There's a whole world of difference between Manhattan and 2500-sqft single-family homes with large setbacks, street-facing garages, loads of surface parking, an

There's a whole world of difference between Manhattan and 2500-sqft single-family homes with large setbacks, street-facing garages, loads of surface parking, and vast backyards, set on culs-de-sac in exurban environments reachable only by car. And it's not hypothetical. Every pre-war U.S. city has districts full of duplexes, tri-plexes, and other kinds of modest density -- with limited setbacks, small yards, spaced fairly close together, mixed in with commercial uses. Historically, many of these buildings would be owner-occupied. These are medium-density neighborhoods. They look nothing like NYC, but they look nothing like the typical U.S. exurban development, either.