I have a soft spot for Columbus. I grew up here in the outskirts of one of the city’s many suburbs.

It was the typical American suburbia childhood. A large house with a driveway and garage and lawn in a neighborhood filled with identical looking houses and garages and lawns.

Shopping centers, parking lots, drive thrus, fast food. And farms. Lots of farms.

Unfortunately living out in the suburbs, I didn’t interact much with downtown Columbus. We lived in our little suburban bubble and trips to the city were few and far between.

So it was a special joy to come back after so many years and explore the city I skipped out on growing up. What I found surprised me.

Columbus is in many ways a quintessential example of your stereotypical American city.

You could take its downtown and copy and paste it in virtually every other downtown in the Midwest and it would be hard to see any differences between them.

But actually if you dig a little deeper, Columbus does have its own features that make it unique.

We began our journey in one of these unique districts: German Village.

Located in the heart of downtown just across the Scioto River, German Village is a historic neighborhood settled by German immigrants in the early 19th century. The neighborhood retained its small-house, German style architecture all the way into the early 20th century.

However, anti-German sentiment in WWI, along with plans to reconstruct American cities in the 1940s and 1950s by clearing slums, caused the destruction of one-third of the neighborhood. The village was slated for complete destruction following WWII, but activist citizens in the 1960’s managed to set up the German Village Commission and lobbied to save the neighborhood.

In 2007 it was chosen as a Preserve America Community by the White House. This put the area off limits to developers who would have loved to tear down the tiny historic houses and build larger homes in replacement.

Most of the houses in German Village are one or two stories high that retain their historic appearance to this day.

Occasionally a larger home will pop up.

Cobble-stoned streets abound.

The story of German Village shows just how much of a threat developers are to cities.

Cities that fail to clearly define historic neighborhoods and set up zoning laws that ban the demolition of historic housing risk losing all the heritage that makes them unique. Had developers gotten their way in the 1960s, these German houses would not exist today. Instead this area would have been cleared for development, replaced department stores, highways and parking lots.

Thankfully Columbus managed to preserve some of the neighborhood. But it’s still a shame to think that many other parts of the city were razed to the ground in the 20th century and lost forever, such as Columbus’s central train station.

First built in 1851 and reconstructed several times afterward, it received its final form in 1897. Any city that values its history would fight to save every last brick of such a building.

You’d be forgiven for mistaking Columbus, Ohio, a mid-sized American city in the Midwest for any city in France or Germany or Spain. Everything about the building – the trams, the cobblestoned streets, the pedestrians – screams Europe.

So what happened to Columbus’s famed train station? Few people realize that most American cities prior to WWII looked very European. They had trams, they had trains, they had people cycling in their centers and lively neighborhoods with people walking and streetside cafes.

It was only after the United States adopted the federal highways program and embarked on massive construction of highways across the country from the 1950s to the 1980s that American cities lost their historic heritage. Local governments were encouraged to abandon rail travel in favor of highways, promoting car ownership and life in the suburbs.

Columbus was not spared this destruction. In 1976 the city demolished their train station. For over a decade it stood as a construction site until it 1993 it was replaced with the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Now I’m no expert, but maybe, just maybe, the city could have held off on destroying one of its most beautiful buildings to construct this.

It’s not all bad news though. Walking around I was impressed with how clean the center was and the city’s laid-back feel.

Heading toward downtown from German Village takes you past Genoa Park, part of the larger Scioto Mile the city developed to connect Columbus to the Scioto River.

Conceived in the early 2000s, the Scioto Mile is the city’s plan to reconnect Columbus with the Scioto River that runs through Columbus. Before construction began in 2008, the river was cut off from the city by a five-lane highway that followed its path.

Now that same five-lane highway is a public park. There are trees, jogging and cycling tracks, picnic tables, playgrounds and more. It was a rainy, January day when these photos were taken, but in the summer the park fills up with people.

The Scioto Mile is a successful example of a city reclaiming its urban space from cars and handing it back to pedestrians. Across the United States, cities have started to dismantle highways that were built in the 1970s that ran through their downtowns and replace them with public spaces. Columbus is following this trend.

Once you cross the river and delve deeper into downtown you reach what could possibly be Columbus’s most important monument, the LeVeque Tower.

At the time it was built in 1924 it was the fifth tallest building in the world and intentionally constructed to be six inches taller than the Washington Monument in DC. In 1975 the LeVeque Tower was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The entire building was sold for just $4 million in 2011, with the purchasers announcing a complete restoration of the building for $26 million. Now it is a hotel.

