The small-town ideal, IMO, would be an apartments-over-shops Main Street that runs for a few blocks, maybe similar construction for a few blocks on the cross st

The small-town ideal, IMO, would be an apartments-over-shops Main Street that runs for a few blocks, maybe similar construction for a few blocks on the cross streets. Then duplexes and small lot single-family homes farther out, then larger lots and farms. Small towns in the US used to be like this, but the main streets are all dead now for various reasons. (The big reason that I can think of is that franchises prefer to build their own buildings on the fringe of town rather than move into main street buildings, plus the rise of Wal-Mart, but there surely must be others.)