<story><title>How do you fix a stroad?</title><url>https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/12/2/how-do-you-actually-fix-a-stroad</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>trinovantes</author><text>The Not Just Bikes youtube channel was quite the rabbit hole. It has convinced me that I really hate North American car-centric cities. It&amp;#x27;s a shame there&amp;#x27;s basically no country in the anglosphere designed for pedestrians like most European countries.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>trapexit</author><text>The Netherlands may not be an English-first country, but something like 95% of the Dutch speak English, a higher percentage than in Canada(!). In central Amsterdam, the default language may as well be English.&lt;p&gt;It is also surprisingly easy for Americans to relocate here if they are in a tech career (keyword: highly-skilled migrant) or remote-working&amp;#x2F;entrepreneurial (keyword: Dutch-American Friendship Treaty). It&amp;#x27;s even possible to keep paying an income tax rate similar to that of the USA for the first 5 years. Might even be a lower total income tax rate if you&amp;#x27;re coming from a high-tax state like CA&amp;#x2F;OR&amp;#x2F;NY (keyword: 30% ruling).&lt;p&gt;Some advantages: safety (both in terms of infrastructure and crime); affordable high-quality universal healthcare; efficient government bureaucracy; fast and easy travel throughout the entire country and to France, Germany and the rest of Europe; relaxed attitudes toward dogs compared to the US (generally off-leash friendly and dogs can go into most shops &amp;amp; cafes)&lt;p&gt;Some disadvantages: higher cost-of-living and lower salaries compared to the US; narrower variety of consumer products (food, clothing, etc.) available than in the US&amp;#x2F;UK; many say it&amp;#x27;s difficult to make Dutch friends, especially if you don&amp;#x27;t speak Dutch (though on the flip side, this effect makes it exceedingly easy to make expat friends); terrain is mostly flat; weather sucks compared to California; many find the Dutch language difficult to learn in spite of (or because of?) its similarities to English</text></comment>
<story><title>How do you fix a stroad?</title><url>https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/12/2/how-do-you-actually-fix-a-stroad</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>trinovantes</author><text>The Not Just Bikes youtube channel was quite the rabbit hole. It has convinced me that I really hate North American car-centric cities. It&amp;#x27;s a shame there&amp;#x27;s basically no country in the anglosphere designed for pedestrians like most European countries.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ReaLNero</author><text>If you draw the line at country, sure. But America is huge compared to European nation-states.&lt;p&gt;NYC is very public transportation-oriented. The Northeast corridor Amtrak line also is a big boon!</text></comment>