How the American Suburb hurts Utah families and children.
Graduate college, get married, move to the suburbs, have a baby. Live happily ever after. The American Dream. That was until the Housing Crisis ripped through America after the Covid Pandemic. I had done everything... except move to the suburbs in time. I couldn't move to the suburbs, despite my desperation to own a house. The prices for a starter home were so astronomically out of my price range, I could barely even look at condos. And of course.. I didn't really want to live in a condo next to a busy road, or not have a yard. What would my children do? I wanted to start my life with a backyard, a garden and clean pristine yards. But most importantly, beyond anything, I was trying to escape the sound and bustle of car traffic and still be close to my social ties. That meant my local suburbia.
At least... that's what I thought I wanted. That was until I learned about city and suburb American Car infrastructure. I learned about R1 zoning laws and I began to see the serious flaws with suburbia that I had personally been victim to but never had words to express.
I actually believe the real reason Americans move to the suburbs is to escape the nightmare of car infestation, not to avoid highly populated areas. In America, you have essentially three options. Option one is living in the middle of nowhere so you can enjoy peaceful views, zero cars, but lack of amenities and potential isolation. You can live in the city, a concrete and glass jungle with insanely loud and intrusive traffic but lively and populated, or you live in the suburbs where it's green, quiet, safe and you are adequately surrounded by amenities, community and family. It's no wonder what the American family usually chooses. It seems like a well-structured paradise, but unfortunately, with any type of scrutiny, the American suburb is actually a nightmare to the suburban mother and her children.
American Suburbia vs. European mixed zoning
To understand the problem with the suburban neighborhood, one must briefly understand our American car infrastructure and how the suburb is its parasitic partner. Essentially, the entirety of America is built around motor vehicles due to suburban zoning. In the suburbs, local businesses are not allowed to co-exist next to each other. This is to avoid "car traffic". To create adequate distance from houses and businesses, R1 zoning creates suburbs that are nonfunctional and must leave their communities with a car. Entire states become localized around the highway system. That's extraordinarily simplified, but hopefully you get the gist.
Europe is famous for mixed zoning. Cities that allow both housing and local businesses. If done well, this infrastructure creates cities with the peaceful atmosphere of a suburb, densely populated, and designed entirely for the local pedestrian. All the way down to how streets and sidewalks are designed. Everything is designed to be easily accessible by walking, biking or public transport. Their public transportation is so integral, speedy, and convenient that cars are unnecessary accessories to normal living. Not only are European cities gorgeous, and highly sought after tourist attractions, they are designed for normal and healthy lives.
(Standard suburb Design in Europe. More compact, higher density, peaceful, functional and less wasteful.)
So, how is the American Suburb a toxic place to live? Is the American family really a prisoner to Suburbia? Well, yes, and most families are suffering without knowing the cause.
The biggest problem? Isolation and non functionality
Utah Suburbia has essentially only three social structures solidly built into them: School, parks and church. These are incredibly limited third spaces. Third spaces are where people can gather and engage with each other outside of home or work. Suburbia is meant for recreation... nothing else. In mixed zoned suburbs that are walkable, bike-able or accessible through public transit, options for third spaces are expansive. Unfortunately, church and even public schools are unraveling. With entertainment at our fingers, so are the interests in parks. For people who don't participate in either of these activities at all, individuals can feel even more painfully secluded, and forgotten.
Ghost Town
If you walk into a Utah suburb, they are almost always ghost towns. You'll see the occasional person walking their dog, pulling weeds or a 10 year old driving a scooter around, but for the most part, nobody is outside doing anything.
Why do these neighborhoods seem so empty? Millions of suburban families are tied inside their homes entertaining themselves because in order to do anything necessary or meaningful other than take a walk, or let their kids play on the playground supervised, there isn't anything productive to do without a car. In functional mixed zoned cities, people are outside constantly doing daily chores such as getting their haircut or picking up eggs from their local grocer. This means that people see their neighbors, begin to know their neighbors, and feel general safety and trust towards the people around them. They are fed socially as they actively live their lives.
Productivity? Forget friends.
