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I would rather say that US cities are broken because of design, not for lack of it. Sure, standardizing signs, and requiring access to parks are top-down design

by wybo 14y ago

I would rather say that US cities are broken because of design, not for lack of it. Sure, standardizing signs, and requiring access to parks are top-down design. But nearly all beautiful European cities weren't planned, they have evolved. With individuals adding, and replacing homes and buildings over the centuries in such a way that footpaths were not blocked, and people could go from A to B easily, even if that meant that roads would not be at straight angles, wide, or at fixed intervals. Besides the ubiquitous grid-pattern in the US, other regulation such as zoning, maximum building heights, plot-sizes, and parking lots, only made things worse. (of course there is a lot of regulation now in Europe, and there even was some historically, and due to scale increase the market likely would not be able to build beautiful cities anymore (and I am normally quite skeptical of the unbound market) but in this case it might actually have worked at some time) Pining for a European-style urban environment was one of the reasons I left California and went back to the 'good old UK'.

typicalrunt 14y ago
You make a very good point. Visting cities in Europe is actually a very good way to design versus evolution. Cities that evolved their city are relatively easy to find. However, if you want to see cities that were designed, you only need to find the cities that were flattened in WW2, such as Rotterdam.
marquis 14y ago
>nearly all beautiful European cities weren't planned, they have evolved In the smaller and traditional sense, absolutely, but many major European cities have had horrendous suburban explosions that are just as unappealing as US suburbs (except, plenty of buses and usually a train or two). It seems to be a 20th century thing, in my view, but then I wasn't around to admire the bucolic pasture of the previous centuries where I assume dire poverty was the norm, which leads me to question - at least we have housing for more or less everyone in Europe?

by wybo 14y ago

typicalrunt 14y ago

You make a very good point. Visting cities in Europe is actually a very good way to design versus evolution. Cities that evolved their city are relatively easy to find. However, if you want to see cities that were designed, you only need to find the cities that were flattened in WW2, such as Rotterdam.

marquis 14y ago

>nearly all beautiful European cities weren't planned, they have evolved In the smaller and traditional sense, absolutely, but many major European cities have had horrendous suburban explosions that are just as unappealing as US suburbs (except, plenty of buses and usually a train or two). It seems to be a 20th century thing, in my view, but then I wasn't around to admire the bucolic pasture of the previous centuries where I assume dire poverty was the norm, which leads me to question - at least we have housing for more or less everyone in Europe?