> The streets may have been "redesigned around cars," but the distance between the buildings remained the same. And the buildings were built for small-scale sto

> The streets may have been "redesigned around cars," but the distance between the buildings remained the same. And the buildings were built for small-scale stores on the bottom. This is what makes it feel like a neighborhood. Sure, but again, that's all fixable. You seem laser focused on "the streets are too wide" but that's not actually too hard to fix. You can reduce car lanes, make the sidewalk wider, add more greenery, add islands in the middle of the street like SLC*, you can allow street vendors in front of the buildings, there's all kinds of things you can do to make it feel more human scale if you want to. The key here is that Amsterdam had become a car-dominated hellscape and then there was the political will in the Netherlands to reverse course and change. I'm sure you're right that it'd be harder in the US in some ways -- but on the other hand, the US is also richer than the Netherlands, we have more money around to spend on such things, if we really care. I see these sorts of changes as complementary. Having more 5 over 1's tends to increase density and retail availability in a way that makes a place feel more like a neighborhood, and yeah you might also need some other changes depending on the city, but none of this is unfixable, and having the 5 over 1's and the road diets are solid steps towards having that neighborhood feel. Hell, if you're building an entirely new building there, one thing you could do is literally just narrow the street, let the new building jut into what's currently the street there. * https://www.archpaper.com/2016/01/salt-lake-city-wants-put-buildings-medians-extra-wide-streets/ https://www.archpaper.com/2016/01/salt-lake-city-wants-put-b...