The modern mother struggles with the conundrum of feeling completely lonely but wanting to be productive. "Go hang out with a friend if you're lonely." Planning recreational playdates with neighbors where mothers feel they are ignoring meaningful tasks in their own lives is not enticing and can actually be more anxiety inducing than helpful. Her friend may also feel the same, causing resentment or anxiety between them. Sure, she was fed socially, but she never got her checking deposit and picked up dinner. Instead of being fed socially while doing normal tasks in a mixed zoned space, she had to do them deliberately. Mothers who are desperate for this kind of interaction cut into their daily tasks to do it, which steals time from her own interests and hobbies. It may also isolate her further, because other mothers are not interested in spending so much time with her in deliberate socialization. Lonely... very lonely.
Suburbia and Dear Ol' Mom
I believe mothers suffer from suburban isolation the most. Mothers need a community to lift them and they need villages to help raise their children. The suburb is the absolute worst environment for this. The stereotypical "suburban housewife or mother" is often a derogatory slur against having children. And there is serious validity behind the stereotype. Because motherhood is so distinctly tied to American suburbia, it's hard to separate the two. The suburban housewife is often portrayed as a life of slavery, altogether boring, exhausting, and lonely. And, unfortunately, for many suburban mothers, despite their deep love and enjoyment of motherhood, the environment we have created in suburbia makes this a reality. The modern mother is often heard complaining about the isolation, boredom, and incessant supervision of their children, to the point of breaking. They have little to no rest from their own children, because unless she's shuttling them around town in her car to extracurriculars (Awful), or she's incredibly creative and putting in a lot of effort, money and time into Pinterest activities, everyone is stuck at home, with very little meaningful stimulation. Sure you could send them to the backyard (if you're lucky enough to have one) but if dogs get bored of their own backyard its no wonder when children shortly come traipsing back to mom.
(Now, this isn't a slam on previous or current suburban mothers as there are plenty of women who make the most of this dull environment, deliberately try to create community and enjoy themselves. Kudos, but I genuinely think most modern mothers are immensely struggling with suburban isolation.)
Mixed zoning is Safer
Walkable and bikeable cities are not only safer as you aren't worried someone is going to run over your four year old, they allow more meaningful rest time for mothers in community and productivity without a car.
Here's how mixed zoning is safer, functional and more beautiful than suburbia. In a mixed zoned city, neighborhoods are not surrounded by looming Mcdonalds and Smiths. They are surrounded by locally owned restaurants, grocery stores, barber shops, butchers and so forth. This keeps the environment peaceful and beautiful. If everyone feels their environment is inviting and easily accessible by convenient transportation alternatives, there are a lot of people out and about. More visibility creates a safer environment for children. Neighbors become passively and actively familiar with each other in their well designed communities and unfamiliar with suspicious strangers. This gives mothers the peace of mind to send even their young children out to do productive and autonomous things such as bike themselves to karate lessons. In small Switzerland towns, there are often hundreds of sleeping baby strollers outside shops while parents socialize. Can you even imagine that kind trust or freedom... it seems absurd. It's hard to kidnap a child when there are thirty eyes on you and the roads are thinner and designed to slow down traffic. Mixed zoning creates environments where children can safely move around their world independently. This frees mom from hours of mindless shuttling and clears the mother's time for other things. Rather than everyone feeling stir-crazy and bored within their homes, or most likely addicted to their screens, everyone can rejoin each other with fresh tanks and appreciation.
Is my child safe? Helicopter Suburban Mom
Suburban mothers inadvertently become the "helicopter mom" because they are never separated from their children, except maybe through public school for their older children. In mixed cities, it is not uncommon to see huge swaths of children pedaling their way too and from school and extracurricular activities on their own in pedestrian centered cities. In suburbia, where it's rare to see people outside, "anyone could pick up my kid in a white van." Despite Utah suburbs being some of the safest places in the world, parents are still afraid to send out their kids. One because they might be stolen, two because they might be hit by a car, or three because their suspicious neighbor, who they've never had two conversations with, called cps on their kids. That is the direct result of the car centric design of suburbia and the isolation it leads to. Nobody has eyes on your children... except for mom, which is incredibly exhausting for both child and parent. It doesn't have to be this way.
(Netherland children biking to school.)
(2)
The Car is a Massive Chore for Mothers.
If everything outside of the home becomes a chore that requires a car, such as shuttling every child into the car for a grocery store trip, or going to the bank, mothers are not only going to avoid such activities without a babysitter, they simply won't bring their children anywhere. Especially if she has high anxiety about her own driving skills. And if the only rest a mother has is when her husband watches the children while she picks up groceries, we have severely broken institutional problems in our infrastructure. This is where the intense monotony, depression and anxiety settles in.