Next to the LeveQue Tower is the entrance to Columbus City Hall.

And in front of City Hall is a statue to Christopher Columbus.

The statue was transported by boat to Columbus, Ohio all the way from Genoa, Italy in 1955. Christopher Columbus grew up in Genoa before setting off from Spain on his voyage to cross the Atlantic in 1492 and discover America. This statue served as a gift from the city of his birth to the city of his name.

It was an impressive statue when I visited in 2018, but unfortunately it’s gone now. In recent years protests have broken out in the United States over racial issues, culminating in the Black Lives Matter movement. When the protests hit Columbus, they demanded the statue be removed owing to his racist legacy toward Native Americans. There were even demands to rename Columbus to something else in order to erase any association with Christopher Columbus. In July 2020, the city caved in and took down the statue.

While I do sympathize with the protestors regarding racial issues, I don’t think that historical monuments should be removed like this.

Walking further down Broad Street will eventually lead you to the Ohio Statehouse. As the capital of Ohio, Columbus hosts all of the state’s institutions.

Constructed in the Greek Revival Style in 1861, the Ohio Statehouse is arguably Columbus’s most beautiful building. The Ohio General Assembly and the Ohio Governor’s office are located in it. In front of the Statehouse is a statue to President William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States.

Mckinley was from Ohio. He was the third American president to be assassinated in 1901, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881. He was also the last American president to have participated in the American Civil War as a soldier.

This monument was erected to him in 1906, just five years after his assassination.

There are two smaller statues to the left and right of the McKinley monument that are meant to represent peace and prosperity. On the left side, a woman attends to a girl, symbolizing peace.

While on the right side an older man looks down on a young boy, meant to symbolize prosperity.

Despite the rainy weather, it was impossible not to notice how clean Columbus was. Unlike New York or Philadelphia, I barely found any trash on the sides of the roads in the center. There was little graffiti on buildings or homeless people on the sidewalks.

Another thing I liked were the bike lanes in the center. In recent years, Columbus has expanded its bike lane network. While this pales in comparison to bike-friendly cities in Europe, it shows that even in the Midwest, in a car-dependent state like Ohio, people are beginning to realize that everything can be done by bike and there is no need for a car.

Some colleagues in suits taking lunch.

Columbus has clearly been a victim of developers. There are little historic buildings left in the center showcasing the city’s old 19th and early 20th century architecture. While pockets of smaller two or three story buildings can still be found, most of it has been gobbled up by skyscrapers and modern high-rises. It was difficult to find any streets in the center that had enough uninterrupted historical buildings on them that could be converted into a pedestrian zone, the way Cumberland, Maryland has done. However, one short section of E Gay Street is a possible candidate for pedestrianization. Traffic was relatively slow on the street and most of the street is used for parking anyway. Moreover, the street had a lot of bars and restaurants on it. And because it is such a small section of the city, traffic would not take a major hit if it were pedestrianized and closed off to cars.

A few more historic buildings downtown.

While these buildings are nice, it is difficult to enjoy them to their full extent as they are overpowered by taller, modern structures made of steel and glass.

In other cases, their facades are covered with advertising.

One of Columbus’s most impressive buildings is the Atlas Building, built in 1905 and added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Buildings in 1977.

The Atlas Building is a unique example of early 20th century American architecture, particularly because of how tall and narrow the building is.

Overall the center of Columbus felt like a bit of mish mash of old buildings thrown together from different eras without any cohesive plan. Here we have a cool historic storefront sign.

Old style restaurant facades in the center.

Food trucks in the city center. Columbus is known for its food scene. Some have boldly stated that Columbus has the best food scene in the United States. 

The business district with an interesting overpass.

High Street is perhaps the most important street in Columbus. It passes by the Ohio State University Campus, the Columbus business and financial district, the popular Short North neighborhood and onward to Clintonville and suburbia.

The Short North neighborhood in particular has become a hotbed of creativity and a hipster’s paradise. The area is dominated by gritty, industrial buildings with lots of small businesses and young people.

And while part of the reason the street is so attractive is the old gritty architecture, I saw many examples of buildings that had been ruined by developers. This is a perfect example for how to ruin a historic building by trying to mix the old and the new. Other examples abound.

You can see historic Columbus contrasted with the modern Columbus in this photo.

