well, yeah. all of that is true. but consider this: america was built by people trying to leave europe and to a lesser extent asia, not rebuild it elsewhere.

well, yeah. all of that is true. but consider this: america was built by people trying to leave europe and to a lesser extent asia, not rebuild it elsewhere. and it worked great, until it stopped working (recently). i think we'll figure it out eventually, it just won't be for a while. see the resurgence of city centers and farmer's markets, for example. also, for what it's worth, american cities that are forced into small areas because of water or economics (sf, ny, isolated parts of LA and chicago) result in a euro-like end result.