Why don't N. American cities & towns try to emulate W. European cities & towns more? (2014, construction)
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Nah...Not interested in walking or biking anywhere...and its a bit silly to expect people to be biking and walking around wreaking of sweat in 100 degree heat that we often have in the U.S. South. Europe and its mild climate can keep what they have, and we'll keep what we have...its not like anyone ever expects us to emulate Asia, or Africa, or India...only ever Europe...And I dont see why it has been arbitrarily selected as the chosen one to be considered superior to everywhere else...anywho, life is too short to sit around complaining about being where you dont really want to be. My advice: go live in the countries that appeal to what youre looking for.
European towns go through the same flexing - the difference is that they didn't grow up in time's of corporations and heavy rail, and industrialization. Most of those beautiful walking cities" grew when walking or riding a horse was the ONLY way to get around - and so their needs at the time were different. They have much older cultural and culturally significant places that most of the inhabitants NOW are not willing to sacrifice in order to get an umptysquat factory that will exist for 10 years and blot out the beautiful countryside. Here in America we are more open to that kind of building and destroying because we don't value as many places.
Europe has had much more time to accumulate such places. So U.S. cities have much less comparatively.
Europe has had much more time to accumulate such places. So U.S. cities have much less comparatively.
The USA has had plenty of time to accumulate those places. We'd just rather have a country dependent on cars and individuality which don't encourage those places. Just more concrete jungles.
The USA has had plenty of time to accumulate those places. We'd just rather have a country dependent on cars and individuality which don't encourage those places. Just more concrete jungles.
We are hardly trying, true.
However, even if we had been, our cities would still lack the sheer historical depth and character of Europe's, Asia's, etc. most historic places.
The USA has had plenty of time to accumulate those places. We'd just rather have a country dependent on cars and individuality which don't encourage those places. Just more concrete jungles.
You realize our urban areas in America are the concrete jungles right? our sprawled out car centric areas are more "natural" feeling, sort of a nice mix between urban and rural.
You realize our urban areas in America are the concrete jungles right? our sprawled out car centric areas are more "natural" feeling, sort of a nice mix between urban and rural.
In residential areas, but the wide roads + big surface lots of big commercial roads in suburbia feel like a lot of concrete even if there are some trees scattered around and not so natural.
In residential areas, but the wide roads + big surface lots of big commercial roads in suburbia feel like a lot of concrete even if there are some trees scattered around and not so natural.
Wow. They use up a lot of space around the road. Seems wasteful, IMO. Could save that land for preserved open space or a park; it's too broken up and noisy to be natural. I live in a lower populated area. One commercial strip by me:
Yea, the eastern half of Pennsylvania has some towns and small cities that are dense for New England standards. That example is a coal mining town, was always poor, not in the best shape now though it doesn't really look decayed. And you found Brattleboro! Almost local. Nice town, feels more compact (tight?) in the center more so than most New England towns (the densest smaller towns tend to be on or near the coast). A bit too touristy (trendy?) to me, Greenfield, MA to the south is more down to earth and not dead with normal shops, but not that much of an interesting urban look.
I passed by a couple Minnesotan towns on a road trip, one was cute and tiny; another large ones seemed a bit bland compared to ones back home, but I thought there were nicer ones back around we missed.
Has a section of row houses, then semi-detached or subdivided houses close-together with some space with trees and gardens. Somewhat dense, but a nice variety.
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