I generally enjoy reading Tyler Cowen, because he is smart and entertaining, but then he writes something lazy and preposterous, reminding me why I no longer self-apply the libertarian label.
My alternative view is that Americans rate European life so highly (in part) because the buildings from previous eras are so striking and attractive. If all of the U.S. looked like U.S. postwar construction, the country would still impress more or less as it does. If all of Europe looked like its postwar construction, Americans would be less likely to admire European policies and political institutions. Yes I know about Lille, and contemporary Spanish architecture, but in reality most Americans would think of Europe as some kind of dump.On what level does this even make sense? America has some lovely post-war skylines. My own Pittsburgh, for instance, has the loveliest in the world, with a nice assist from Geography:
But all of the city's charming and sought-after residential neighborhoods are prewar. Pre-Great War in many cases.
The same is true of Manhattan, Chicago, San Francisco. Yes, the Transamerica building is iconic, but you wouldn't wanna live in it. America's storied small towns were all built before the war. Most of America's post-war suburban building consists of suburban housing stock that consciously imitates, if poorly, 18th-century construction styles, cf., "The Colonial," and the architecture of commerce, industry, and exercise outside of the urban core is execrable, cinderblock blockhouse construction.
Meanwhile it is true that Europe built some very ugly high-rise apartment blocks in the seventies. Unlike America, wherein the seventies were truly a flowering of subtle taste and excellent design.
Here, for instance, thanks to the brave souls at GoogleMaps, is the hellish Route d'Oberhausbergen just outside of Strasbourg, where I lived for a time in a state of unbearable, environmentally-provoked and -exacerbated depression:
Can you imagine?
Honestly, seriously: an ordinary, middle-class residential neighborhood. It has none of the memorable loveliness of Amsterdam city center or Haussmann's Paris, nor yet the astonishing medieval beauty of Strasbourg's own city center, which is one of the most stunning in all Europe, capped by a towering red sandstone cathedral. And yet . . . it is quite nice. It is also mostly post-war construction, with an architectural style that apes but simplifies the predominant, Franco-Germanic architecture of Alsace. Just ahead and to the left is a very nice bakery. Another block is a tram station. It's just a regular city.
A few skyscrapers aside, let us not forget that America's great buildings are likewise prewar, nor that the great tragedy in America's cities and towns was that so many wonderful prewar buildings were willfully destroyed in the sixties and seventies in failed, doomed efforts at slapdash urban renewal. Those European cities that escaped bombing and total devastation do benefit from conservation. Well, likewise Savannah!
The reason that Americans like Europe is that it is an old and marvelous place full of astonishing art, architecture, food, and culture that is nonetheless culturally similar enough to home that it is an easy visit.
The idea that Western Europe is a secret East Germany that has wallpapered over its socialist, totalitarian, Soviet decrepitude to fool American rubes into thinking that it is a vibrant and wealthy capitalist society is stupid and absurd. A marginally more robust public sector and better provision of certain public services does not a Bloc make.
UPDATE: Uh, okay. The Internet writes and says, "Dear IOZ, how about some links?" Cowen link added above. Also, found that via Edroso.
32 comments:
I generally agree that the difference between the US and the European landscapes is that the principles of post WWII architecture and urban planning were more thoroughly applied in the US. Depressingly, as shown on the Marginal Revolution thread, there are people who still defend this.
So why was architecture after WWII, and possibly even after WWI, such a FAIL?
There is some great post-war architecture on the level of individual buildings, but in my opinion it was exactly those doomed and flawed principles of urban planning that drove the bad architecture. Zoning is no one's friend.
Zoning is no one's friend.
Well, nowadays it occasionally blocks Robert Moses wannabes from doing stupid things in some of those pre-war neighborhoods. But even then, it's a mixed bag. Should the Central North Side have replaced two buildings with a "gorgeous," "spine-tingling" design featuring a lot of etched glass? I'd tentatively agree with the naysayers on that one. On the other hand, it's really stupid to have commercial requirements for ample off-street parking in the same neighborhood. Obviously, two different zoning philosophies are in play.
For what it's worth, zoning exists in much of Europe, too, while Houston has lacked it. So though US zoning seems to do more harm than good, its absence doesn't automatically lead to sanity. Weirdly enough.
for what it's worth, i think brutalism is awesome. it's so anti-human, so cold and distant. it's amazing to look at and walk around. like being inside a 50s documentary on SCIENCE.
Zoning is no one's friend.
In the sense that the criminal justice system is no one's friend.
am i right to think that he meant to write "if all of the u.s. looked like u.s. prewar construction..."?
as in, the u.s. has not evolved much architecturally. meanwhile, ye olde europe (pre-wwii) is all fancylike. and that's what we tourists like to see.
in other words, europe is either triumphal or quaint, to which the response is: duh.
we could probably do it too. dissolve the union. encourage the several states to war with each other. build monuments to commemorate victories and celebrate the various dictators. but it would have to be done without guns. otherwise, we'd have africa.