What am I supposed to do with my baby?
Mothers are stuck at home, completely baffled at how they are supposed to entertain their babies for upward of 8 hours a day alone in their house. The mixed zone alternative creates a space where a mother can strap or stroll their baby to do real life tasks in the neighborhood and let their baby be passively entertained and actively learning as mom lives her life. The suburban mother becomes the sole entertainer, and it often causes contention and exhaustion. Desperate, lonely, starved of meaningful outdoor stimulation, the suburban mother becomes obsessed with nap times as it's the only time they may have reprieve from intense caregiving. They become prisoners to their homes for certain solitary hours of the day, and when baby wakes up, it's the chores that require a car to greet them, never allowing mom a real break. (Hopefully her baby naps...)
What could it be like?
(City in Netherlands with a strong biking culture with easily accessible businesses, safe walking and cycling.)
If only she could have sent her son to get his own haircut, walked to the bank with her baby, tired him enough with sunshine and exercise to put him down for a solid nap and at last read the book she picked up from the library when she and her children biked down fifth street together earlier that day. Everyone is tuckered out from the organic exercise, her children are independently moving through the neighborhood, she got some sunshine and is now enjoying a genuine moment of calm where she can do what ever she pleases. All the while getting the mental rest she needs to continue forward, even if her baby wakes up early.
Mothers Could Work Part time.
If a mother could bike to the local flower shop five minutes from her, and trusted that her children could make it back home safely from school or extracurricular activities, she could get a fulfilling 20 hour work week in, make extra money, get well needed stimulus and spend the rest of the day with her family.
For the Car Loving Mom.
It's difficult to imagine a world where the suburban mother doesn't need her precious minivan with our current set up, and often suburban moms act like I'm stealing something away from them. If we allowed better zoning, a mother wouldn't need a car to get around quickly and effectively, but I digress. What about the shuttle loving mom?
Only 15 minutes...
"I like driving. I don't mind driving, it's only 15 minutes away." Well, let's do the math. 15 minutes both ways, and an hour dance lesson. That's an hour and a half of time, 30 minutes of driving, if there's no traffic. It's often not worth turning around, but if you did, you'd spend 10 minutes home, and a combined 1 hr of driving...yikes. 15 minutes driving is a substantial distance for the suburban mom for what is probably a daily or weekly occurrence for multiple children. That's a lot of isolated caretaking in a car and a lot of hours behind the wheel. That time could have been given back to the mother, and gifted exercise and autonomy to the child. The suburban lifestyle steals a lot from us. But again, if a suburban mother is determined to drive, that's fine... but the rest of us should have the option not to.
How does this affect Children.
I am the product of American Suburbia, and I've lived all over the United States. Without a doubt, my most cherished childhood memories were living on a military-force base in Alaska. During that time, I had incredible freedom... I was seven. My mother felt safe enough for me to be out without supervision with my 4 year old sister. I walked and biked everywhere, sold cookies to my neighbors, found neighborhood friends on my own, discovered my own sledding spots, explored the river and abandoned parks, and even went shopping at the locally owned grocery store and thrift shop with my allowance money. Knowing how young I was, it sounds absolutely crazy to me that a child could get away with that now, but I cherished this independence as a child. This behavior is still very normal in car independent European cities that prioritizes the local pedestrian, not the car. After moving to Suburban Utah in 2009 as a 11 year old, I suddenly couldn't go anywhere on my own. It's amazing how quickly the Utah suburban life stole my independence and my desire to be outside. When I grew out of wanting to play at the park, my sedentary life began. Millions of children and adolescents are suffering from the suburban black box.
How Children Learn Effectively
Children learn through independent play and the most effective and substantial learning from play comes from the practice and mimicry of adult work. Toys are an extremely shallow source of play, and should be used infrequently. Without a productive environment in which their children can thrive, suburban mothers begin to solely rely on mountains of toys, each toy becoming less and less entertaining. In a suburban neighborhood, children have absolutely nothing productive to do without a parent. Besides household chores and homework, it's very difficult for a child to independently mimic their parents. They can't drive to the bank themselves, they must beg their parents to take them. The suburban child becomes the victim of passive and shallow learning, while being shuttled around until they are 16.
