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A city is so much more than the built environment. A city is also made up of its people, and expensive, purpose-built cities seem to lack that human vibrancy.
by jdavis703 8y ago
A city is so much more than the built environment. A city is also made up of its people, and expensive, purpose-built cities seem to lack that human vibrancy.
I’ve been to some of the top-tier “master planned” towns, transit villages and town centers.
At face value they all seem nice, walkable and urban. But they’re also generally extremely bland. They have the same chain retail and restaurant concepts, private security who will chase away anyone who seems undesirable (that is everyone from unsheltered folks, to rowdy teens, to street vendors) and they usually are not well integrated with the surrounding areas.
- mymythisisthis 8y agoOne of Toronto's nicest neighborhoods (High Park / Roncesvalles) was designed and built by a scam artists. Though Joseph Phillips wound up in jail for running a Ponzi scheme, he knew what people wanted; a walkable community (small blocks), mixed use residential/commercial, a large central park.
- Bekwnn 8y agoA somewhat popular place in Vancouver for restaurants/night life is yaletown. It's somewhat scuzzy and expensive, but it has brick buildings I guess? Plenty of fantastic places in Vancouver with character, but I don't understand that one. (And I work there.) But I know the kind of blandness you're talking about. Richmond somehow is a metropolis that feels like a desert.