Don't know who this Cower guy is but...
a) who are "all" these Americans who rate European life so highly? They ain't at the town hall that's for sure.
And b) it's because of our infatuation with Haussman's Paris (and not Tour Montparnasse or the Banlieu I assume) that we pine away for some of what they got socially/politically?? Really??
That's just all sorts of stupid...
Well Bryan Caplan apparently thinks American suburbs are better than European cities (all of them), while chain restaurants in the US are better than your non-elite restaurant (presumably this includes Italy, Spain and Greece).
And as for Cowen's statement that the US is better for families because of the shopping and the mcMansions.
Provincial idiots the pair of them.
for what it's worth, i think brutalism is awesome. it's so anti-human, so cold and distant. it's amazing to look at and walk around. like being inside a 50s documentary on SCIENCE.
What with the economic troubles in the lands of the former Red Empire, and the concomitant discounts and bargains potentially available, you would be really amiss in this case if you didn't jet over this way and take in some of the brutal awesomeness. You can surf my couch for a night and we'll walk over to the Czechoslovak Defense University and drink in the splendor over a nice fattie.
erm: your invitation is appreciated. that does sound like a good way to spend a day.
my only real exposure to the cold dead european counterpart of every ugly university administration building in america is the train ride in from schipol airport to central station in amsterdam.
they gussied up identical rows of identical apartment buildings in fantastic pinks, greens and other pastels. it was surreal and disturbing and quite beautiful. very machine-like, really putting the central and planning in "central planning".
in the interest of fairness, i'm also one probably one of the few people who saw koyaanisqatsi and came away thinking "holy fuck people are totally awesome."
Let me chime in to advertise my hearty agreement. I almost always enjoy Tyler Cowen, but I found this incoherency to be uncommonly silly. Less depressing, of course, than those of his commenters who would defend America's many architectural monstrosities.
Let's also stop for a moment to contemplate the stupidity of arguing that most Americans actually prefer structural brutalities and horrifying chain restaurants, and that we know this because so many Americans live in the suburbs where they microwave Hot Pockets and eat at T.G.I. Friday's. I was under the silly impression that the price of a thing conveyed, among other things, how many people want to have it and how much they want it. Which prompts the observation that walkable neighborhoods in real cities, where there are many excellent restaurants and very few T.G.I. Friday'ses, are very expensive places to live -- because, it seems, lots of people would move to such neighborhoods if they could afford it. But, alas, zoning regulations make it illegal to build decent neighborhoods in much, if not most, of the country, and the less said about our agricultural and food policies the better.
Caplan's juvenile remark, and a good chunk of the Cowan-Caplan commenters, sound like someone who credibly threatened to beat everyone who wasn't wearing a green necktie and then, looking around and beholding only green neckties, was struck suddenly by the green necktie's universal aesthetic appeal.
I genuinely, really, totally, utterly, and completely cannot understand what leads people to defend post-war American architecture and urban design. Especially conservatives and libertarians, because it was the pre-war(s) stuff that was built organically, without planning or regulation, and which therefore presumably better reflects what people prefer. Maybe those annoying graduate students are right, and suburban design really is all about politics and family structure blah blah blah?
(That second paragraph was mostly directed at Bryan Caplan. I wouldn't want to accuse Cowan of thinking that American cities were prettier, as he did concede the opposite.)
i'll add this: what makes america a more desireable place to raise a family isn't merely convenience--it's the possibilities.
unless specially privileged, most of us would only be able to attain so much success there. and even modest success requires far more effort.
Here in la Ciudad de Panama they have created an architecture which combines skyrises and squalor in a manner which is roughly comparable to the 7th century Visigoths' Iberian crowns of gemstones and gold. They could do whatever they wanted and did that. And they can't blame the crowns or the architecture on zoning. It's like that children's game of telephone where things get misrelated until total unintelligibility results.
Puppylander: That's irony, right? Social mobility is higher in Europe than the US.
Personally I don't think the US is a better place to raise my kids, but whatever.
Thank you, cian. puppylander still believes the exceptionalist propaganda. American children of the lower class have so many opportunities to lack health care, attend horrific pulbic school, and look forward to a life as a WalMart shelf stocker.
What is this success everyone is talking about? Because I certainly want to to have children who, from birth, will owe the government hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is truly no way like the American way.
So why was architecture after WWII, and possibly even after WWI, such a FAIL?
Well, I can't speak for anywhere else, but here in Britain it was largely because we lost a significant proportion of our housing stock during the war (and what we didn't lose was largely Dickensian), so we desperately needed to build as many houses as possible as quickly as possible. We were also totally broke, so they had to be built as cheaply as possible too. Plus we didn't have any bricks, or the fuel to fire them. All we had access to in large quantities was concrete.
unless specially privileged, most of us would only be able to attain so much success there. and even modest success requires far more effort.
