Hardly America's first car-free neighborhood, nor (not by a long shot) its largest.
Along the east coast there are multiple communities on islands accessible only by ferry that are foot traffic only. You can tell they're real places because they have their own U.S. Post Offices (not just mailboxes).
I can't stand usa can only achieve the effortless luxury of walkability in the vacation communities for its doctors and lawyers, but cannot make its own city centers adopt the same qualities.
I also can’t stand that when they do achieve walkability, it’s often soulless concrete covered dystopia. No trees. No art. No vibrant spaces for the public to enjoy. Just ways to herd people into stores. What happened to having a more welcoming public space?
Walkable traditional neighborhoods are reliably the most expensive real estate in the country.
The real reasons are 1) architects more interested in getting applause from architects for cutting-edge design instead of utilizing tried-and-true principles for humane spaces, and 2) these things are planned, designed, and built by people who will never live or work in them.
Architects design for coffee table books and developers+planners design for spreadsheets.
Yet all of Europe has walkable neighborhoods with restaurants and cafes that have outdoor seating, surrounded by trees, lighting and other surroundings that please the eyes. And the same people who eat there, also shop in the other shops around there. It is profitable.
It's seemingly not going to get any better soon, either. A new candidate for mayor of Boston has 3 main policy agendas [1]: Housing affordability, public school quality, and removing bike lanes.
Despite being farther from Cambridge (a different city than Boston, so they have a different mayor), I prioritize biking to places there to meet friends or go out to dinner. It is just a much more pleasant experience than nearly anywhere in Boston proper.
Pretty standard actually. Affordable housing rarely has a definition or measurable success criteria, but if something gets built it isn't going to be built where their constituents or they themselves live. Similar to how superficially progressive people are all for drug liberalization or a less heavy-handed approach to crime, as long as it has zero impact on their lives.
These same people are ostensibly liberal, "we're all for people riding bikes, or getting a stupid little condo, whatever you kids like to do for fun" they say, but in practice will do anything in their power to prevent any impediment to their car commute, even if their fear is at-best specious.
Same thing in Toronto. In Vancouver Canada we're a fair bit better about the bike lane thing, though it's still fragile, but in the affordable housing issue they actually just subsidized the huge home owners that already owned land, so a majority of new units that have come on the market are in their basements or backyard and can't be owned, furthering
a class divide. They marginally upzoned, but now a duplex or small townhouse is over a million at the low end. There isn't an incentive to make housing less expensive except the vague sense that the municipal/regional economy will eventually collapse on someone else's watch.
No, there should be fewer "bike lanes" in the US. Bike lanes are silly unless they are separate "roads" as in the Netherlands. There is absolutely zero chance of this happening in the US. Just stop with the pretense and stop giving cyclists a false sense of security. I rode a bike all over Los Angeles as a teen before the bike lane fantasies took hold. That takes a different set of survival skills and attitude than the suicidal bike lane followers of today. What we do now is just killing cyclists.
It's been very funny hearing neighbors talk about how the literal billionaire is somehow just a common Boston man and Michelle Wu is an "elitist carpetbagger". How are all these billionaires being seen as relatable and meanwhile middle class academics and scientists are all the elites?
This should be expected blowback. The billionaires are taking advantage of a large group of people who feel alienated. All the billionaires have to do is not call them racist, transphobic, nazis, and they'll get their votes. Regardless of misaligned economic interests.
Whatever you think about all those issues, and how stupid you think the hoi polloi are, there has been a massive strategic miscalculation about which issues to focus on, and how to address them over the last number of years.
Cars and electric bikes are banned, but horse drawn carriages are still present.
The island itself is somewhat bicycle friendly if you can manage hills, but other than the touristy downtown, all the housing is spread out and definitely not what anyone would think of as walkable, especially in winter months.
For context the island is 3*4km. Assuming MAX distance (4km), it seems reasonable for most with a little adaptation time. perhaps a bit harder if it’s been decades someone lives under controlled AC and move every km with a car but a 4km walk is definitely achievable by most and is in the perfect walk range to become healthier. A muscular bike might help to ease the first trips.
Weather is only a matter of clothes. The cold might be disturbing at first but you get used to it, and a good coat keeps you safe. Plus: walking or biking keeps you warm.
Along the east coast there are multiple communities on islands accessible only by ferry that are foot traffic only. You can tell they're real places because they have their own U.S. Post Offices (not just mailboxes).
For example: https://villageofoceanbeach.org/about