I keep taking pictures of this block, even though there's nothing new about it. I'm convinced you can't take a bad picture of it.
It wears its years well and, thanks to the individually developed vertical slices it makes in the block, is friendly to the street life lived around it. Compare it to any of the newer block-long developments, where Arbitrary Style hulks meet the sidewalk with a single bank branch or a few chain stores.
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I think the whole idea of real estate in cities needs to be blown up before we find ourselves with zero street life, scurrying between massive fortresses that repel outside life and kill the surrounding public space.
And I think the simplest way to correct the problem is to force development into narrow vertical slices like we see on this block, or at least break up ground floor commercial space, and rent the majority of it at less than market rate to non-chain businesses, say through lottery. If the city can demand those dead "public space" plazas around huge developments, why not demand that developments meet the street in a way that does not subtract variety and kill civic life?
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Sure it will never happen, but I think it's a good scheme. And if development continues as it has, we'll find ourselves in the worst of worlds, all crammed together in an environment just as sterile as the suburbs, like rootless teens at the mall.
