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In all fairness, Brussels is one of the dirtiest, traffic clogged, and least interesting European capitals. If I had to live in Belgium I'd pick Antwerp or Ghent over Brussels any day of the week.
Anyway, There is a lot of poverty in Europe. There are dilapidated neighborhoods and poor housing projects a plenty in Brussels and other European cities, especially in France, UK and Italy. They just have the social services that prevents many of these poor from turning to crime, and greater social mobility for those who try to get out of it.
Millions of us buy homes in the suburbs because we like them. We like our space and don't like high crime dense neighborhoods.
Suburban homes are available because most people like them. Suburbs are market driven.
Suburbs have their advantages - agreed. The suburbs around here have all of the advantages of US suburbs (low crime, good schools, lawns) AND the advantages of density - walkable, bike-able, metro access and nearby shopping, pharmacy, bakery, pub and more. Trust me, plenty of Americans would choose to live in places like this if they had the choice. Sadly, they don't.
I'd hardly call a Roma ghetto in eastern Slovakia representative of urban life in 99% of European cities.
That was pretty sensationalist even for the Daily Mail.
People move to the suburbs for any number of reasons. The US is different in that we heavily subsidize the true costs of enabling that decision. Cheap land, cheap mortgages and even cheaper construction is a huge part of our economy. Where we are slowly changing is getting back to allowing people the true choice between living in the city or a far flung exurb, something Europeans have had for decades.
I'm an American who recently moved to Brussels. The quality of life here is so much better. Nice, dense neighborhoods, good public transit, very little signs of poverty, well paid workers, polite manners, sensible laws about guns, much lower rate of violent crime - the list goes on. If only America wasn't infested with ignorant republican yahoos, it too could enjoy the full benefits of being a western democracy. It's such a shame the non Yankee element keeps America from reaching it's potential.
Thank you for doing the right thing for freedom and liberty here in America.
I wish more socialist here in the land of the free home of the brave, were well off enough to move to the worlds banking elitist part of Europe.
I don't think the neighborhood I live in is representative of all of Europe. I freely admit I'm still pretty ignorant about Europe. I've only been here for a few weeks. To be honest, what has surprised me most so far is how similar this is to many parts of the US. It just has minor tweaks that make it better. People drive all over Brussels. It's a car culture -- but wait, they also manage to have good bike infrastructure and public transit. How do they do this? Well, they have narrower lanes with wide sidewalks and bike paths -- it's not all about the car. They take into consideration that there are other modes of transit. We could easily replicate this in America. We just choose to cut every possible corner when it comes to investment in public spaces in the US for some reason.
Recycling -- it's a pain over here. It's pretty complicated to sort your trash. But guess what? When every one does it (by compulsion) it leads to a greener, cleaner country. In America, we have Walmart. Here, they have Carrefour -- pretty similar stores, but again with some minor tweaks. At the Carrefour, the parking lot is on the roof. It's just as sprawling and ugly as the typical Walmart parking lot, but it's out of sight and doesn't lead to a big empty dead space. Sure, it probably cost the corporation that owns Carrefour a lot more to build a parking lot on the roof, but oh well ... they'll get over it if they want to do business here. In America, we roll out the red carpet for Walmart. Yes masah! Whatever you want! Just give us some of those slave wage jobs!
I've traveled throughout Belgium -- well outside of my neighborhood and into Wallonia. The poverty just ins't there. That's probably because wages are so much higher. Yes, it cost 17 Euro for a haircut here -- about 22 US dollars -- but the hair dresser is well dressed and well mannered. He doesn't have the hint of desperation you'll find from a typical US hair dresser who is barely making minimum wage. The US obviously has a much stronger economy than Belgium, but the more equitable distribution of income here makes it a nicer place for everyone. It really does.
Hint...it's socialist though you won't admit so. Why do you think it is sunshine and lollipos from your POV ? Get into politics and realize progessives run amuch there.
You would wish imposed liberalism on the USA as you have there? Those people are still living a post WWII mentality for the most part. It is ingrained into them from childhood. Be a good liberal and you will get along. 1984 will be kind to you.
Hmm, living in a 600 sq ft apt in Brussels and trolling an American website. Yep, life must be grand for you. Enjoy.
If by trolling you mean trying to provoke a productive conversation about how the US can learn some valuable lessons from other western nations to improve our quality of life, sure I'm trolling. Yep, six weeks ago I had never set foot in Europe - didn't really have a strong desire to do so. I moved because my job required it. I thought that European dwellings were tiny too. I'm sure plenty are. The place I'm living is about 2100 square feet - would be considered more in the US because they don't count storage space here. The house is a little bit more inconvenient than a US home - it's more vertical. Three sets of stairs - already getting old. It has a two-car garage, but you can't park your cars side by side. You have to park them vertically. There's a large yard out back, which is very private due to large hedges, but there isn't a front yard. (You pretty much can't have front yards, wide sidewalks, bike paths, two lane roads and density.) Seriously, in my short time here what has stood out most is just how much of the good things about American life they have - they just have even more because they're balanced. I'm impressed with the quality of life here. We could easily have it too (and probably even much more because our economy is so much better) if we took quality of life issues into consideration when zoning and regulating business.
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