Yesterday, I read this description of a local attraction - Legacy Town Center in Plano - provided by the city itself:
One of dozens of faux downtowns popping up across the country, spurred by a demand for urban living scrubbed of the reality of city life. A careful mix of retail, residential and office space built with traditional materials such as stone and brick, Legacy looks like a city but has neither panhandlers nor potholes. Legacy Town Center is built in a contemporary style, with hints of Frank Lloyd Wright. Its use of brick and limestone give it an old-time veneer. Retail buildings have been built a different heights to make the town center look like it’s evolved over decades with more than 1,500 apartments and town houses, some 80 shops and restaurants, two mid-rise office towers and a Marriott Hotel.
Someone tell me: isn't there something a little out-of-balance about this? Is this how our society thinks? This doesn't make me want to visit Plano. It kinda makes me feel sorry for the people there who are apparently all clean and rich and and safe and comfortable and - to use the city's word - feaux.
Yesterday, I read this description of a local attraction - Legacy Town Center in Plano - provided by the city itself:
1 comment:
I have the exact same thoughts when I go to Southlake's new Town Square. It is allegedly the largest outdoor mall in America. It has a sort of village feel like you might find in New York or Chicago, but it's so squeeky clean that it's obvious this place is nothing more than a fabrication.
I always tell people in Dallas about the charm and authenticity of New Orleans. If you know the right places to go, there is wonderful art and culture and architecture that has developed over the vast history of one of the oldest cities in America. The buildings weren't the brainchild of some money hungry developer, but the natural development of a real city. They didn't do things so they could become "The Big Easy", they just became The Big Easy.
Anyway, I agree with you wholehearedly. There's something goofy about all these little town squares.
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