Further along the street you find the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Founded in 1910 and built in the Byzantine architectural style of the 6th century, it hosts a Greek Festival each year that is a major food event in Columbus.

The entrance to the Short North neighborhood. Many young professionals and students are moving here owing to the proximity of the OXU campus nearby. But developers have caught on and are buying up old properties and replacing them with modern high-rises. It’s a question how much longer the neighborhood will retain its historic feel Just look at how the building on the right fails to blend in with the surrounding architecture.

Some traditional storefronts on the street.

The sidewalk in front of the stores.

More construction.

One final look down the street.

I’ll end up with a traditional American hole-in-the-wall dive bar. These places are great.

Columbus has the potential to be great. When I visited, it was raining. It was January. There were few people around in the center and this may have tainted my observations. I’ll have to return another time when the weather is nice and see Columbus in its full form.

But despite the weather, I could see good things happening in the city. The conversion of highways along the Scioto River into a public park is one positive trend. The construction of bike lanes downtown to reduce car dependency is another. The story of German Village, a historic neighborhood off limits to developers is a third. These are examples of Columbus fighting to preserve its identity and ensure the city is liveable for future generations.

On the other hand, the amount of construction in historic areas I saw was worrying. Whenever a developer makes the case to tear down an old building today and replace it with an office complex, luxury apartments or a shopping mall, every native Columbusian should have a black-and-white picture of Columbus Union Station in their minds. A stunning, centuries-old building in the heart of downtown, lost forever.

Who’s to say that the buildings they are tearing down now and replacing with modern structures won’t be mourned in the same way? Let’s hope Columbus is able to save what’s left and keep the city a beautiful place to live for future generations.

After setting off from Washington DC and stopping in Hagerstown, the next stop on our tour of small town America was Cumberland, Maryland. With a population of just 20,859 and tucked in a valley surrounded by the Appalachian mountains, Cumberland is a picturesque tiny American city with a ton of history to its name.

Locals will tell you that Cumberland is where the south begins. Founded in 1787, Cumberland was named after Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, the son of King George II of England. For much of the 19th century Cumberland was the second largest city in Maryland following Baltimore due to its strategic position on the Western Maryland Railway which operated from 1852-1983.

The city is still divided by this railway, although it is rarely used.

Near the entrance to the town there is a memorial to Americans who died in the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Cumberland had a lot of churches scattered throughout the city. Its location out in the mountains of western Maryland made it a strategic stop during the westward expansion of the United States. Many people would later on migrate and settle the state of Ohio from Cumberland.

The St. Peter & Paul Church founded in 1848 and located on top of a steep hill overlooking the city. Cumberland is a very hilly city with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

When Europeans first began migrating westward in the 1700’s they faced stiff resistance from Native American tribes which lived in the Appalachian mountains along the Potomac River. The state of Maryland eventually bought the land from Native Americans in 1744 opening the area up for settlement.

In 1750 Fort Cumberland was founded by English traders and a bitter rivalry developed between the French who wanted to claim the rich fertile lands of the Ohio Valley. Shortly after, the French and Indian War broke out in 1754. Following the American Revolution, Cumberland remained a border town on the edge of the newly established United States in the east and the plains of the Ohio Valley in the west.

The city developed rapidly in the 19th century with the introduction of railroads and canals. The coal industry took off and coal became one of Maryland’s chief exports as a state for much of the 1800’s.

A panoramic view of Cumberland from the hill.

The Allegany County Circuit Court, built in 1841.

Historic houses in the center, built in the late 1800’s.

Around the top of the hill.

The Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Cumberland, built in 1851. The hilltop on which the church is located was originally a trading post operated by the Ohio Company. Cumberland was a strategic city because of its proximity to the Potomac River, the only waterway that passed through the Appalachian Mountains to the Midwest and Ohio.

Cumberland’s canal. In the 1800’s canals were the main form of transport in the United States, alongside railroads. Later on highways would develop. In the distance you can see the American interstate highway 68 which passes right by Cumberland, ruining some of the historic views of the city.

The Western Maryland railway tracks still divide the city in two.

Cumberland’s old train station. Although the old railway tracks are not used on a regular basis anymore, the city recently set up a railway trip for tourists called the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. The tour follows the old route that the Western Maryland Railway took through the Appalachian mountains in the 19th century and early 20th century, connecting Cumberland with the small town of Frostburg. It allows people to get a sense of what it used to be like to travel in the United States by rail before cars took over.

The railway station today.

