Why don't we design cities like this anymore?
>>18241700Most american cities look like that?
>>18241706is there even one american city with canals like that?
>>18241700We do though, the simple grid plan that your example is built around is still replicated throughout the world today. The canals have been upgraded into highways, their more efficient modern equivalent, which ultimately fulfil the same purpose. The only functional difference is the lack of walls.
>>18241829>canals have been upgraded into highways, their more efficient modern equivalentYou know transport by water is still the cheapest form of transportation right?
>>18241700You wouldn't want to intentionally make it difficult to get into your city
>City wallsThose used to be a formidable obstacle to besieging armies. Now they're a total waste of space, given that modern warfare is mostly drones, missiles and medium-range artillery.>Moat and canalsThose used to be great for fending off enemy armies, but also for shipping goods right up to warehouses in small boats. But the canals were stinking shitpits at the best of times, and now everything is supplied using vans and trucks and the canals are just used for tourism (picrel, it's the canals from your map), while drunks and druggies still piss and shit into those canals and people throw plastic trash in there too.>Narrow roadsMake transport difficult, not just for cars but for buses, trams, et cetera (there are few buses and no trams in the old part of the city for that reason).>Church-centered public areasGovernment buildings, malls and sports/entertainment venues have taken on that role now.>Gardens and fields all over the cityThe reason that was possible is because Dutch cities at the time had a system where most people from the region were either legally or financially barred from owning property within the city walls. If you want an idea of the class of person that was able to live within the walls, the surviving canalside houses in Delft go for at least $1,200,000, and the better preserved or older ones for at least $2,000,000. And that's, relative to average income, about what they used to go for then, too, which is why they have such elaborate facades. These were the houses of local government officials, church officials, generals, admirals, successful traders, investors in colonial ventures, et cetera.
>>18241838That depends on the distance, the type of vessel and the type of waterway. Transport by water is cheap if it's done in bulk and across open water. The narrow, shallow canals visible in OP's map, which still exist to a large extent, have been completely out of use for decades and largely out of use for over a century.
