42143). The greatest impact of this has been on young children where many have died out of their weak systems that are naturally incapable of handling such large impacts. The population of children in New York after the September 11 attacks was seen to reduce significantly and the consequent of this is the general decrease in urban growth in the city. This is the same case during the terrorist attacks that took place immediately after the Second World War in Japan. Conclusion For further understanding of the issue of terrorism and relating it to development of urban areas, it is critical to go through some of the most common examples that have faced the 20th and the 21st centuries (Fly). There is the impact of terrorism on London and Israel. It is vital to recognize that areas such as Tel Aviv were considered very secure on the issue of attacks as compared to the areas around Jerusalem that were considered less secure. Having the fact, that Jerusalem is a large area does not necessarily make it safer since it has many people and this is a point relative to the other cases presented in the case study. Terrorism is one of the most pressing issues in both urban and rural areas. Despite the fact that rural areas receive, credit for supporting the economy through agricultural means, the greatest aspect to understand when dealing with terrorism. The increase of terrorist networks has seen a rapid change in target sites having most of them being urban areas and understanding the impact of the attacks on urban development offers insight on the issue and the handling it. Work Cited Fly, Jameson. Why National Security Conservatives and the World May Miss In the GOP Race. Shadow Government. 2011. Retrieved on 22nd August 2011 from http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/08/19/why_national_security_conservatives _and_the_world_will_miss_pawlenty_in_the_gop_rac Aston, Mather. The Department of Homeland Security. Federal Register, (2011). 76, 137. Pg 41993- 42467. Mark, Richards. The Department of Homeland Security Intelligence Enterprise: Operational Overview and Oversight Challenges for Congress. International Journal for Terrorism and Political Hot Spots, 5(3). 2010. Pg 387-446. Bruno, Gareth.. Al-Qaeda. The Backgrounder. 2011 Retrieved on 22nd August 2011 from http://www.cfr.org/terrorist-organizations/al-qaeda-k-al-qaida-al-qaida/p9126 Samuels, Jack. Developments for the Future. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2011. Print. Read More