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["Thomas C. Meggs" <tom AT plik.net>]

Josep L. Guallar-Esteve wrote:
> This sounds to me like the Europe I know (Andorra, Belgium, France, 
> Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, UK ). Maybe this is why people drink  
> more wine, eat more cheese and enjoy more chocolate and nice beer.
>
> Mmmm.
>
> It took 2000+ years to Europe to get to this ideal, with waaaaaay too 
> many bloody wars. The US is getting there, in a 10th of the time and 
> just one war!
>
> I call this evolution.
>
> There are already good wine lands in the US. You can get nice chocolate 
> and beer too. So, where's America's Roquefort? It has to be somewhere 
> out there or just about to be invented...

Perhaps I'm a pessimist, but I feel like you are overly optimistic. If 
anything I would suspect Europe is becoming more like the US, not we are 
becoming more like Europe. The primary difference here is land, not 
wine. Land is still a fairly abundant resource in the US. With a few 
small exceptions (Portland) the only places you see in the US that have 
any kind of decent urban planning have a geographical constraint, and 
even then its so-so. New York City for example.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the growth rate for 
sprawl development far outstrips the growth rate for development that 
harnesses the ideals of New Urbanism. To some extent, New Urbanism in 
the United States is really only available to people with (relatively) a 
lot of wealth. There are bigger problems at play to make it happen. New 
Urbanism has to be (1) economically feasible and (2) pushed along with a 
new mind set. The fact of the matter is that only more intellectual 
people of a certain mind set are going to seek out these communities and 
pay a little bit more to live in them, for they are the only ones who 
see the value in it.

Granted, I'm all for it. I love the idea of livable cities, the 
abandonment of the automobile, getting to you know your neighbors and 
building strong communities. It might just slow down the breath taking 
pace of the ideals of doing a shite job, lying through your teeth, 
making a quick buck, and hoping you scrape by.

I guess that overall there is just so much that has to happen.

Regards,
Tom