We Can Solve All Of Our Problems, Actually (Or, A Fortnight in Western Europe)

Travels through the UK, Italy, and Switzerland have taught me so much.

Never so much an evangelist is the zealot turned shoe salesman.

Readers: I am here to tell you about my recent escapades in exasperation also known as “Sam takes a two-week trip to Europe and is somehow equally hopeful and saddened by what he’s seen.” I’ve visited five cities on my trip (I’m still here, writing this from my hotel, ideally situated 800m from Zürich Hauptbahnhof, and hugs the Limmat River by way of a two-way tram right-of-way and shared-use sidewalk that’s on a Monday evening teeming with visitors, schleppers, locals, equally on foot as on two wheels. There are water taxis and leisure cruises slurping up the clean water, shuttling passengers to and from Zürich’s gargantuan lima bean lake—Zürichsee. Yes, I see. I float. There are cars, too. Based on a Very Official™️ count I noticed zero parking spots along Limmatquai and zero people giving a shit about it.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Henry Grabar’s (and Joni Mitchell’s) Paved Paradise is here. It’s everywhere but ho…