In Europe you often hear people say that American cities are ugly, modern and boring. Because America is such a new country, it has no history. Logic therefore goes that America also has no old and historic cities.
The problem is that America has existed since 1776 and so it has had over a century of development to build nice old architecture. The majority of European cities took their current shape in the nineteenth century, sometimes even in the second half of the 1800’s. So what happened with America? Where is the old architecture in the United States from the 1800’s?
While a lot of developers tore down old buildings across the United States in the second half of the 20th century, not everything was lost. In fact, walking around New York I was pleasantly surprised at how historic many of the buildings were. Much of central New York’s buildings were built in the early 1900’s and reflect the old architecture of the city.
Nevertheless walking down New York does not feel the same as walking around London or Paris. Or any other European city for that matter. Whereas Europe offers outdoor cafes, historic 19th century buildings, trams, cyclists and canals, New York offers tall glass buildings and cars. But why is this the case if a lot of New York’s buildings are indeed old and historic?
The answer lies in pedestrian streets.
American cities have no central pedestrian streets, whereas virtually every major city in Europe will have a central district closed off to cars and traffic. And this makes it that much more pleasant to visit European cities. Pedestrian streets allow cafes to set up outdoor seating, fountains to be built, street artists to perform. Despite recent improvements to Times Square and other sections of New York City, the city remains dominated by cars with very little pedestrian streets.
The benefits of pedestrian streets are obvious. They boost social cohesion, improve a city’s brand, support tourism and small businesses, not to mention being more environmentally friendly and healthy. You can find 50 reasons here for why every city needs to build pedestrian streets asap.
It is these pedestrian streets that keep Europe filled with tourists, and the lack of them in America which keeps tourists away from the United States.
Take a look at a central pedestrian street in London.
Or in Berlin.
Even Eastern Europe is getting this right. Here is Belgrade’s Knez Mihailova street.
Or Kiev’s Andrevsky Descent.
A recently pedestrianized street in Russia’s Saint Petersburg.
And Zagreb’s Tkalchicheva Street.
These pedestrian streets are a joy to walk on.
In contrast, here is a typical street in New York. 
Pedestrians are confined to narrow sidewalks, while the majority of the street is set aside for cars.
Now I am by no means advocating that all of New York’s streets be shut off for cars. This is neither possible nor desirable. But its entirely feasible to turn much more of New York’s streets into pedestrian zones. The city could copy the example of Barcelona, which created large pedestrian-only ‘superblocks’ in the city by merging several smaller blocks into one large superblock and allowing cars to drive only along the perimeter of the superblock. The streets inside were reserved for pedestrians and cyclists.
Washington DC faces a similar situation. Despite a reputation of being America’s most European city, the city has no streets dedicated solely to pedestrians, even though there are several historic districts in the city that could easily be converted into pedestrian only zones, such as Georgetown.
Here is Dupont Circle, one of DC’s historic areas. And it’s mostly devoted to cars.
What’s the solution?
It’s time for America to follow Europe’s lead and begin pedestrianizing its centers. It’s true Americans love cars and that many American cities were built to accommodate cars. But it’s also true that Americans are increasingly moving away from cars and choosing to bike and walk to work instead. Young people have stopped buying homes in the suburbs. Inner-city slums are getting gentrified. The old american dream of owning a house outside the city and driving to work in the center is dead.
The trends look good. American cities have finally started building bike lanes. The next logical step is to build pedestrian streets. New York could begin with Union Square and Washington D.C. with Georgetown. Other American cities could then follow suit.
If every American city had a nice long pedestrian street in the most beautiful area of the city center featuring cafes and shops, parks and benches, fountains and statues, tourism to American cities would skyrocket. Instead of Americans only visiting Europe for tourism, Europeans might finally consider travelling to the United States. As things currently stand, the only real way to enjoy American architecture is from the window of a car. Or a crowded sidewalk waiting for a crosswalk to turn green. The solution is simple. Pedestrianize the center. And in this way, American cities will finally be able to showcase how beautiful they really are.