Baltimore Street, Cumberland’s historic downtown area. Baltimore Street is a full-scale pedestrian street closed off for cars, just like they have in Europe.

It is a model street other small cities in the United States could replicate such as Hagerstown, Maryland. The street is filled with small local businesses like antique shops, stores selling teas, toys, barbershops, cafes, bars and restaurants.

There was even an old school theater on the street with ticket windows on the outside.

The street had an impressive collection of old 19th century and early 20th century buildings reflecting the prosperity that was once present in the city.

The Susquehanna Bank Building, the second oldest bank in Maryland, chartered in 1812.

For most of the 20th century the street was open to traffic, but in the 1970’s the city decided to close it off for cars and turn it into a full scale pedestrian zone.

Today it is a perfect example of how American cities can convert their central districts into beautiful pedestrian areas and capture the same vibrancy that European cities have.

Cities like Washington D.C. and New York which pride themselves on being so international haven’t even managed to build any proper functioning pedestrian only streets. It comes down to small cities like Cumberland to take the initiative.

One problem with the street was that because it was so cold it remained empty with very few people walking. It just goes to show that pedestrianizing streets in the center of cities is not enough to get Americans to stop using cars.  One lady even said that some businesses were lobbying to have the street opened up to traffic again, claiming that fewer people visit their stores because they have to park so far away and walk.

As if to reinforce the point that the street is off limits to cars, roadblocks have been added.

Cyclists are also required to walk their bicycles instead of riding through.

Despite some drawbacks, Baltimore Street remains a major achievement and can be cited as an example of how cities can successfully pedestrianize their central districts and create a tourist attraction. Towns like Frederick and Hagerstown in Maryland have similar streets with beautiful buildings but have yet to fully pedestrianize them. They should follow Cumberland’s example.

Examples of local businesses on the street. A local bar and bakery.

A guitar shop.

The Embassy Theater again.

The entrance to the old town.

In sum, Cumberland is another beautiful small town in Maryland, a little further out from Washington DC in the Appalachian mountains, but still a relatively short day trip away. Just like Frederick and Hagerstown, Cumberland is a civil war town that could market itself as an attractive tourist destination for Americans interested in the country’s history.

The city has several good things going for it. It is surrounded by beautiful nature and has capitalized on this by setting up a train service allowing people to ride the old Western Maryland railway train and enjoy the scenery of the Appalachians. It has also successfully pedestrianized its historic downtown, a feat that few American cities can boast of. There are also tons of churches and beautiful mansions scattered throughout the town which can serve as tourist attractions.

The city is currently served by Amtrak, with a ride from Washington DC costing $28 and taking a little over three hours. This is the first leg of the journey on a longer route that connects Washington DC with Pittsburgh, Cleveland and goes on all the way to Chicago. So the city is accessible by train. Cumberland should nevertheless lobby hard for high-speed trains to get introduced to the United States.  Like Hagerstown, the city would benefit greatly if high speed railways were introduced into the region, since it would allow people in Cumberland to commute to major population centers like Baltimore and Washington DC on the east coast and Pittsburgh in the Midwest with the journey only taking one or two hours.

There are few cities in the United States that can boast of a genuine pedestrianized center on par with European cities. Cumberland is one of them. Add to this the city’s location in a beautiful mountainous region and its historical significance in early American history, and you get a city that is well worth taking the time out to visit.

Nestled away in the western mountains of Serbia on the main road headed from Belgrade toward Sarajevo is a city few tourists visit and even fewer foreigners have heard of.

That city is Uzice.

And despite an interesting history, friendly locals, great food and beautiful surroundings, poor infrastructure links leave it cut off from only the most determined travelers.

It’s a shame. Because Uzice is one of those tourist gems. A city with huge potential that has yet to take its place on Europe’s travel map.

We took a bus from Sarajevo to get to Uzice. Although the two cities look close on a map, the road passes through some of the steepest mountains in the Balkans so the trip took four hours.

The spectacular scenery made the ride worth it. We were aided along on our journey by some of the best Turkish coffee in the Balkans.

In addition to the coffee, we also got to try mouthwatering smoked lamb, or ‘janjetina’ as locals call it. Smoked lamb is a traditional meal in the Balkans and is served with meat and more meat. Vegans beware.

When we arrived at Uzice we were dropped off next to a picturesque river near the central bus station.

This was the Djetinja River, eventually merging with the West Moraver River in Serbia and onward with the Danube.

