There was news today of a tragic fire in a New York high rise apartment building. Eight of the seventeen victims were children. I have never liked high rise buildings or the elevators that are used to reach the upper levels. My mother’s aunt had moved to senior housing that was in a high rise building, when I was in my early twenties. There were only two elevators and I often had to wait several minutes for the elevator, whenever I went to visit her. Few people choose to walk the stairs when it requires ascending all the way to the 16th floor, or higher. That was challenging for me even then, when I was young and fit and I rode a bicycle rather than driving a car.
I am a fan of vertical gardening. It is a great way to utilize small spaces and you can grow a large amount of food this way. I like to make use of wall space in my home by building floor to ceiling bookshelves. It is smart and it can aid in insulating my home from the weather. I like a two story home because I prefer to have the bedrooms separated from the main living space. It is also warmer on the upper level of a home. I know that should the need arise, I can jump out of a two story building, but anything higher than that, I would not be able to escape from. I draw the line; however, in putting people, their children, and pets on top of one another in modern apartments and condominiums.
I have lived in mobile homes, which I dislike as well. When walking through them, my feet can sense the air space beneath them and I am well aware that I am not walking on solid ground. I need to feel grounded and the less space there is, between my feet and the earth, the more grounded I feel. Another drawback to a mobile home is that it is more susceptible to fire than a brick and mortar home. I feel considerably safer knowing that if there is a fire, I only have to run a few feet and I can be out the door.
My heart breaks for those children who have to live in high rise buildings. Their opportunity to connect with the natural world is severely limited. It also saddens me that many pets must spend their time imprisoned in apartment buildings, never knowing the joy and the freedom of sprinting through an open field. The few times a day that they are taken outside, they must be on leashes and can go no faster than the person holding the other end of the leash. Gyms and sports clubs have been built for people to exercise and work out; but pets often receive far too little exercise. Special areas have been implemented for dogs to run off leash and to interact with other dogs; but there is no such option for those cats that have been forced to live their entire lives indoors. The news, as usual, does not mention if pets lost their lives in yesterday’s fire.
Most large cities now have numerous high rise office buildings and high rise apartment buildings. This is of course preferable to taking habitat from other species, by clear cutting forests to build single family homes and shopping centers. The real problem here, as I have stated so often, is that there are too many human beings and too many domesticated pets on our small planet. Building high rises may be the only option for our overcrowded world, but I believe this can only contribute to greater intolerance and the possibility of more disasters like the one seen yesterday. We live in difficult times. There are no easy answers, but it is time to begin seeking them, and to reduce the world’s suffering.
