From what I understand, San Diego, and many other California cities, were more or less designed around the automobile as being the main mode of transportation. In contrast, European cities and many older east coast cities like Boston, and Portland, Maine, were developed with foot travel and other slower methods (e.g. horse) of transportation in mind. They tend to be more compact and have cozy, narrow streets with shops on the first floor and housing above. If you look at maps of many European and older American cities, you might notice that they have a rather distinct circular pattern to their property and road layouts.

The automobile changed everything in terms of city design after WW2. Many cities in the west became places where you commuted to for work or to attend cultural or other events. People stopped living there because they could afford to purchase a good-sized home with a yard and all within a reasonable drive time.

Fast forward to 2006 and what you have are external pressures pushing the system back in the other direction. Copious traffic has eliminated the reasonable commute times and home prices in the ‘burbs are no longer the steal that they once were…unless you are willing to live in Blythe or commute 2-3 hours or more one way. Many cities in California (e.g. Riverside, La Mesa) are also pushing to become more “walkable”, whereby people can get the majority of their daily activities done by walking rather than driving.

Cities like New York and those in Europe tend to also have more mixed zoning at the NEIGHBORHOOD level than those in California. In other words, neighborhoods will have residential, retail, office, etc, space that promote foot traffic. How many of us can do all of their daily activities on foot here in SoCal? Chances are that we have to drive a number of miles in between work, the grocery store, post office, etc. Mass transportation also plays an important role, but I will not ramble on. You get the point.