The Balkans is known for having fresh, clean water and Uzice is no exception. There were several fountains around the city which you could drink freely from.

Uzice unfortunately suffered significant damage in WWII and much of the old center was destroyed. One square which survived was the Square of St. Sava, located a short walk away from the bus station. The square includes Aljo’s Fountain, built in 1900 and the Uzice Grammar School, one of the first elementary schools in Serbia, built in 1839.

Behind the fountain is Saint George’s Cathedral, the largest Orthodox church in Uzice, built in 1842-1844.

The entrance to the church.

Engraved on the church’s wall is a list of soldiers from Uzice who died during the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and WWI (1914-1918).

The church from the back.

Uzice first became tied to Serbian history in 1180 when the Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja incorporated it into the medieval Serbian state of Raska. Although a small city at the time, Uzice was situated on a strategically-important road connecting the mountainous Balkan interior to the Adriatic coast. When Serbia fell to the Turks in 1459, the city held out for a few years before finally succumbing in 1463. The Turks would rule the region until the early 1800’s when the city was liberated during the First Serbian Rising in 1807. Uzice developed rapidly afterward. Most of the old buildings in the center date back to this period.

WWII destroyed much of the 19th century architecture. When the communists seized power after the war they preferred to showcase socialist architecture instead of restoring the old buildings. As a result, there is a sharp contrast in the city center between the socialist grey concrete buildings erected after the war and the old 19th century buildings reminiscent of an earlier era.

Thankfully the city is trying to preserve these pockets of 19th century buildings. There is an active renovation program underway. The Uzice Grammar School built in 1839 is one of the buildings that has been renovated under the program.

Another is the city council, where the mayor and city parliament are located. Construction began here in June 2017.

Partisan Square is an example of the city’s socialist architecture. Located in a beautiful section of town with a breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains, this area used to be the heart of Uzice with old 19th century buildings before WWII.

Partisan Square was praised as a shining example of Yugoslav socialist postwar reconstruction during Tito’s time. The square was built between 1959-1961 and designed by the famous Yugoslav architect Stanko Mandic who also designed the central city squares in Ljubljana and Velenje in Slovenia.

Uzice’s tallest and most notorious building, Hotel Zlatibor, is located on Partisan Square. When it was finally built and opened for guests during the 1980’s it was the pride and honor of Uzice.

The life of the town revolved around the hotel. Yugoslavs would stay at the hotel in the summer to go hiking and in the winter to go skiing. It hosted youth camps, sporting events, school excursions to WWII monuments glorifying the partisan victory over fascists in WWII. The eighties were a glorious time for Yugoslavia.

But then the nineties came, Yugoslavia drifted into civil war and the hotel industry collapsed. Hotel Zlatibor fell into disrepair and there have been few changes made since then. Locals today refer to it as ‘sivonja’, meaning ‘the grey one’ and complain of its grey concrete facade and how it ruins the view of the surrounding mountains.

Cafes on Partisan Square.

Next to Partisan Square is Dimitri Tucovic Street, the best surviving testament of how Uzice looked before WWII.

Uzice has a lot of potential to turn this into pedestrian street. A major drawback of Uzice today is that it does not have a central pedestrian street like other cities in the Balkans and Europe. Dimitri Tucovic Street would be a perfect candidate for such a street.

Some of the buildings on Dimitri Tucovic Street are in need of renovation. But the city has recognized this problem and announced plans to renovate all the historical facades of buildings in the city center.

An example of a recently renovated section.

Dimitri Tucovic Street could be transformed into a smaller version of Knez Mihailova Street in Belgrade, filled with cafes, book shops, restaurants and museums. It would go a long way into make the city more attractive.

One of the oldest elementary schools in Serbia is located on the street. Shortly after Serbia gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, King Milan I Obrenovic ordered a school be founded in Uzice in 1883. Before the school was established, children in Uzice were largely educated at home by their parents and personal tutors.

Some more buildings on the street.

Private homes in the city center.

Apartments and homes in Uzice typically cost between 30,000 and 100,000 euros.Buildings in Uzice often have the year they were built engraved on the outside. This building is 117 years old and has managed to survive two world wars to still stand today.

Now to the food. Uzice is famous for a meal that is unique to the city alone: Komplet Lepinja. Rarely found in other areas of the Balkans, it consists of freshly baked white bread stuffed with eggs, butter and kajmak, a form of dairy that tastes like a mix between sour cream and cottage cheese. It’s then all baked together fresh in an oven. The result is a week’s worth of fat in one meal.

