I was reading a tale ( Luck and Consequence - Part 4 ) when this line struck me; This mind set is common in so many fan fic Superman tales. It shows up the series somewhat as well.

I'm making this comment here because it is a general comment not really about the tale I was reading.

I live in a city of a few hundred thousand. I believe canon has Metropolis as having a population of several million.

Superman would need to "find a balance" about 20 minutes after arrival. The number of events is overwhelming even in some place like Portland, let alone a city the size of Metropolis.

I read a novel a while back where the author had some events take place in New York City. He had about 1100 cops. The number struck me a low. So I looked it up, there are 37,000 cops in the New York City Police. This does not count the 27 other types of Police. Hey if Portland has 27 different types NY has at least that many.

So my rant winds down. Folks get over it, either he already found a balance or he went insane.

There's a difference, though, between a single man, a married man, and a family man, and the demands on their time.

Superman as a single man was able to dodge away at almost any time of the day or night, with minimal impact on his personal time. Yes, he made a lot of excuses, but he still went to the bank robberies, the stand-offs, the muggings, almost any cry for help. And it would have taken him a lot longer than 20 minutes in Metropolis to figure out which ones were just screams, and which ones really need help. And, being Clark, he'd want to help out everywhere.

Superman as a married man had a few more demands on his personal time, but he had a partner who could help cover for him. By this time he had learned which ones were important and which weren't, of course, but he was still going to help out at the minor situations.

Now, Superman as a family man, there are a heck of a lot more demands on his personal time. The major situations still demand attention, of course. But do you go to stop a robbery during a family dinner? At your kid's first school play, do you go to stop a mugging? Or run off at the first screech of tires? How do you decide when you can run off and be a hero, and when you can't?

Of course, this is all of the Metropolis goings-on. Once you get into world-wide disasters, the dilemma grows.

yes, interesting isn't it...

and given that Metropolis was based on NY

and
(figures from Wikipedia... apparently quoted a number of from census')

the New-York Metropolitan Area/combined statistical area (AKA tri-state area) has a population estimated to be just over that of Australia...

NY-TSA-21.9 million
Aust-total-21.3 million

however-
the TSA has a total area of 6,720 sq. mi.
vs
Australia's 2,988,902


but given that in OZ the reality is that 90% of population live on 10% of land...
well,....

What Karen said.

LabRat

Ditto what Karen said. This reminds me of a story, probably by Sue S. but I don't remember which one, where Clark tells Lois that he had to learn that when a woman screams out, it doesn't always mean she is in pain or being attacked! [wicked wink here]. So those calls would need to be sorted out too.

Artemis

Well, I always thought all those calls for help were kind of stupid. In the real world people don't scream when the victim of most crimes because the criminal is threatening their lives. After Superman shows up and the first few victims wind up dead because they screamed for Superman people would stop call for him except in situations where a criminal was not involved.