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Originally Posted by Acajack
I note that these reactions always come from people who live in cities that have little in common with Europe architecturally or otherwise - so maybe it says more about *their* insecurities and it is actually they who feel like European stuff is ''better''? Hmmm... could be.
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You mustn't be referring to me then.
Toronto's early architecture, design, and many planning elements were lifted straight from England (Europe!). It wasn't until well into the 20th century that those were surpassed by local & American influences. And even then there were our post-war high-rise suburbs that look more like Soviet-era Moscow than they do anything in the US. In fact, I would say a city like Montreal was actually more "North American" earlier on - its plex vernacular is an indigenous one (and that being North American of course) rather than something copied directly from England or France.
But just being dense or walkable doesn't make a place "European" anymore than it makes it "Asian" or "Middle-Eastern" or "Latin American" or of any other part of the world with dense, walkable cities. Even in North America, many of our cities were just as dense as those of the old world before being hollowed out. Some of them still are.
It's not wrong to draw comparisons to any of these places - they certainly do exist - old Quebec City for example sure feels more like cities of Europe than anything else on this continent; and such comparisons definitely aren't something worth being anal about. But if we want to be accurate, the only places in North America (or elsewhere) that could actually be called
European (as opposed to just being "like Europe") are the initial plans for settlements developed by European colonizers (as opposed to that which came later, which were planned & developed locally, even if in a European style). It's not terribly accurate however, to call any pre-war built form "European" just by nature of being something that is other than post-war auto-centric suburban sprawl.
And just for the record, I
do think Europe is "better" than North America in most respects (not least of all in its urbanity, to be sure), but that doesn't mean we should credit them for our own achievements.