Don’t expect to eat this for lunch and have a productive afternoon in the office.

If you prefer not to clog your arteries, there are plenty of fruits and vegetables on sale around the city for very reasonable prices.

One of my favorite things about Uzice are the small one or two story homes with red tiled roofs contrasted with green mountains in the background.

Lots of Serbs own country houses in the surrounding mountains and on the weekends to get away from cities to enjoy the countryside.

Some local street art.

Uzice was the first city in the Balkans and one of the first cities in Europe to build a hydroelectric dam. The Uzice Hydroelectric Dam was built in 1900 based on designs by the famous Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla.

Today a lot of outdoor and sports activities take place around the dam. There are parks for kids to play in, basketball courts, tennis courts, a swimming pool, cycling lanes, even an urban beach for swimming.

Not a lot of people were swimming in the water, but lots of people were out enjoying the sun.

Playing sports.

Occasionally fishing.

The embankment on the Djetinjia river near the dam.

An old railway carriage converted into a restaurant.

Kid’s playing in the center by the river.

Walking toward the Hydroelectric dam. The Uzice Fortress is situation on top of the steep hill.

The first hydroelectric dam built in Serbia and one of the first in Europe is in Uzice, built in 1900. It was built using the same principles Nikola Tesla used to power the Niagara Falls dam.

Uzice’s old upper town fortress is located above the dam at the top of the hill.

The tunnel above the hill has now been converted into a nature walkway spanning several kilometers using old WWII bunkers that were neglected until recently.

There are plans to extend the path several more kilometers and turn it into a full-scale cycling path.

Despite being over 100 years old, the dam still operates today.

The mountains surrounding Uzice.

Back in the center at Dimitri Tucovic Street.

All in all, Uzice is a rewarding city to visit in the Balkans. Located off the tourist path with few foreigners visiting during the year, the city has enormous potential to develop into a more popular tourist destination.

It is already a popular area for outdoor sports activities offering great spots to go rock climbing, hiking, rafting and cycling. It can build on this reputation by becoming a hub for other outdoor activities and capitalize on its proximity to the Tara and Zlatibor national parks in Serbia.

Uzice is also located close to Drvengrad, a wooden village built by the famous Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica. And just 14 kilometers from the Kadinjaca WWII monument, an example of a series of enormous Yugoslav WWII monuments that were built across Yugoslavia in the 1960’s and 1970’s at important battle sites against Germany. Today the monument stands largely abandoned despite its cultural significance during socialist times.

Some of the things I didn’t get to do when visiting was to hike up to the Uzice Fortress, one of the oldest fortresses in the region dating back to the middle ages. I also did not visit the tallest statue of Josip Broz Tito, the founder and leader of communist Yugoslavia from 1945-1980. These are must do’s on any visit to Uzice, but we were limited by time.

Uzice will benefit greatly when Serbia builds a highway connecting Belgrade with Sarajevo which will pass by Uzice. Once Sarajevo is connected with Mostar and Mostar to Croatia’s highway in Dalmatia, the area will receive a modern fully functioning motorway that should open the region up to more tourists and speed up development. Until then, Uzice will most likely remain off the radar, but that’s all the more reason to visit, before everybody knows about the city.

This past week I took a road trip from Washington D.C. to Columbus, Ohio. The journey takes a little under six hours and passes through the Appalachians, a mild set of mountains on America’s east coast dividing the industrial eastern half of America from the more laid back interior.

On the way, we passed through several small towns in Maryland. These towns are packed with history since they were on the front line of the American Civil War in the 1860’s. The first town we stopped in was Hagerstown, Maryland.

Hagerstown was founded by a German immigrant from Pennsylvania by the name of Jonathan Hager. Hager bought 200 acres of land in the Great Appalachian Valley in 1739 and named the city Elizabethtown after his wife. It was only in 1813 that the town’s name was changed to Hagerstown due to popular usage. Today the city is the capital of Washington County and has a population of 39,662 people.

Hagerstown was attacked by the confederate army in 1864 during the American Civil War. The city sustained lots of damage then, but several homes from the colonial era survive to this day.

In the early 20th century the city was known as Hub City because of the large number of railroads passing through it. Hagerstown was one of the main stops on the Western Maryland Railway which connected Baltimore with Ohio. Unfortunately this railroad no longer operates passenger services today. Like most American railways, it was shut down in the 1950’s when cars became the main form of transport in the United States.

