Originally Posted by dismayed

Well, I'm not necessarily saying we should wait and try to re-create Chicago here.... Perhaps a better example, a bit closer to home, would be Austin, TX. Austin is a capital city, a western city, where the car is king. Yet every time I have been there, I have been amazed at the huge amounts of bars, restaurants, retail including things like records stores, souvernier stores, music venues, etc. you can find while walking along 4th, 6th, and 8th streets. Even though you are in a western city, the place has a very urban vibe. When you walk along these streets, I am always amazed at how beautiful and upscale the facades/storefronts on many of these places are. For example, ever been to Malaga tapas or Ruth Chris Steakhouse? Very nice, very upscale, very expensive. And very *not* Bricktown. Why is that? Is it simply the cultural differences between the two cities that are setting them so wildly apart? Both are cities of just over 1 million people, both are here in the southwest. Why can't we do something more like that?