What lesson from another city do you wish your city would adopt and start doing?

[ChargerCarl]

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog

I'd say eliminate the strict oversight/regulations of the CCC. A 30 ft heigh limit along the coastal zone is crazy. Allow for more height if a city determines that is what's best.

Yep. The net effect of the CCC/CEQA has probably been an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

I understand some need for the CCC, but the CEQA should probably be eliminated all together and the former scaled back.

[ocman]

Melbourne and Paris have all these laneway/alleyway activity that I wish downtown LA would adopt. LA doesn’t do anything with it’s alleyways except to collect trash or as an entry to a parking garage. These are always the most interesting and charming areas of cities.

[Doady]

I think Haussmann's renovation of Paris would be good lesson for Toronto to emulate for it to become a great city. Toronto should demolish all of its post-war neighbourhoods (most of North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke, plus Thorncliff Park in East York) and replace them with something better: nicer looking, more pedestrian friendly and transit-oriented, and most importantly more economic opportunities.

[dc_denizen]

Manhattan could use some more chicago (mich. avenue) or paris style beautification midtown - especially 6th and 7th Avenue. Flowers, planters, more trees, street medians, refurbished sidewalks would make a lot of difference. right now the avenues look pretty grimy.

parisian style outdoor dining would be nice in the major squares and parks in NYC and other american cities

the mall in DC should function like Luxemboug gardens. it should have a playground, tennis courts, gardens, statues, etc.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

the mall in DC should function like Luxemboug gardens. it should have a playground, tennis courts, gardens, statues, etc.

God yes.

[StethJeff]

The same can probably apply to most cities, but building densely along a rapidly expanded metro system would seemingly solve commuting, the housing crisis, the lack of urbanity (in most places), etc. in Los Angeles. We already share some qualities similar to Tokyo, time to copy them even more.

[maru2501]

it's an obvious $ issue but I wish chicago could take a page from NYC and expand the L, i.e. dig a tunnel down western to connect lines and even the airports

[the urban politician]

I wish Chicago would take some tips from LA and be warm all year around.

I would also like to take some pointers from SF and add some hills. Add the hills in Pilsen and Logan Square.

We also need to get Alicia Keys to sing a song about Chicago. Rahm should get the city council to pay her to record a modern, hip hop version of "My kind of Town".

[mousquet]

Paris needs to stop its post-war 'urbanisme sur dalle', especially when it comes to high-rise environment, which it already did anyway.

I still don't know about any literal English translation for that term. A so called dalle is a gigantic concrete deck, a 100% pedestrian artificial ground with buildings sitting upon.

La Défense's such deck may be the largest in the world, with a mess of roads underneath to hide cars and spare the district from any road traffic. The deck explains its oddest layout. When they started to develop it in the 1950s, some planners even believed in strange far fetched things, like helicopters were supposed to end up replacing cars in an urban environment. Anyone would fly instead of driving in their expectations. However, since none of this ever happened, it is more simple and more effective to make it the good old way by aligning skyscrapers along the streets today.

I guess that's a main thing Paris would learn about from any US city.

[PhillyRising]

I wish Philadelphia would reform it's tax code. The city literally taxes in the worst ways possible. If they would reform it, the city would see more jobs come to town and the population increase faster.....