It was a cold winter afternoon in January when we visited. The city is located 68 miles from Washington DC and takes about an hour to get to. After passing through standard American suburbs with large shopping centers and parking lots, the town reveals a pleasant historic center.

The streets in the center are lined with historic townhouses.

East Franklin Street is one of the main streets in the center and contains several of these townhouses and churches. Most of the homes on the street were built in the 1910’s and 1920’s.

City Hall is also located on the East Franklin Street, on the corner with North Potomac Street.

A small town vibe dominates in Hagerstown. Most of the stores in the center are small businesses like cafes, restaurants, laundry shops or convenience stores.

Another historic building.

The main street in Hagerstown is North Potomac Street. In the early 20th century it was buzzing with activity. There were trams, squares filled with pedestrians, cafes and lots of restaurants. It looked like a picturesque European town.

These old buildings still remain today, but the vibrancy and intimacy of the city has disappeared. You can blame the American car lobby for that. In 1956 Congress passed the Federal Highway Act to boost car ownership and encourage Americans to buy cars rather than use public transport. After virtually every American city was connected by highways, American railways collapsed and cities got rid of their trams. Larger American cities redesigned their city centers, tearing down old buildings and building skyscrapers instead. The European nature that predominated in most American cities disappeared afterwards.

Only in smaller American towns such as Hagerstown can you still catch glimpses of that early 20th century America. Unfortunately not much remains. The buildings in Hagerstown may be old and historic, but the pedestrians seen in those early black and white photographs are gone, the trams are gone, the squares filled with people and cafes are gone. Instead we have parking spaces and car lanes.

That does not mean everything is hopeless. North Potomac Street is still a beautiful street with tons of old buildings. It could easily be pedestrianized. Since Hagerstown is quite small overall, traffic could be rerouted to one of the other side streets without much difficulty.

By creating a proper pedestrian street closed off for cars, the city could bring back some of that early 20th century vibrancy it once had. The next step would be to attract local businesses to relocate there. Such a street could boost the city’s brand and become a new symbol of the city. Hagerstown could re-market itself as an old historic civil war town just a quick day trip from Washington DC.

Frederick, Maryland has already been very successful in revamping its city center and showcasing its old architecture and history. There is no reason Hagerstown would not be able to follow in the same footsteps.

A properly functioning pedestrian street closed off to traffic with cafes, restaurants, book shops, museums and located near the city’s churches and city hall could go a long way in injecting some life into the city’s fabric.

Moreover, Hagerstown could take advantage of its relatively equal proximity to both Washington DC and Baltimore. The city could be a cheaper alternative for businesses to locate in whose primary operations and clientele are in Baltimore and Washington DC. Townhouses in the center of Hagerstown are selling for under $100,000. That’s a pretty attractive option for young startups and small businesses looking to cut costs.

However, millennials move to cities that feel alive, creative and innovative. A lot of this creativity is missing in Hagerstown, but it could be boosted by the creation of a pedestrian street in the center, the promotion of bike lanes, arts districts and tourist landmarks.

Overall Hagerstown has enormous potential to develop as a tourist destination and hot spot for young people to move to. The streets are beautiful, the town has history. All that is needed is a little vision and innovation.

Houses like these cost a fraction of what they would cost in Washington DC or Baltimore, and are cheaper than neighboring Frederick as well.

A town with such a rich history deserves to be visited more often and appreciated.

Overall Hagerstown is a beautiful city with a rich history that deserves to be visited more often from people in Washington DC and Baltimore. The town has huge potential to attract younger talent by branding itself as a cheap option for small businesses and startups that serve the Baltimore and Washington DC markets. A major step in this direction would be to pedestrianize one of the city’s main streets, such as North Potomac Street. The next step would be to encourage cafes, restaurants, bookshops and other small businesses to open their shops there. The creation a vibrant city center could then attract hordes of young people and creatives to move to the city.

The city should also lobby hard in favor of high-speed rails. There have been several proposals in recent years to bring back high-speed rail to the United States. California is introducing high-speed rail to connect San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. There have been plans to create an Ohio Hub connecting Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Toronto in Canada. Any rail line that would potentially connect Baltimore and Washington DC to cities in the Midwest such as Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cleveland would pass through Hagerstown. If such a line is ever built, having it stop in Hagerstown could greatly benefit the city. It would make commuting to Washington DC, Baltimore or even Pittsburg a simple one to two hour journey. Hagerstown could return to its former status as a hub city with several different railroads passing through. But this is a long ways away. Until then, a simple pedestrian street in the center would suffice.

