suburban sprawl

This will certainly be interesting: a developer in Westlake is building Crocker Park, which will basically be a huge tract of land turned into a combination residential/commercial development. But instead of being a windy-road-cookie-cutter-house type of development, it'll have straight, intersecting streets, complete with a "downtown" and neoclassical architecture. Parking garages will be left to the outer boundaries, to avoid needing huge parking lots at the retail areas. The "downtown" buildings will be like they were in the olden days, with retail/offices on the first floor or two, and apartments on the upper floors. Ideally, people who live there would also work there, so they won't need to drive to work.

Any time someone comes along with one of these deals where you have to walk from place to place, I'm just reminded of winter in Ohio. The first time I went to Legacy Village, there was a nice brisk wind, and the charming Downtown Disney-esque atmosphere was quickly dampened by the crowded sidewalks and grasping hold of my bags in the wind. Still, being able to live near where you work would be nice. I'm curious how much apartments there will run; the houses in the residential areas are slated to go for $300,000-800,000. Yum.