Urban DEVELOPMENT: Why do raccoons thrive in our cities? In part because they can turn a garbage can or Dumpster into a convenience store.

摘要

World War II had barely ended when researchers began to notice a major migration under way in North America, from undeveloped and agricultural areas to cities and suburbs. Now, in the early 21st century, the urban population is more than 20 times thatof the early-1940s — in some places, more than 50 percent higher than the surrounding rural landscape. With growth has come all the problems that naturally occur as a community becomes overcrowded: housing shortages and squatting; Dumpster diving; increases in theft and property damage; sanitation-related public health concerns. All of this has a tendency to make established residents less tolerant of immigrants, even when the new neighbors are clever, ambitious, hard-working, good parents and undeniably cute as all get-out.