Hiya, all.
It's Yom Kippur, and we break the fast tonight at my sister's Rikki's son's place, here in the Marina. I have last-minute registration/fees/filing stuff to do down at CSU-LA... and then, I'm officially a fulltime student!
TOD- Andres Duany is an architect who has marvelous plans for cities: green, mixed-use, live-work, mixed-class... he has actually designed and built these marvels all around the world. I had the privilege of attending a 9-day design session in Maui last year, when his group was brought in to look at a local piece (hundreds of acres), dotted with archeological artifacts and ancient holy sites, with a major stream running from the mountain top to the sea.
Duany absolutely despises the houses over here/work areas way yonder/giant mall over there design that has uglified so much of America, and created the necessity of several long drives EACH DAY for millions of people. He bases his designs on the Village concept, where ALL services are located within a quarter mile of the Center, including housing. In a large population, it means that there are several "Centers" within a five-minute walk -- this includes the Tram Stop to take people "yonder'.
Buildings IN the center of town are for the most part 3 storeys, with retail on the bottom and living on the 2nd and 3rd. The public part of every street is walkable, with alleys behind, where the garages are. Google his name - his work comes up in lots of interesting ways.