Yeah, but over here, "modest success" means a heck of a lot more. I'm barely even modestly successful, yet I can afford to work a 4-day week, I get about 6 weeks paid holiday per year, I have full health care, no particular shortage of spending money, and I have a 50% LTV mortgage on a reasonable enough flat in one of the finest cities in the world which costs less than 25% of my gross to service. Life could be a hell of a lot worse - and I suspect it would be, if I lived in the US.
Actually modern housing stock in several European countries is pretty good. The Germans build some excellent kit houses, as do the Fins. The Swedes and Dutch have houses that seem to be from the future that we were all promised, but never somehow got.
The worst housing estates in the UK were built long after the war (the initial tower blocks were pretty good, and are still considered pretty desirable) on the cheap by the Tories (right wing UK party).
cian, thanks.
brian, sorta, but not really.
enron, owe what?
dunc, a lot worse?
maybe i'm only thinking about recent news (classism in the u.k.--difficulty for working class children (and minorities) to get into elite schools, professional careers [medicine, law, etc.])
but i'll take my own case. i'm fairly certain that it would be difficult for me to find work as an attorney in europe. at best, maybe a dishwasher at a restaurant, though maybe i could be a waiter at a chinese restaurant.
puppylander -- classism in the UK --difficulty for working class children (and minorities) to get into elite schools, professional careersWell, really? Spend much time in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Gary or Detroit? The little mobility that exists in the US is diminishing rapidly. It's true that you can go to the US with nothing and by dint of hard work in cash businesses become modestly successful relative to what you left behind by avoiding taxes and taking advantage of the services the taxes of others provide, but the vast majority of americans would be better off in Western Europe, especially if they lived to those extended life expectancies they have there.
drip,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jul/21/all-party-report-on-social-mobility
And the article differentiates the UK from the US how? By it's inferior architecture? Stop digging.
The UK is an outlier for Europe. The rest of Europe is more socially mobile, northern Europe (Benelux, France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries) much more so.
Social mobility in the US and the UK is essentially identical, though on most other social indicators the UK does better than the US (though still lags Europe generally). The UK used to be more socially mobile than the US, but social mobility started falling under Thatcher, a trend that has continued.
But yes, it probably would be harder for you to find a job as an attorney in Europe, as European countries have less of them and they tend to earn less. Most of us who are not attorneys see that as a good thing.
cian, i didn't intend to conflate uk & europe. the uk report was simply more readily accessible.
drip, sorry, i thought when you wrote "well, really?" that you didn't believe class was a problem in the uk. glad to see that you recognize that all's not roses cross the pond.
i rather dismissed your recitations of "baltimore, pittsburgh, gary or detroit" because every country has its poor cities. i could always ask if you've ever been to france.
anyhow, what makes me skeptical is a mere conclusory statement like "the vast majority of americans would be better off in western europe", which to me, sounds ignorant.
So you agree that your argument was false, then. It would be no more difficult for you to make it in the UK, and easier in the rest of W. Europe. Unless you're stupid and well off, in which case you'd be better off staying in the US.
The problem of class is about equal in the UK and the US, though at least in the UK we don't pretend class doesn't exist. I suppose that's something.
French Banlieu don't have anything approaching the problems of poor American inner cities. The poor are definitely better off in Europe. I'm not sure about vast majority, but last I checked the median income in most of W. Europe was higher than the US. Direct comparisons are difficult, but certainly social services are superior in most European countries. Its up to the individual as to whether they value cheap flat screen TVs over decent health care/schools/transport etc.
cian, no, i don't believe it would be easier for me in europe. as i said, i probably would not be able to get a job as anything other than a restaurant worker. (think about why i might say that.)
Isn't the post-war architectural problem really mostly a lack of architecture/conscious, costly art in buildings?
After WWII, the power elite here consciously pushed suburbanization, as the way to "boost the economy," i.e. subsidize corporate profit-taking.
Europeans retained urban density and non-detached housing, which inherently raises the questions of architecture and central-area neighborhood mix.
White Americans who could afford it flew off to the suburbs and learned to bitch about every nickel added to buildings in central areas, excepting a few office complexes and sports arenas.
Maximum marketing opportunity is no basis for livable, to say nothing of sustainable, cities.
Some very innovative tract housing was introduced after WW2 in the DC area by architect Charles Goodman. For some reason it didn't really catch on or influence subsequent development. The dreadful windowless boxes thrown up in all sizes without the slightest consideration to layout or landscape aesthetics is the preeminent tract housing motive. Design based on Victorian sensibilities is well beyond the capabilities of housing developers. Colonial is all they know.
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