[tigen]

This particular building doesn't seem very nice to me but I agree with the hope of making non-cookie-cutter places.

It seems to mostly revolve around (not) designing cities for cars. The typical suburban towns and cities in America are almost not towns at all, more arbitrary geographic boxes drawn around anonymous wide streets, traffic lights galore, parking lots, driveways.

In my area there are occasional attempts to improve downtown areas or build new "Euro inspired" developments. This has varying success but they tend to be isolated caricatures, more like shopping malls than communities people live in... there isn't a coherent regional long-term plan. And there is always a pressure to deal with traffic, adding more housing/density creates more and more traffic and parking needs. There's a bus network but it also gets stuck in traffic doesn't properly deal with the far-flung regional destinations caused by the fundamental lack of density.

The cars also cause a general feeling of danger. Even in quiet neighborhoods kids are at risk of death from a passing car.

[acchow]

Ah, the "fake downtowns" are cropping up everywhere. The sururbanites want walkable spaces, but they want it to be on private land wherein the homeless are banned.

[srackey]

It would be a lot cheaper to just ban the homeless from public spaces. You’d also get overwhelming support from the public — alas, it will never happen.

[paulryanrogers]

Alas? Is this satire?

[DiggyJohnson]

I see this above-it-all take all the time: but do you prefer to live in a community inundated with homeless people? I currently live in a great downtown in a second-tier city, but the homeless pose one of the greatest risks to both property and peace of mind (getting yelled at). I don't mind too much, and since getting to know many of them things are fine, but I still mind when I'm accosted by a crazy person on my way to the car in the morning.

Am I weird? I want these people to get help, and don't blame them for their situation. But I would prefer they got that help and I didn't get yelled at or panhandled or worry about leaving my backpack in the car.

[soco]

I'd say if you are inundated with homeless people your whole society, walkable or not, is a huge failure and I'd expect unrest any moment - with fatal consequences. So I'd focus on that, instead of looking aside and building barbed wire fences to protect your ideal cities.