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Perfect City


Charlotte_native

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Funny, it all depends on what you are looking for that makes a place "perfect". I think European cities are the greatest and easiest places to live in the world, but so many of my European friends think that our suburban way of life is heaven. Go figure.
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It's true that Sweden and Switzerland are not NATO members. Neither is Finland. But they are all three Western states, and thus part of the European "family". They are not formally protected by the US and NATO on paper, but let a foreign power or terrorist organization threaten one or all the three countries, and see what reaction NATO and the West in general responds with.

Maybe the protection of non allied European states is just something everyone takes for granted. No other national entity would dare threaten Switzerland, Sweden and Finland.

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One of my favorite small Euro cities is Freiburg. Great mass transit, environmentally-conscious and ideal location.

In the US, I still like downtown Portland. You can't beat the urban park system. I agree with Metro about DC. I haven't spent much time there, but Madison, WI is also a wonderful place--interesting architecture, old urbanism.

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I don't know if Portland still has it, but years ago I know they had a downtown bicycle co-op. Businesses and private citizens donated bicycles from all over the city for people to use in downtown Portland, free of charge, checked out by the honor system. When you finished using a bike, you simply returned it to a special station that housed them (several downtown locations). The honor system was able to achieve 100% return of bikes, from what I heard.

That is such a progressive and noble program. It helps people get around downtown easily without a car, at no expense:)

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I don't know if Portland still has it, but years ago I know they had a downtown bicycle co-op. Businesses and private citizens donated bicycles from all over the city for people to use in downtown Portland, free of charge, checked out by the honor system. When you finished using a bike, you simply returned it to a special station that housed them (several downtown locations). The honor system was able to achieve 100% return of bikes, from what I heard.

That is such a progressive and noble program. It helps people get around downtown easily without a car, at no expense:)

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Copenhagen has a similar system - you pay money to get a bike from a public bike rack, you're free to ride the bike as long as you like, and when you return the bike (to any public bike rack) you get your money back. But, if you leave your bike laying around, then someone else will take it and return it to a rack in order to get your money. Also, bike lanes in Copenhagen are synched with the traffic and pedestrian symbols, making it a very safe and efficient place in all aspects of transit.

Copenhagen, from a transportation perspective, and also from the perspective of being dense but not feeling crowded, is a very nice place. However, winters are brutal, and traffic commuting to and from the outlying areas can be as bad as that in many sprawling US metro areas.

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