Quote:
Originally Posted by 10023
It’s a bit more nuanced than this, really. Cities in the US also, for the most part, really came into being during industrialization. They developed quickly, and with railroads, which encouraged centralization as lines were built to outward from the center to bedroom suburbs. And these cities were often surrounded by absolutely fuck all - there was a small city, and then there was wilderness.
In Europe, the cities were much larger before industrialization. There were limits on how tall you could practically build, before elevators, and so cities spread outwards. They were de-centralized because most people got around on foot. In London and Paris, among other examples, the (several) main train stations are in a ring on the fringes of what would be considered the central area - which was already too fully developed to be running new surface rail lines into by the time of the steam engine. And as these cities grew, they also absorbed existing towns and villages, many of which were hundreds of years old, and then formed hubs within the metropolis.
A handful of the oldest cities in America (like the New York metro area) are actually more multi-polar, as well (Manhattan is much more than a CBD). The newest American cities (mostly in the West) are also less centralized, because they developed in a post-railroad world. But it’s really trains that made the New World cities of the 19th century so incredibly centralized.
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Sure, that's all true but you're forgetting that modern European cities have indeed created primary commercial cores in the past few decades. Moscow IBC, La Defense, Canary Wharf, etc., are all meant to rival or dominate the local business market. Obviously these cities are too big to have a single core but that's the same in North America today.
In fact, the dominant model globally is to spread commercial traffic throughout the city. There are various reasons for this but either way, it's the preferred model. It's a recent innovation in North America to do things this way but ever since the rise of the industrial/commercial park there, it's been catching on for the reasons I outlined.