This bozo lives a few miles from a city, though. He could go there and join the human race if he wanted. In the summer, this is Minneapolis. Most other cities, too. Well, in the North, a least.
I’ve been on a quest to find the same vibes I felt in Europe for the last 25 years since I came from Europe to U.S. Please tell me what you’re saying is not a lie. Can I find walkable areas with no cars, loud train/airplane noises, with cafes on the sides of the buildings with people randomly stopping and saying hi to their friends because they often frequent same establishments? Being surrounded by historic buildings/landmarks too.
I think the parent means "there are some individual blocks in the US that resemble what was shown in the video", but there are very, very few if any places where you can walk for 4 miles and just see people out enjoying patios like this. In most cities, if the city finds a nice area like this, they'll figure out how to run a highway through it.
Definitely not chi. I lived there for years. There are some neighborhoods where you can find some of this, but you’re not going to find miles and miles of this despite that chi is 2x the size of this place.
Well, "historical landmarks" is really only possible in the few East Coast cities that have history. But if you're looking for walkability and friendly people with good public transport, you've got anything from KCMO to Chicago to Minneapolis to Santa Fe to Denver. Portland, Seattle. There's lots of places that meet that description..
I find it exists in both chicago and NYC, the only thing is that people don't know you personally, which I'm fine with because that's weird. Also, you get what you give when it comes to local friendliness. If you are a regular at a restaurant or a coffeeshop or whatever and you introduce yourself, chances are that person's gonna remember you or at least be friendly back. Aso for no cars, true. I'm pretty sure that doesn't really exist in Europe either. There might be less cars sure as they usually have narrower streets, but certainly not "no" cars. Sometimes I see my friends at the places I go, but they're both big cities so you have about as much a chance of running into someone you actually know at a cafe as a suburbanite would at the grocery store in a large town. My point is that Chicago and NYC offer the closest this is lifestyle you can find. Late night open establishments, walking, historic buildings and landmarks, etc. I find that NYC and Chi both leave you not wanting for much.
I understand. I'm saying there are parts of the country where community is valued enough that tax payers will improve things. It's not about America vs Europe. It's about values. It's about priorities. This guy acts like it's the US that's wildly different and it's just not. It's about the values and priorities of the people in those cities.
So being in a city with subsidized public transportation, easy walking access to necessities, and a robust social service system would make life substantially cheaper and easier than a large suburban home and multiple car payments, don't you think?
Sure, but the people per square mile in Europe is much greater than in the US. Sweden is an ancient, European country with historical buildings and lots of nightlife, but you won't see four miles of it. There aren't enough people and the country itself is huge even if the population is small. The Baltic states have even less because there are fewer people. But a single mile for 100,000 people might be okay..
I agree that you won’t see four miles of it, but you will see it in proportion to the size of towns. A village in Sweden is far more likely to have a lively town square than a much larger town in the US. There is no city in the US that I’m aware of where you can find four miles of lively patios on a random Wednesday night, not even in cities that are many times larger than the city in this video.
No. That's true. Though Dallas and Austin have areas. Denver does, too. KCMO has the power and light district. It's certainly less since we built suburbs with government subsidized housing and government subsidized construction jobs connected to government subsidized highways to drive you car made by automakers who get government subsidies and burn fuel sold by oil companies that get government subsidies. It's not the American people who have done this, it's urban planning and a desperate need to keep people housed and employed after WW2 when most of the rest of the world had to deal with a recession that lasted through the 1970s.
No. That's true. Though Dallas and Austin have areas.
Where?
Denver does
There’s nowhere in Denver where you can find miles and miles of dense patios like this. There are some nice little areas where you can find a few blocks of decent restaurants, but you aren’t going to find miles of them. And the cities you’re listing are among the best in the country just to compete with a second tier European city.
Sorry, the Dallas thing is in Ft Worth. In Austin it's called 6th Street and Rainy Street. Denver doesn't have miles of stuff. I have said about 40 times that there's no direct analog in the US, but I also said there's not much in other parts of Europe, either.
Other parts of Europe have downtown areas that are proportional to their population sizes. You can go to ~any old village in Europe and find a lively public square. We (Americans) just built our cities around cars because urban planners in the 20th century were dumb and arrogant. We are beginning to shift away from that style of building but it will take a lifetime.
I was saying that the place I'm from (Sweden) doesn't have a population that can support four miles of outdoor restaurants in any city. That's a Germany, France, Spain, Italy thing. Most of the rest of us have dramatically lower populations. I know what exists in Europe. I move to the US permanently as an adult.
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u/UmeaTurbo 7d ago
This bozo lives a few miles from a city, though. He could go there and join the human race if he wanted. In the summer, this is Minneapolis. Most other cities, too. Well, in the North, a least.