4 families live on that block, in single-family dwellings. There's only one actual commercial building, the car lot. The change is to increase building heights, and promote commercial development. On paper, it was designated "commercial" in the 1880's.

The buildings I matted in are all within one block of the proposed development area, and were all promoted as "beautiful". The grey building was built 25 years ago, and was built in a public park. The exchange was, we'd get a swimming pool, which we did.

The point of posting on Mudcat wasn't to debate about my community, but my guess that in many communities, similar battles are being waged. Some places I've visited have dealt with these problems fairly well, others... ...agggghhh!

One of the best, Edinburgh, Scotland. Terrifyingly the worst, Cleveland, Ohio. No, I wasn't in either place long enough to really judge, but some things stand out...

...and really, if Sao Paulo is where we're headed, God Bless Us Everyone.