While I was making my fingers do the driving in Chaldean Town on Seven Mile road, it occured to me that many main roads in Detroit were almost entirely dedicated to business frontage, with little or no residential presence. I thought of how Los Angeles main roads are often like this, zoned exclusively for one or two storey buildings. The bulk of residential is situated on side streets whether apartment buildings or cottages and bungalows. The smaller roads do have a mix, but the McNicholls, the eight Miles, the Woodwards for the most part dont.
That could explain partly how a suburban mindset developed that would favor shopping malls and automobile use since a lot of sidestreets are long and not densely populated. I noticed this as opposed to Chicago where the mix of housing to commercial is much higher for instance. In Montreal and Toronto's older hoods, the commercial streets also have residents.
I hadnt noticed this before, something I couldnt put a finger on until today. Any thoughts on this?
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