In “historically accurate” movies/period pieces or drawings, paintings, or pictures of the same time – say a few hundred years ago (picture NYC or London in 1820), the streets and river shorelines, etc. are portrayed as dirty, unclean, filthy, messy, (insert your own adjective here). What led to the change for cleaner streets/public places – and why does it appear as if we are reverting to our former messy ways?
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For starters: sanitation, having cleaner street = less chance of vermin thus less chance of diseases being spread. que sad london noises.
Cleaner street also discourages crime. when you hear the word ghetto, or high crime zone, do you think of a sparkling clean city? no, you think of a garbage littered trash zone. Because it gives you the impression the people arnt taking care of them selves.
We arn’t really reverting to the old ways, but more like loosing our grip on reason and science. See Anti Vax Movement.
Because we recognized public sanitation was important for disease control, quality of life, property prices, crime rates, etc. There was simply less regulation across the board in nearly every aspect of society.
I have no idea what you mean by “reverting”. Those regulations and infrastructural programs are still present. This largely seems anecdotal rather than demonstrative of reality.
Cars.
Cars were the “solution” to the “horse pollution” problem. Cars led to curbs and pavement. Pavement was easier to clean, and that led to street sweeping machines.
Throughout history we have been messy, but it is only in the last 90 years or so that things thrown away didn’t decompose naturally. In the 70s there was a big push for cleanliness as it became obvious that plastics were the problem.
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