From the expansive porch fronting the massive former post office which is now a hotel that dominates Drottningtorget Square in Gothenburg, Sweden, one can observe what place-making — the buzz word of USA urbanization — really esquires. Here there are two anchor hotels and three other hotels in sight. Here the city tram lines, local and inter-city bus lines, and both inter-city and out-of-country train lines come together. Packs of people depart one form of transportation and traverse the plaza to connect with another.
In my USA community, by sharp contrast, the bus station of one city has been rebuilt just four miles from the depot just rebuilt in the adjacent town, which also has an airport commuter bus stop two miles from there. Two inter-city and state train lines miss-connect by thirty miles. Each independent effort discourages the use of that and the other transportation systems.
In my community, as in others across the USA (the Detroit metropolitan area, for example), people fear regionalization, seeing only what they must give up. If they would, in fact, lose their self interests, they would gain much more, both for themselves and others.
JER
ALL OVER THE MAP 