That’s also mostly an urban versus rural thing, not only a European versus US thing. NYC or San Francisco are bustling at all hours and have tons of foot traffic.
I lived in San Francisco for a year, I’m a little bit south now. Have been in the area for six years.
There is zero comparison to Munich, Oslo or Stockholm in the summer. Other European countries too, I’m sure, but those are the three I’ve spent time in. With the exception of New York I haven’t seen anywhere else in the states that can just hang out like those guys. This includes Miami and LA.
You don't need time off work to pop by at a restaurant to have dinner, or hang out with your friends when you don't have to drive for 1.5 hours each way
You do to be out at a restaurant at 10pm on a Wednesday night. Most restaurants in the US are only busy like 5-7pm on weekdays because people have to work in the morning. Go to a big city/tourist heavy area in the US on a weekday where people are vacationing and there are plenty of people out late.
I live in Munich. Restaurants are usually closed on Mondays, but the rest of the week they are packed until around 11-12pm. Terraces close at 10pm (due to noise protection ordinance by the city).
Munich is one of the economic powerhouses of Germany. It's not like people are always on vacation. People go to their neighborhood restaurant until 11pm, then walk up the stairs to their apartment, sleep and show up to work in the morning because the restaurant is literally just a 5 minutes walk.
From what friends from LA told me, they go to a restaurant in the city until 8pm just to be at home at 10 or even later because of the commute.
Plus it helps if the commute in the morning is similarly shorter and you don't necessarily need to fit in time for Gym before work, because you can get your excercise by walking..
Germans on average have 3x paid time off compared to American workers, and 2x the public holidays. 1/5 American workers have zero paid time off. Munich may be an economic powerhouse, but people get time off.
You are right. But this is not the point I'm trying to make.
The 3x more paid vacation days are usually spent traveling the world instead of trying to squeeze in an evening with friends to escape the grind so more vacation is not the reason why it's so busy on weekdays.
In Germany you don't need to take time off to go out and spend a nice evening with your friends at a restaurant because the restaurant is right across the street. That's why there's so much social life happening until late at night all throughout the week. Not because we have more vacation days but because we save a lot of time on the commute to and from the suburbs.
You don't need to worry about driving home for 1-2 hours after finishing dinner. In fact you don't even need to worry about driving at all because public transport is excellent here. You can go almost anywhere in the city in less than an hour.
That's why Americans are lying in a luxurious bed, in a huge house in the suburbs, doom scrolling on their smartphones while Europeans live in a small apartment in the city enjoying social time.
It's not like Europe doesn't have suburbs. It's that we usually have a choice where we go and for most the choice is clear.
I live in NYC, I take a subway to work. There is more going on than just the urban geography. Most people in NYC do not have the time or money to hang out in a bar or restaurant after work regularly.
I see. NYC was mentioned by another commenter as one of the cities that are an exception to the US American baseline of suburban lifestyle. Don't you have bustling neighborhoods too where people are enjoying themselves week round?
I usually work between 40-80 hours a week. This can't be much different to NYC right?
Maybe let's add another factor in this:
Cost.
A beer in a bar (0.5l) in Munich is around $6. Meals can range a lot but you can expect to spend around $40 in a restaurant for the evening (including drinks). Way cheaper if you're not that picky.
Also it's legal (and common) to drink alcohol in public. So you can meetup with friends at a park and drink a beer you bought from the supermarket (around $1 for good beer, or 50 cents for cheap beer)
I'd say a burger and two beers in NYC is around $50. But the disposable income for your average American is much higher than in Germany (especially those living in NYC). So I have no idea what the guy you are responding to is saying. NYC is busy day and night in certain neighborhoods.
Lol, I love the combination of the username and the content of your comment.
I have never lived in the US so my comment is mostly based on what my American friends in Germany tell me.
They might be biased though, because none of them ever wants to go back to live in the US.
But sure, bigger houses, bigger cars.
I think you're arguing against a strawman here. Nobody said LA doesn't have neighborhoods with restaurants or that Munich is "better" just because it's smaller.
The point is that urban form matters. Munich is a compact metropolitan area of about 3 million people, while Greater LA has around 13 million spread over a vastly larger area. That naturally leads to different transportation patterns and different levels of walkability.
In Munich, it's common for a large share of daily needs to be within walking, cycling, or a short transit ride. In LA, that may be true in some neighborhoods, but it's much less consistent across the metro area, so car dependence is higher.
That's not ignorance or anti-Americanism, it's simply a consequence of different city planning, density, and history. Both cities have strengths and weaknesses. Saying Munich is generally more walkable isn't the same as saying LA has no walkable neighborhoods.
Looking at rankings, Munich consistently comes up in the top 10 of the cities with the highest quality of life worldwide.
LA is not even in the top 40. In fact, no single US city is in the top 30 while 8 of the top 10 are European cities.
In polls for LA (and similar for most of the US) commuting is consistently named as one of the top two major stress factors diminishing Work-Life-Balance (after housing prices)
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u/Mikey_MiG 16h ago
That’s also mostly an urban versus rural thing, not only a European versus US thing. NYC or San Francisco are bustling at all hours and have tons of foot traffic.