Cul de sac on the 2400 block of 18th Street NE, Washington, DC

Cul de sac on the 2400 block of 18th Street NE, Washington, DC
Originally uploaded by rllayman

Is this the suburbs or the city? This is a few blocks north of New York Avenue and east of Montana Avenue NE. It's typical of much of the housing built in the city from the early 1970s. People thought that the best way to attract residents to the center city was to give them a suburban experience. That promoted both automobile-centricity and de-densification. Both are debilitating to successful center city revitalization. I look at lots like these and say to myself, in 2 house lots you could have five rowhouses... That's 5 households instead of 2, and 10-15 residents instead of 5 or 6.