Saturday evening, I left my apartment and walked 5 minutes to catch the tram over to the Düsseldorf Altstadt (the old center of the city). On the way I stopped and bought a newspaper. I waited 4 minutes for the tram to arrive. The tram went across one the bridges, with views of the Rhine and the city. In less than 5 minutes I was in the city center.
I walked around for a while, went in a few stores then stopped to take a few pictures of the sunset over the river. My apartment is in this direction, just over the bridge.
I wanted to eat dinner somewhere I hadn’t been. Just in the Altstadt area, there are probably 50 restaurants all within walking distance.
The weather was nice so after dinner I decided to walk back home. I walked along the Rhine promenade, then back over the bridge, stopping to take a picture of the moon over the city and watch the barges go down the river. It took about 30 minutes to get home.
Why can’t we do this in Cleveland? We have a lake that looks as big as an ocean. We have a river that flows through the city. We have a downtown area.
They’re all mostly dismal, with the exception of a few select sights (mostly the sports facilities). We take little advantage of the lakefront and river. Downtown is mostly deserted after dark, except for a few localized areas beyond which people don’t feel safe.
How did things get to be the way they are? I don’t suppose there is a simple answer for a process that started long ago. Does it go back to the automobile and the development of a road system that allowed and encouraged people to move ever farther from the city?
Why has this same phenomenon not occurred here in Düsseldorf, for example?
Does it have something to do with a difference in our ways of looking at things like our cities? Is it that the cities in Europe are just so much older?
I wonder if anyone who studies these sorts of things has good answers. More importantly, is there any hope for us to change it? Even if there is, I’m not hopeful it could happen in my lifetime.
3 comments:
I wonder if it has to do with the zoning here. What has always amazed me is that Heidelberg and Mannheim are so close together - maybe a ten-minute drive - yet there is actually empty space and little towns between them, not urban sprawl. Sprawl sucks people out of the downtowns. Even Germans, though, complain they have sprawl here (clearly not having seen just how awful it can really get)! Bigger grocery stores farther out from city centers, having to have a car, etc.
There's a lot more to it than this - US history, huge rich/poor gap, etc, - but I'm no sociologist so that's probably better left to someone with more background!
A classic book on urban life and design is Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
I've noticed that too -- even here where the population density is the highest in Germany, there are green spaces and little towns.
There seems to be a vitality in the city that I don't see at home ( though certainly it's different in say New York City). Every weekend in decent weather there is something going on along the Rhine in Duesseldorf. Even in cold weather on a weekend afternoon there many people out for a stroll along the river. The difference is that people actually live in the city.
There are many reasons for that.
First of all, crime.
Secondly, Cleveland has once again garnered the dubious accolade of being one of the poorest cities in the United States. As such, the city schools have very little money which means the education system is pathetic.
People with any sense, and the money to do so, live in areas with decent schools. Cleveland is not one of those areas.
It's nearly impossible to prognosticate such things, but my feeling is that there simply must be a massive change in the U.S. before too long. IMO, Energy prices have been artificially kept low for fears of what it would do to the economy. When gasoline, heating oil and natural gas finally break loose and spiral out of control, people will be forced to move close to where they work, go to school and usually shop.
I have no idea when this will happen. But as we saw last year, even gas over $3 / gallon did little to change anyone's driving habits. I think gas will need to get up over $6 or $7 / gallon before it forces people to make a shift-change in how they live.
I have no fear - I'll simply ride my bike :).
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