Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/04/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Most Europeans and Asians assume that the USA is characterized by the few big cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc.) shown in the movies and in TV. In fact the USA has a very low population density when compared with most countries in Europe and Asia. Australia excepted, of course. About 80% of the US population lives in cities along the coastline and major waterways. Most of the rest of the country is sparsely populated. The actual population density of the entire country is 79 people per sq. mile in comparison to India's 898 people per sq. mile, Denmark's 328 per sq. mile, Japan's 867 per sq. mile, France's 283 per sq. mile or the UK's 640 per sq. mile. Even Kiribati has 340 people per square mile. Once you travel a short distance out of any big city in the US, even New York, you are in rural countryside. I live about 40 miles north of New York in a small town in the Hudson Valley. We have weekly open air Farmer's markets just like those shown in Sonny's picture. I cannot see my neighbor's house from any window and I have to drive several miles for the closest shopping. That's the case over most of the non-urban US. I grew up in the rural Midwest where the closest neighbor was six miles away. The concept of a country with vast open spaces is hard for most people in this overpopulated world to accept. When I lectured in India and the UK it was hard to convey the image that the US was not a vast urban metropolis. GeeBee has the remarkable facility of photographing a portion of the generally crowded UK as a bucolic country largely without people. But it is as much of an illusion as characterizing the US as a vastly expanded Los Angeles. I lived for a number of years in North Wales, hardly a densely populated part of the UK, but it was far more crowded than my home town in the US. Living in New Delhi was like a perpetual ride in a New York subway car. When we had visitors from India, their first comments at getting off the airplane at Kennedy Airport was "Where are all the people?" The only time they felt truly at home was visiting New York City at the height of the rush hour. Larry Z > Philippe, > We have many such towns scattered in all fifty states. You need to > come to > this country and just wander about. > > On 4/28/07, Philippe Orlent <philippe.orlent@pandora.be> wrote: >> >> Are there many more idillyc villages like yours in the US? >> Thanks for showing, >> Philippe >> >> >> >> Op 28-apr-07, om 21:20 heeft Sonny Carter het volgende geschreven: >> >>> I went down-town today to the first green market of the season and >>> had some >>> of David's home-made icecream with fresh strawberries in it. >>> >>> I took a few pictures, and chatted up some friends. >>> >>> Then I bought some shelled purple-hulled peas, and a free-range >>> chicken, >>> already smoked. >>> >>> I'm gonna slice up some tomatoes and make a pan of cornbread, and >>> supper >>> will be fine. >>> >>> >>> http://www.sonc.com/green_market_1_2007.htm >>> >>> -- >>> Regards, >>> >>> Sonny >>> http://www.sonc.com >>> Natchitoches, Louisiana >>> USA