Quote: (04-06-2014 02:47 PM)speakeasy Wrote:
You forgot Latin American cities, which have a certain character to them as well.
N. American cities(I'm including Canada, Australian cities should be lumped in to) tend to only be dense around their core business district and then fan out into suburbs where most people desire to live because of more space, better schools, more quiet, less crime. Like you, I can't stand the suburbs either. The peace and quiet that some find refreshing I on the other hand find lonely and draining. I feel energized when I see people out and about walking everywhere, see people sitting out on tables in front of restaurants, hear cars driving by, parks full of kids playing soccer and people socializing. That whole experience is entirely absent from the suburbs by design. But younger people are now demanding that sort of mixed used environment where people live in walkable neighborhoods and I'm seeing a lot more apartment towers going up that are more centrally located so American cities are slowly densifying. Public transit will probably always suck outside of NYC as the scale of our cities would make tunneling for subways that cover the entire city to be unfeasible. They have a couple of anemic subway lines in Los Angeles and when it cost a billion per mile to build a subway line I just don't see there being a time when L.A. has the type of coverage that Tokyo or Moscow has. Especially when there just isn't the demand or economy to support it. As for what American cities are most European in lifestyle and character, it's mainly going to be in the Northeast, with San Francisco being the main exception on the west coast. The center core of Chicago I'm sure is very NYC-like. Other cities will have pockets where you can have an urban lifestyle, like downtown San Diego.
European cities were laid out hundreds or thousands of years ago before there were cars, so obviously everything had to be dense and walkable by design. Most Americans cities outside of the Northeast saw most their population explosion after the car and that completely changed them. One thing I like about European and Latin American cities is that the center tends to have a big outdoor plaza with historic monuments. You don't get those great public gathering spaces in America, even the older American cities. Something like Rome's Piazza Navona is entirely lacking here. And when you do see places that try to mimick the feel of European public spaces it's very commercialized with the emphasis on retail shopping. Not really a historical element.
Asians cities I don't know too much about as I've only been to Bangkok, but they seem to have gone the density route and have pretty efficient public transit systems. But they don't have the same historical and quaint character of European cities. That's what I like about Europe. You get everything. Density, walkability, good public transit and the quaint, historic character of the architecture. America you mostly get none of that except in NYC, Boston and SF. Asia, you get the density, transit but no historic character. In Latin America you somewhat get the quaint central plazas, history, density, but shitty public transit(except Mexico City, Buenos Aires and maybe Santiago).
I can relate to what you're saying about suburbs. I just moved and had to live in the suburbs for the first time in my life in Southwestern US because of proximity to work and I hate it. I love big broad footpaths, open air cafes and restaurants and a big central square like most European cities have.
I think that the zoning laws are also to blame for the way the urban expansion has taken place in most American cities. You can't have commercial places in a residential neighborhood and so on. What ends up happening is that you've one neighborhood full of houses and then you've to drive a few miles to go get even the most basic supplies. Most European as well Asian cities have mixed neighborhoods. I love the way Barcelona, Prague, Vienna, Frankfurt are laid out. In Asia, Singapore has amazing urban infrastructure. Compared to that US only has NYC with non stop mass transit serving all boroughs, mixed neighborhoods,etc.
I think instead of underground subways, second tier cities can implement some sort of trolley lines on major streets which will bring some sort of "character" to the city and provide an alternative to cars which cause so much traffic congestion.