https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TqqdOcX4dc
As noted in the description, the 1902 video plays in real time, and the 2015 video has some cuts and framerate adjustments to keep them in sync.
Half of Wuppertal’s buildings were destroyed by the end of WW2. Some cities had the leeway to rebuild historical ornamented buildings, many others built as cheaply and quickly as possible because it was more important to create more shelter rather than prettier housing.
Edit: Though I very much agree on the ugliness of the excessive street furniture and car parking space!
Agree but who the fuck is gonna pay for it? Urban housing is already under massive price competition.
Thing is, horse poop and straw is great for gardens, weed suppression, growing food and flowers.
Can't really say the same for tyre particles, fuel emissions, and while the bulk long term CO2 buildup beyond the established balance might make things "greener" it doesn't seem to advance nutritional returns of vegetation enough to offset the climate altering downsides.
There are a bunch of problems with cars, but I'd much rather live in one of those cities as they are today than with no cars but mountains of horse manure everywhere.
New York and London of yore had logistical challenges that could have been improved, London famously rebuilt its sewers to address the the miasma, and there are many uses for urine, horse or human, if gathered.
It's more an infrastructure issue, dealing with waste, than an intrinsic failing of one mode of transport over another.
For many decades the lead additives in petrol met the unsanitary definition (second clause) being "unhealthy and therefore likely to cause disease" withoiut being biological.
It appears, to myself at least, that "exactly" is less clear cut than you make out; no major effort was made to address horse waste (past the daily sit carts and shovels) and petrol, rubber particles, noise, increased speeds, etc come with a new set of problems which have still not been addressed.
They might track back to your fields of feed origin.
It's been fantastic for moisture retention, breaking down to increase soil complexity, weed suppression, making better figs, tomatoes, potatoes, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, grapes, etc.
( We've also used sheep manure scraped out from under shearing sheds, horse manure, sluiced out pig run waste, etc )
Call it a locale specific outcome perhaps.
It was way more of a problem than just aesthetics and cars, even in their early days, appeared cleaner overall.
The one thing we never got back are noise levels - modern cities are loud.
Maybe not entirely. Eye-tracking studies suggest that ornaments are what attracts people's attention.
A lot of old buildings are beautiful because the people making them beautiful were piss poor and paid accordingly.