Fear of Independence
The age 16 is incredibly too late to learn independence. Though I desperately wished for independence as a child, Utah suburbia stripped it from me, and I grew to fear independence immensely. Navigating with a car was incredibly stressful, not liberating, and I had zero life skills leaving my home to college. I am not alone in this. Adolescents currently have two years to catch up on all of the independent learning they are denied before they get their licenses and begin "adulthood". I could not have been more terrified to start my life, and many are in the same boat. Completely riddled with anxiety, not given the skills to cope with life until too late. They say 30s is the new 20s, well, this is why.
Older generations are baffled at the fact that Gen Z is completely disinterested in learning how to drive a car. They are not given opportunities to practice autonomy. They often don't even know the routes they've been shuttled around in for years. Because suburbia limits social interaction with all ages, denies productive work, and provides no feasible alternative transportation, we are depriving children from thriving and becoming confident adults.
How the Suburbs Fail to Allow to Children Thrive
This is the story of millions of adolescent adults who spend their lives playing catch up, learning how to function with money, travel, time management, emotional regulation, scheduling, calling people on the phone for appointments... and then going themselves, and grocery shopping. This is the direct result of suburbia. Children learn how to handle money when they can earn it and spend it themselves, on their own time. Children learn better emotional regulation when they can independently move through the world, work and play with other children and adults. They becoming functioning adults through practicing responsibility for their time and activities. Many adults struggle with time management because they relied completely on parents to passively drive them to their next destination rather than actively knowing when they needed to leave on their bike to soccer practice. Suburban parents can't ask children to pick things up from the grocery store on their own, allowing a child to collect themselves, stay focused, understand money, actively pursue the task at hand, and contribute to household functioning. These things are all empowering to children with environments where they can both work and play. They bring confidence, determination, and life skills.
Double The Parenting Time
To compensate the suburban parent must dedicate double the amount of parenting time and teaching to make up for these unlearned tasks and it's all quite exhausting. And in most cases, due to the need for a car, impossible. Skills that could have been attained for the child autonomously without intense parental intervention are nonexistent in suburbia. Both children and parents often find themselves overwhelmed with life and bored, and don't know the cause. Children feel harassed, unable to make any decisions for themselves without parental intervention. Many children are suffering from screen isolation, stewing with the difficulties of life and never allowed to actively pursue their own interests without assistance from a parent. They have no outlet for healing and introspection. Pretty soon, these children give up, and become accustomed to passive living, the need for constant entertainment and ever present authority. When adulthood arrives and they must do it on their own, they are devastated, unable to cope. We are denying our children these vital experiences and it is quite literally stunting their development and the time it takes them to mature. Is it worth it to keep the same infrastructure in our suburban neighborhoods for this weighty consequence and deep suffering?
(What your locally owned bakery could look like in your neighborhood.)
"I'm bored..." "Go outside." "I don't want to!"
It's really interesting that at a glance, quiet and pristine HOA suburbia doesn't have more children playing in it. The park seems close enough... why aren't they biking to it? Because despite the lack of car traffic in some areas, it is still unsafe and inconvenient to bike or walk. The streets are designed for cars, and often a child has to bike on thin sidewalks that take a much longer route to their destination, going up and down curbs, or they have to intersect speedy cars on wide roads, risking their lives. It seems most parents don't want to take the risk.
How much time??
It's quite literally depressing how much time children spend outside now and it's much worse since the last time I studied this topic. From ChildMind its estimated that the average child spends about 4-7 minutes outside and 7 hours inside with a screen. If you've questioned whether I'm exaggerating the time children spend time outside in suburbia, you don't need to look much further. These numbers are incredible and should be completely flipped. Even if a 10 year old plays baseball three times a week, he can never make up for the loss of time outside he receives inside. Again, once he's done "playing" as that all suburbia has to offer him, he can recess back into his house, with no viable reason to leave it. The suburban environment deprives children of sunshine, earth on their feet, and experiencing weathers of all kind. Kids who spend more time outside are happier, better able to focus and all around less anxious. Sometimes you'll see young children playing in the front yard, or at the playground. When they've reached the developmental milestone where this bores them, where are they to turn until they can drive?
Cars
Children spend a lot of valuable wasted time in a car... just like mom.
