[strongbad635]

There are tiny bits of this type of development going on in some cities that are rebounding at the appropriate scale (Portland, Baltimore, Denver, Cleveland, Atlanta). But the vast majority of urban infill and even dense greenfield development isn't of this type, and probably for a few reasons.

1.) The big builders tend to win out, and they want to maximize their return on investment, which means buying the largest lot possible and building one gigantic project rather than ten small, charming projects.

2.) The trend now is away from traditional architecture and toward modern buildings that relate very poorly to the street. In every major American city we're seeing an invasion of glass and steel tumors that present blank concrete walls, HVAC grills and reflective tinted glass to pedestrians.

3.) A lot of these small historic buildings we love so much violate either the on-site parking requirement (which as a card-carrying Shoupista I would say needs to be abandoned) or the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires a lot of infrastructure for elevators and other accommodations for the disabled, basically encouraging sprawly, one-story America.

4.) Fire departments and traffic engineers are being allowed to design and retrofit our cities. They see urbanism through such a myopic lens that the end result is wider streets, more setbacks, no building discipline, over-engineered buildings from the inside to the outside, and the complete opposite of the kind of tightness that people love so much about real urban spaces.