“Be Paris and Berlin together!” seems to have said its first owner, forgetting that its latitude lies north of the Hebrides. – Hubert Griffith, 1932

St. Petersburg is one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. The majority of people visit in the summer when the warm weather makes it easy to stroll around and enjoy the gorgeous architecture.

But most of the year Saint Petersburg is engulfed in dark, cold and brutal winters. And in order to experience what it is really like to live in Russia’s former capital and the city which inspired generations of Russian writers, a winter visit is warranted.

As Dostoevsky put it: “This is a city of half-crazy people…there are few places where you’ll find so many gloomy, harsh and strange influences on the soul of a man as in Saint Petersburg.”

So here you are: five surreal qualities of St. Petersburg in the winter that ultimately make the city a much more fascinating place to visit.

1.) It’s dark: Saint Petersburg is famous for its white nights in June, when the day’s last for 18 hours and the sun never sets. But in the winter the city is engulfed in darkness. The sun briefly makes an appearance at 10:00 a.m. before already setting at 4 p.m.

2.) It’s north: Saint Petersburg has a population of five million people. That makes it the size of Los Angeles, but located thousands of kilometers northward. It’s hard to contemplate that large of a city developing naturally in such a harsh climate. The only comparable cities are Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm, but these are villages compared to Saint Petersburg.

3.) It’s cold: Saint Petersburg is freezing. Temperatures dip to -30 degrees on certain days of the winter and hover around zero or below for the remainder. Saint Petersburg is also a windy city. Located next to the Baltic Sea, the city has a constant breeze blowing through it, which makes the already freezing temperatures even harder to bear.

4.) It’s empty: A city that’s so cold doesn’t exactly take toward leisurely walking. Most locals shut themselves inside during the winter and let the tourists do the walking. As a result, the city can often feel like a ghost town, with magnificent parks, streets and canals left empty.

5.) It’s European: What do you get when you build a city so far north that remains cold, dark and empty for most of the year? You get the strangest city in Europe and possibly the entire world. Built on a swamp in only 1703 at a time when most of Europe’s other great capitals had existed for centuries, Saint Petersburg served as a symbol by the Czars to prove to the rest of Europe that Russia was also European.

The Czars really did try hard. Saint Petersburg contains narrow Dutch style houses around picturesque canals reminiscent of the best of Amsterdam. The city has neoclassical buildings and squares with Greek and Roman style columns and temples replicating the beauties of Italy and Greece. There are enormous churches, ancient orthodox cathedrals, massive stone fortresses, ports and bridges all showcasing the city’s European heritage.

So why visit Saint Petersburg in the winter? Saint Petersburg offers a surreal travel experience that you do not get when visiting other cities in Europe. There is something hauntingly beautiful roaming around Saint Petersburg’s empty streets in the winter at nine in the morning with the moon still out and snow on the ground and the city covered in darkness. The atmosphere is gloomy but beautiful. European buildings tower over you and offer a testament to a former era when Russia was a leading European power and for centuries ruled over the biggest landmass on the globe. If anything, the cold and darkness of Saint Petersburg’s winter will make you appreciate the warmth of Russia more. You can only capture this feeling by visiting in the winter time.

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.

What is it like to bike in the ‘Venice of the North’, where it stays dark for 18 hours a day during the winter and the winters last from November to May? Surprisingly not as bad as it sounds.

My friend and I visited Saint Petersburg in late November to test out just how bike-friendly Russia’s second largest and most European city is. Here is the good and bad of it.

GOOD! Flat Terrain 

St. Petersburg was built on a swamp by Peter the Great in 1703 and is thus completely flat. The only elevations challenging cyclists are the city’s historical bridges over the Neva River, but the views make the slight incline entirely worth it.

BAD! Strong Winds 

Saint Petersburg is located on the Baltic Sea which means there is a constant wind blowing through the city. While wind blowing in the same direction makes it easier to bike, cycling against the wind can be even more unpleasant than biking uphill.

GOOD! Beautiful Canals

Saint Petersburg has canals that rival the best of Amsterdam and Venice, with some canals even containing dedicated bike lanes. Cycling along these historic canal ways is the best way to view the city’s historic architecture and buildings.

BAD! Narrow Sidewalks