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Thanks for the explanation. But i don't see what is wrong with having a little space around. this was allready said (i don't have the time to emmediatly respont) but there's no such thing as "europeans" when it comes to this. We have like 450 pp/km2 while sweden has 20 pp/km2.
I grew up in, and lived in cities almost all my life, and worked my butt off to buy this little farm we live on now, gladly escaping that nice "compact" invironment you're talking about.
And when i talk about this with people, allmost everyone is doing the same thing. That's the ultimate dream here, to escape that compact feeling the city gives you.
Don't forget, the basis of our cities were build hundreds, some thousands of years ago, when the biggest thing that had to fit the streets was a horse and wagon. And they needed to build compact cities with narrow streets to have better defence against enemies when the city was attacked. Not because they wanted to safe space or nature.
I think there's a reason everything in the States was made with a big set up. Those "Europeans" were glad they finally had some space and air to breath.
I now live with a lot of space, am able to let my dogs run free, own a couple horses, and am able to walk around the house without someone wathing and judging everything i do.
I'm in the middle of the polder with only farmers fieds surrounding my house and both my neighbours half a km away. And yet, i have more contact with my neighbours then i ever had in the city.
In our cities you can drop dead on the streets and then someone will yell at you for blocking the bicycle path. Cos that's what "compact" does with you.
This makes sense to me. When much, much younger, I lived and worked for a time in Port Credit, a suburb of Toronto, and while the building I was renting a nice apartment in was ideally located to look out over the water and right on the shoreline near the Canada Steamship Terminal, it was my introduction to apartment style living where at the times you were the least interested in some sort of interaction with people vis-à-vis morning coffee in hand heading out for another grueling day of work or the obverse returning home after such, you were forced to eye-ball to eye-ball with them in the narrow hallways and elevator rides so you unconsciously develop that personal protection zone of not making eye contact and erecting that barrier of silence around yourself.
I find it interesting now to think back to those times where it was standard to give a barely audible "morn'n" when meeting in the hallway or elevator during the work week but on the weekends to congregate with those same people for very animated happy hours around the picnic tables in the greenspace of the parkette across the street. It all seemed so automatic in adoption.
Actually, Denver is late to get on that bandwagon. Portland was one of the first cities to do that, I think, and it started in the 1980's. Seattle followed suit around the early 90's, and there have been others. The purpose is to conserve farmland around the edges of the cities.
The problem with it is that as the population increases within the city limits, roads become congested. The city outgrows its traffic-carrying capacity. Portland addressed this by investing in light rail transit, but Seattle has not. I don't know what Denver's plans are.
Denver is building out a huge light rail system right now.
Oh trust me, it has nothing to do with this thread.
Gotta be living under the rock if you think the United States is not the most criticized country in the world.
Of course it is. Besides being so present in the worldwide entertainment industry, we're all over the planet playing world police. Countries that mind their own business tend not to be criticized so much.
My preference would be to meld parts of both cultures and societal norms to come up with the absolute nirvana of lifestyle along with locales one could possibly imagine. That not being the title or the theme of the thread however, precludes fantasizing in such a manner but just imagine for a moment taking those things we're knowledgeable about from both continents and merging them together. Wow.
Oh, you mean Australia? I always thought it would be the best combination of American and European culture.
Of course it is. Besides being so present in the worldwide entertainment industry, we're all over the planet playing world police. Countries that mind their own business tend not to be criticized so much.
I can just imagine the international outcry if we were more isolationist when it came to foreign aid.
Thanks for the explanation. But i don't see what is wrong with having a little space around. this was allready said (i don't have the time to emmediatly respont) but there's no such thing as "europeans" when it comes to this. We have like 450 pp/km2 while sweden has 20 pp/km2.
I grew up in, and lived in cities almost all my life, and worked my butt off to buy this little farm we live on now, gladly escaping that nice "compact" invironment you're talking about.
And when i talk about this with people, allmost everyone is doing the same thing. That's the ultimate dream here, to escape that compact feeling the city gives you.
Don't forget, the basis of our cities were build hundreds, some thousands of years ago, when the biggest thing that had to fit the streets was a horse and wagon. And they needed to build compact cities with narrow streets to have better defence against enemies when the city was attacked. Not because they wanted to safe space or nature.
I think there's a reason everything in the States was made with a big set up. Those "Europeans" were glad they finally had some space and air to breath.
I now live with a lot of space, am able to let my dogs run free, own a couple horses, and am able to walk around the house without someone wathing and judging everything i do.
I'm in the middle of the polder with only farmers fieds surrounding my house and both my neighbours half a km away. And yet, i have more contact with my neighbours then i ever had in the city.
In our cities you can drop dead on the streets and then someone will yell at you for blocking the bicycle path. Cos that's what "compact" does with you.
So what this means is that in the U.S. and in Europe, people have there personal preferences of where they prefer to live. Some of us prefer compact cities, some prefer suburbs, some prefer more rural.
In many U.S. cities, people have their choice of many different types of neighborhoods. Although purposely creating denser, "walkable" neighborhoods is a relatively new concept in many U.S. cities.
And yes, those European streets that were designed so long ago really confused me when I lived there! But it's understandable, considering the history.
I can just imagine the international outcry if we were more isolationist when it came to foreign aid.
I make a distinction between sending our troops into other countries, starting wars, and foreign aid. Although I question our ROI on the foreign aid. It's never explained to us, that I can see. Many Americans don't agree with sending money to other countries, but I have no idea how much it is compared to how we spend other money.
Maybe. Foreign is a rather tiny part of our budget, though. The miltary is not.
One thing that isn't reflected accurately in our military budget is just how much we spend "building infrastructure" in foreign countries. Don't get me wrong - as the mother of three adult kids who have served in our military (all three in war zones and who are now veterans of foreign wars), as well as the daughter of a Vietnam veteran and the ex wife of an Army officer, I sincerely wish we weren't sending our military all over the world on ambiguous, disingenuous "missions" and into harm's way for causes that probably aren't what they seem. It's very sad to see the current situation in Iraq and to know that my son suffers from PTSD and many of his buddies lie in Arlington Cemetery apparently for nothing.
So if there is any envy in other nations, it's probably based off an inaccurate perception of how Americans actually live.
The same could be said of Americans: if there is any envy, it's probably based off an inaccurate perception of how Europeans actually live.
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I always thought it would be the best combination of American and European culture.
