Derby, CT is a small, working-class, post-industrial town with a population which has been stagnant at about 12,000 for more than six decades.
The geniuses over at the Connecticut DOT decided that this obviously meant that the town’s Main Street needed to be widened, by twice the size, destroying a number of historic buildings and uprooting numerous small community businesses in the process. That red stripe on the far left of the “After” pic is the new edge of the street.
If Europe can keep their historic towns looking nice for literally thousands of years, we can keep a building for longer than 70.
The vast majority of buildings built 1000 years ago, have fallen apart already.
The ones still around were built extremely well. Much better, than our 70 year old buildings.
Survivorship Bias
You also have a vastly different culture. With that said, I’m pretty sure the US is in the top 20 in the world for number of UNESCO sites. I guess it’s not number one, but I’ll sleep with that.
