New Mexico vs.   The Netherlands

Banner: Taken on 6/24 during our class's bike ride from Delft to Kinderdijk.

Left: Taken on 6/29 while we were in Utrecht. Shows a street in the historic center of the town.

While there is an almost infinitely long list of differences between things in the Netherlands and things in the US, in this blog post, I'd like to focus more specifically on differences in comparison to my home state of New Mexico. And in particular, on how the Netherlands and New Mexico each handle the development of historical areas. 

New Mexico is a state with largely Spanish, Mexican, and Indigenous heritage, and because of that, it has many areas that are similarly historic in nature to the various city centers of towns and cities in the Netherlands. Taos, my home town, has a great example of this in the form of the town plaza, which serves as both the center of town and the main area for shops, museums, and restaurants to crowd around. This plaza is located in the area of the original Spanish settlement of the town. Pretty much every city we visited in the Netherlands has an area like this, which makes for a great place to compare the two of them. 

As pictured below, the historical city center of Taos is structured like a square, around which cars can drive one way and have parking all along the storefronts. There are no formal cross walks between the stores and the center plaza area, meaning that people either have to jay walk to reach it or, in times of events like concerts or farmers markets, the whole area has to be closed to traffic. Meanwhile, Utrecht's city center has many roads that don't allow car traffic at all (save for highly specific vehicles). By leaving the zones around the Dom Tower entirely to pedestrians and bicyclists, as pictured on the left, businesses have the space to place their seating and storefronts along the street itself. Additionally, certain roads are still used for car traffic (like the one pictured below), only that traffic has also been restricted and parking has been removed from the area. Unlike the Taos Plaza, cars cannot just park along the street or in between the buildings. 

The Dutch approach to urban centers allows for the area to be a much safer and more welcoming environment than the US approach. Furthermore, by restricting area access from public cars, there is no need to block off the entire area when you want to have an event here. Not to mention the reduction in air and noise pollution. All in all, Utrecht's city center made me realize just how much better the Taos Plaza could be with a different design approach.