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Jun 19, 2024 19 tweets 7 min read Read on X
Why do American cities feel less "alive" than their European counterparts?

It's because of something called the "missing middle".

A century ago, American cities looked completely different... (thread) 🧵 Image
Millions make pilgrimages to Europe's centers every year. Architectural beauty is one thing, but they simply feel more vibrant and "alive" than American cities.

But why is that?Image
In the early 20th century, American cities were much like European ones. They had smaller footprints relative to population, and people lived centrally enough to walk or take elegant streetcars to work.

What happened? The "missing middle" was decimated... Image
Missing middle housing is simply medium-density housing that bridges the gap between single-family homes and high-rise apartments.

In America, there's very little in between. Image
Most American cities follow the same pattern: a cluster of downtown skyscrapers, then flat, urban sprawl for miles.

They're segmented between suburban areas where people live, and downtown areas where they work. Image
European cities have more medium-density areas that are mixed-use: people living, shopping, working and worshipping in the same place.

Urban communities come alive in these places. Image
Before the 1940s, US cities did have "middle" housing options that brought this gentle density — like the two-flats of Chicago or triple-deckers in Boston.

So what happened to America's missing middle?Image
Image
Well, we demolished it — at least part of it.

From the 1940s, decades of freeway construction gutted many of these areas. Entire communities were displaced in places like Kansas City and Minneapolis. Image
Super highways cut through cities and shifted people out to suburbia. Inner city populations cratered:

521,000 lived in Minneapolis in 1950. This fell to 368k by the '90s, and never recovered (425k today). Image
This was the site of the new I-35W which gutted Minneapolis. It was decided that new highways must "go right through cities and not around them." Image
Then, car-friendly laws and strict zoning made it impossible to build anything other than single-family homes or downtown tower blocks.

In San José, 94% of residential land only allows single-family builds. Image
So, with everyone shifted to the suburbs, demand for places and amenities that create bustling urban communities evaporated — and everything got built around the motorcar. Image
Drive-thrus just don't do as much for the atmosphere as a cafe does in a local town square...
Image
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This wrecked America's urban fabric. Plus, suburban sprawl meant inner cities lost their tax bases and fell into spirals of decline. Image
Still, residential developers have no choice but to build single-family homes or downtown skyscrapers.

And towers don't fix anything — they're structures of inhuman scale that are even worse for community cohesion. Image
Changes are being made in some places. Minneapolis just relaxed its zoning laws to allow more multi-family homes to be built — but there's a lot left to do...
Image
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Restoring the missing middle might be the first step to recapturing that old vision of what American cities can be.

But can it ever undo the damage that was done? Image
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One more comparison: how Milwaukee was transformed for the interstate — 1940s vs today... Image

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