Jobs
Maybe you wouldn't like your ten your old working at McDonalds, as it's also illegal, but what about them working at the local hardware shop with your neighbor with appropriate hours? By the time a child's interest's have piqued to work, they have to wait 6 to 7 years. Again... this is too late, and often the desires to work have diminished. Have we thought about these safer working alternatives? Not with the suburban mindset. Children are dying to earn money, and exercise financial autonomy. Why can't we create environments that provides this?
"The suburb is a great place to raise a family." No, it's not. It's a suffocating, stifling environment for everyone, and it's stunting our children's ability to grow and learn.
Mental Health
The mental health of our children is collapsing every day and both parents and children are dealing with the consequences. Perhaps the trend of children of developing ADHD, anxiety and severe depression would decline if they had any autonomy before 16 or anything meaningful to do outside. Children are also struggling with mothers and fathers who are dealing with their own mental health crisis's. How can we help? Our Utah suburbs should be reimagined with mixed zoning. We cannot be stubborn about what a suburb is supposed to look like. We must begin making changes. Both parents and children are victims to suffocating suburbia.
Blame Social Media
"Social Media ruined everything!!"
Because we are blinded by our suburban infrastructure and it's all we've ever known, our first instinct is to blame the "scourge" of social media. It's true that this isolation is completely exacerbated by social media, but it is not the problem itself. Perhaps in the 70s when the only thing keeping kids at home were Saturday cartoons, and when children had more freedom, being outside wasn't such an inconvenience. Suburbia was still problematic, but manageable. Because of the 80s fear mongering propaganda that your children will be kidnapped at any moment and endless hours of entertainment at our fingertips, it is now completely incompatible for healthy living or mental health. People are craving connection because their environment does not provide it and social media fills that void. If only social media was the solution.
Are Parents any Better?
It's not a secret that excessive social media use becomes addictive, isolating, and sometimes even suicidal. Why can't adults get a grip and stop this behavior for their kids? Well, they're stuck in suburbia as well, craving the same kind of connection, and dealing with similar boredom. Naturally, when people have things to do close in their communities and are exercising organically next to their neighbors, social media becomes a second thought, and more of a tool, rather than an obsession or escape.
Escapism and Drug Abuse.
Lastly, as I said before, suburbs are made for menial recreation, not functionality. This creates an incredible vacuum of boredom for both children, but especially adolescents. Drug use, particularly in wealthier suburbs, is skyrocketing across Utah and America. As a teenager, when your only option to entertain yourself, instead of doing something useful in your community, is to pass hundreds of houses that look exactly the same, or skip by the local jungle gym that you don't have any use for other than to vandalize, individuals turn to ulterior forms of stimulation. Suburban boredom often results in crime, or drug use. Since we don't have a lot of crime, it seems drug use is the ticket to win it in Utah. 21% of 8th graders, 37% of tenth graders, and over 46% of high school seniors are engaging in some kind of drug use. That's almost half of all high school seniors. This is utterly unacceptable. (9)
(6)
I didn't forget. An active father deals with everything I've spoken of above. Likely, however, they uniquely have to deal with long traffic ridden commutes in barren wasteland industrial looking environments until they slog back home in their car. Everything else is hideous and loud, with asphalt, billboards and fast food chains except within the suburb, so He believes he is returning to an oasis. With more suburbs creating car independent communities, there will inevitably be more traffic that the Father must deal with, stripping valuable family time from him, and costing him his time for family, hobbies and his sanity. I only wish that we created cities that were walkable, mixed zoned, and public transportation heavy so that his family felt happy living closer to work, instead off in a distant suburb. Or, forbid this ever happen in a suburb, he works within his own community. He may also come home to the emotional strife of a very haggard mother and children. Nobody seems to get a break.
I'll briefly mention two other major problems:
Suburbia is kind of pretty but...
