European city’s were designed when everyone was on foot or maybe a horse, everything had to be walkable, even penthouses weren’t a thing because there were only stairs.
This is a bit of a myth. Many (most?) American cities were designed before the car too. But urban planners in the 20th century went all in on cars and racism and demolished their central cities to to evict all the undesirables and replace them with car infrastructure.
Actually some European cities did this too, but many repaired them later. Still, it wasn’t as common because the racial stuff wasn’t in play and the central cities had way more historical significance.
Admittedly the sheer amount of suburban development we have today is going to be a challenge to roll back. In my view some of it may ultimately need to be abandoned but we’ll see how it plays out. See Detroit for an example.
Are they though? Still way behind European cities.
In this case I doubt it
European city’s were designed when everyone was on foot or maybe a horse, everything had to be walkable, even penthouses weren’t a thing because there were only stairs.
This is a bit of a myth. Many (most?) American cities were designed before the car too. But urban planners in the 20th century went all in on cars and racism and demolished their central cities to to evict all the undesirables and replace them with car infrastructure.
Actually some European cities did this too, but many repaired them later. Still, it wasn’t as common because the racial stuff wasn’t in play and the central cities had way more historical significance.
Admittedly the sheer amount of suburban development we have today is going to be a challenge to roll back. In my view some of it may ultimately need to be abandoned but we’ll see how it plays out. See Detroit for an example.
A lot of european cities got destroyed during WW2 and were rebuild to be more car friendly.
Which European cities? Amsterdam? Then sure. Rome? I think Cambridge wins.
Boston (and by extension Cambridge) is already very European-like for layout and walkability.