A few days ago someone told me that their town was becoming more urban because it was seeing more violence and more poverty.

That's not what it means for a town to become more urban.

Urban does not mean violent, poor and dirty. I struggled to find a succinct definition of what makes a place "urban", as opposed to "not urban", but here's my suggested definition: Urban areas are dense, diverse and developed. (Three alliterated points, like a good pastor.)

Obviously, urban areas are more densely populated than other areas. This has both costs and benefits. One cost is that you have less space to yourself. One benefit is that you can build a level of community in your neighborhood that is unmatched in other areas. As one suburbanite once complained to me; "My property is so big that I almost never see my neighbors." I've never run into that problem. I can see, smell and hear my neighbors at pretty much all times. Thus, I necessarily have a cordial relationship with them.

Urban areas are generally more diverse as well. Frankly, I'm not totally sure why this is, but I have a few hunches. First, when immigrants arrive in a new country they arrive in cities. Sometimes they move out of the city, but often they stay close to where they arrived. Access to an airport allows them to visit their country of origin or move more family members to their new home. Many immigrants move to the US to attend world-class schools or find work, both of which are plentiful in cities. Immigrants also benefit from having a few friends or family that share their culture in their new home and it seems easier to establish that in a city. There are many more reasons why urban areas reflect diversity that have nothing to do with immigration, but these are a few examples.

Finally, urban areas are generally more developed. What I mean by that is, they have more roads, public transportation, airports, tv stations, larger buildings, academic institutions, museums, sports franchises, and sidewalks. Did you know that some towns still don't have sidewalks? Urban areas are actually magnets for the disabled and handicapped who rely heavily on public transportation and social services in order to have a high quality of life.

Obviously, urban life has it's challenges, but cities wouldn't be growing if urban life didn't also present some significant opportunities. If your town is urbanizing that means that it's developing. There will be some bumps in that road, but there will also be tremendous opportunities as well.