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I live in a place exactly like this in Florida called Baldwin Park. It's much better designed and I love living here. The main difference is a few things (and t
by Bootwizard 7y ago
I live in a place exactly like this in Florida called Baldwin Park. It's much better designed and I love living here. The main difference is a few things (and these really matter to me):
1. All the parking is parallel parking along all the streets. This ensures that the number of businesses don't need their own massive ugly parking lots
2. There are actually apartments here above the businesses, so that it's always active, the people that live here keep the businesses below in business. We have everything from lawyers to gyms to dentists right below my feet in a single square mile.
3. This is actually a community. We have multiple community events and I can just show up and be there. We have a big shopping day every first Friday of the month where local merchants will set up tents and sell their stuff. They also do some event for nearly every holiday.
4. The entire town center is walkable. A square mile of walkable businesses, a park, a pool, etc.
- gshdg 7y agoThe key difference in what you describe is that there are apartments above the businesses. Mixing residential and commercial in a walkable way is what makes a real community. The shopping center described in the article is nothing like that.
- kop316 7y agoIs it in Orlando? If so, that actually looks like a pretty nice area! Judging by what I saw on the map, that would be a nice place to live. If one looks at the map, you see multiple parks surrounding the area, an elementary and middle school that appears to be walkable, a sizeable grocery store, and a lake to walk around. While it looks to have a lot of streets still throughout, it looks to be much more than just an outdoor mall.
- Bootwizard 7y agoYeah it is in Orlando :) It's a great place to live, tons of parks around, literally everything I need within walking or biking distance. We even have a 30 mile bike trail that starts from here. I was just using my area as an example of how this model can work if designed well.
- kop316 7y agoJust by looking at it at the map, I'm fairly jealous. It does look good for living
- carapace 7y agoThat's not "exactly like this". You're comparing apples and oranges.
- briefcomment 7y agoThe same author wrote about this place three years ago. He seems to like it. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/5/31/baldwin-park-a-test-for-new-urbanism https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/5/31/baldwin-park-a...
- Bootwizard 7y agoWow I actually didn't know all the history of this town, and I've lived here for a few years. Thanks for sharing this!