My City Planning Dream Come True: Valencia, Spain

We're moving in 8 months!!

People sometimes say that San Francisco is the closest thing we have in the United States to a European city. And, while this might be true, don’t let the comparison fool you into thinking that San Francisco is anything like a European city.

I lived in The City (New Yorkers hate when people call San Francisco that) from 1999 to 2006. I fell in love with cities and studied urban planning intensely there. I used to walk around somewhat sanctimoniously, acting as if San Francisco was an urban gem.

Don’t get me wrong. I love San Francisco. It is great. I go back frequently to visit my daughter. And we’re looking forward to spending a week or so there in June to cat sit for my kid. She lives in what might be the best urban neighborhood in America.

But—after finally having made it to Europe for the first time in 2022—that’s all you can say about solid examples of urbanism in the US.

They’re the best in America.

But they don’t hold up—at all—to even above average examples of great city building and planning in, at least, the Europe I have seen (al menos en la Europa que he visto).

This isn’t as much a criticism as it is reality without rationalizing. Many people in American urban planning tend to overstate the greatness of our cities. They know Europe is better. They wish the US was more like Europe from an urban perspective. So they fool themselves with these comparisons.

San Francisco is a lot like Lisbon or Barcelona. San Francisco, as much as I love it, isn’t a pimple on Barcelona’s ass (un grano en el culo de Barcelona). And I’m confident I’ll say the same in relation to Lisbon within minutes of setting foot in that city, hopefully in the next year or two.

Because, we’re moving to Valencia, Spain, in just over 8 months! In January. It’s on.

Valencia is the green capital of Europe and, based on what I know now and the confidence I have in what I know, the perfect place to Never Retire, if you love city living.