Despite new suburban neighborhoods looking like carbon copies in every direction for miles, the second problem is aesthetic and peace. I've written about this before, but it seems car infestation creates every space outside of the oasis suburbia to be hideous, unfriendly to walk in, and loud. No wonder people want to live in their dull suburb, everywhere else is a loud eyesore. The problem arises with how suburban neighborhoods are designed. Incredibly spread out for house size, yard and wide asphalt for street parking. Because families want to escape traffic and the ugly Mcdonalds in the heart of town, suburbia requires them to move outward. This limits land and resources for everyone. As population grows, the suburbs become deeper away from car traffic, and people still need to leave to work. Traffic begins to infect the middle and outskirts of these suburbs. This creates more roads, which creates less housing to build on. Over time, it becomes apparent that only the elite can afford a beautiful and peaceful, car free environment. This seems ridiculous and unfair as these people are contributing to the car problem just as much as everyone else. Except now, poorer members of society must bend to the American car addiction while beautiful land is destroyed around them to create faster highways for traffic control. I fear what Utah's traffic and housing will look like in 50 years if we do not remedy this.
(Typical American city outside of suburb. Un-walkable, overwhelmed by asphalt for car traffic and hideous.)
(Typical European City. Notice the built in walkable space, and the plenty of foot traffic.)
Expensive and Wasteful
The third problem is Suburban housing infrastructure steals perfectly good land with ever growing roads and widely spaced housing. Suburban R1 housing requires a certain amount of parking space, front yard, backyard, and space between housing. A solid backyards is used more often than large front yards, which are often purely aesthetic. These front yard regulations are often useless, and wasted space for more housing. It seems we don't even own our front yards if you are in an HOA community, as you have limited creative leverage for what you do with it, or how it looks. You could not for example, plant a food garden in your front lawn... absurd waste of space for limited aesthetic.
Do you need the yard? In suburbia, it may be your only option
"Where will my children play?!"... "literally everywhere else, if you give them the proper environment." I'm not suggesting suburban areas not have yards, but what I am suggesting is, are they really providing what our communities need to thrive? It's even worse in townhome zoning because nobody gets a private yard and you still have to leave your community in a car. Ouch. Community parks in these places are stale, like a simple field of grass, and lose their luster quickly with growing children. Instead of creating housing where people can more densely live in beautiful mixed zoned cities, without being harassed by the car infrastructure, we insist that we need the huge McMansion in the suburb and only that. As stated before, when cars take up thousands of acres of good land, housing becomes much more expensive for everyone else because it's always in high demand. And in better zoned cities, people are happy with moderately sized housing for their family. People don't need huge houses because they aren't the primary sources of entertainment. They are properly used for rest and eating. It is possible to create higher density suburbs that are adequately spaced to be family friendly, and don't feel like traffic hellholes.
This isn't Working. Allow for Change
Suburban neighborhoods are incompatible with the life that families need to thrive and teach their children in Utah. People say, "I don't want Costco to be my next door neighbor." Costco will stay where it's at when you absolutely need it (and hopefully a tram or train can take you there), but you will have a local grocery store to walk with your children to, and save everyone their sanity. We need to vote for better mixed zoning communities. Allow communities to vote on businesses they'd be happy to have in their own neighborhoods. Allow people to buy houses and turn them into banks and dance studios, grocery stores and barber shops, ect. (So long as they maintain the aesthetic and beauty of the neighborhood, and are not intruding upon their neighbors with loud or excessive advertisement.) These businesses will have foot traffic from all over the neighborhood. Allow your streets to be redesigned for pedestrians. Replace wide asphalt roads with thin streets to promote slow driving and carve wide and accessible biking paths instead. Provide more bike racks in high traffic areas, and allow trams or buses into the neighborhood. We don't have to destroy all of the suburbs in Utah, but we can transform most of these suburban neighborhoods for those who wish to live more functional lives and happier families. It's not too late to have peaceful and functional suburbs. Utah families depend on it.
Citations
(1)https://mobycon.com/updates/the-five-pillars-of-dutch-children-cycling/
(2)https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cycling-school-netherlands-numbers-what-can-we-learn-%C3%B5nne-kask
(3)https://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2016/05/31/10-examples-why-dutch-kids-love-cycling/
(4)https://www.deseret.com/2016/9/6/20595464/it-s-official-i-m-a-minivan-mom
(5)https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/social-media-how-to-use-it-safely
(6)https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/cover-kids-screens
(7)https://www.gainesville.com/story/opinion/2022/03/30/adam-greco-university-florida-boxed-four-stroads/7152527001/
(8)https://www.escape.com.au/destinations/europe/european-cities-every-traveller-should-visit/image-gallery/85e9c5dc5e8c3f3ad8259b004e7c71f3
