Rotterdam (Photo – Alborz Mohtashami)
I recently returned from an eight-day speed run through the Netherlands. I spent most of my time in Amsterdam, but also visited The Hague, Haarlem, and Utrech; I saved the most consequential for my final day: Rotterdam.
By Alborz Mohtashami
The Hague was for museums, Utrecht for Miffy, and Haarlem for its quaint, quiet canals. Rotterdam, however, was for the city itself. I set out on a self-guided walking tour of its central and southern districts; 30,000 steps later, I reached an epiphany: Rotterdam offers a model for the San Gabriel Valley and Los Angeles to consider when thinking about how to better integrate urbanism within our current city structure.
(Photo – Alborz Mohtashami)
In urbanist circles, European cities are often cited as examples of what North American cities could be. Amsterdam, for instance, is multimodal, with bike lanes everywhere and strong walkability. It features mixed-use, gentle density, with consistent three- to five-story residential and commercial buildings throughout the city center. Of course it’s full of charm, with canals and construction patterns that predate the automobile.
That last point is an important caution when making 1:1 comparisons between American and European cities. Few of our cities share the same historical depth, and only a handful were established in anything resembling their current form prior to the advent and mass adoption of cars. Greater Los Angeles was decidedly not among them.
Our streets are wider than those in most European cities, our infrastructure is largely hostile to cycling, and our walkable neighborhoods often still require a car for access—even when they’re reachable by Metro Rail, like Chinatown or Old Town Pasadena. It simply is difficult to graft cities built in a different era onto our existing urban fabric.
Rotterdam, on the other hand, shares many parallels with Los Angeles while still maintaining a European sensibility for human-centered design. Heavily bombed during World War II and rebuilt in the postwar decades, it offers a template for how roads can be repurposed, how different modes of transportation can be integrated, and how green space and high-rise development can coexist.
(Photo – Alborz Mohtashami)
My first observation upon exiting Rotterdam Centraal Station was how seamlessly tall buildings, trams (more familiar to us as streetcars or trolleys), and a wide green-and-blue boulevard (with canals) all coexisted.
(Photo – Alborz Mohtashami)
My second observation was the road widths. Walking west along Kruiskade, I was struck by how similar the street width is to Alhambra’s Main Street. The difference lies in how that space is used. In Alhambra, we have multiple car lanes in each direction, a turning lane, and parking cutouts that often come at the expense of the pedestrian sidewalk. In Rotterdam, the inner lanes are dedicated to trams, bikes are accommodated through both shared and protected lanes, and there is still space left for parking.
(Photo – Alborz Mohtashami)
This is not simply a matter of a city being built before the car, or buildings being placed too closely together to approximate sprawl. It is a demonstration of adaptive reuse at a citywide scale—one that prioritizes more efficient, healthier, and more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.
For longer-distance travel, the city has a metro and elevated heavy rail system that crisscrosses the region and extends to The Hague. It makes one wonder what it might look like if Los Angeles had a rail line connecting downtown to Disneyland, or the region to Dodger Stadium.
(Photo – Alborz Mohtashami)
I took the elevated train (which runs underground through the city center) south to Zuiderpark, the country’s largest city park. Embedded within the urban fabric, it includes wetlands, bike trails, soccer fields, and metro access at both ends, with trains frequently gliding overhead along the elevated sections.
(Photo – Alborz Mohtashami)
Along with more central spaces like Museumpark and Het Park, Rotterdam demonstrates that dense, transit-oriented development does not need to come at the expense of nature. In fact, vertical growth can enable the preservation of expansive green space. Zuiderpark feels like a thriving ecosystem in the middle of a continuously evolving city.
The iconic Cube Houses (Photo – Alborz Mohtashami)
Finally, Rotterdam’s architectural diversity stands out. It is, after all, home to the iconic Cube Houses. The city shows that urban character is not solely a function of age or historical preservation, but something that continues to evolve.
This is not a city frozen in a centuries-old form, nor one that has banned cars or eliminated parking. It also is not an aspirational rendering—it is a functioning, modern city. L.A. and the SGV may not be able to replicate Amsterdam’s canals or narrow medieval streets, nor is it necessarily advisable. But they can learn from Rotterdam’s approach to land use, transit integration, and green space. Doing so would lay the groundwork for a more connected, livable, and humane urban future.
Alborz Mohtashami is an Alhambra resident, music lover, coffee enthusiast, library browser, and urbanism advocate. He is the co-chair of Alhambra Urbanists, a local chapter of Abundant Housing LA.
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