Next you should visit downtown Apex. It's more of a real small-town downtown. I grew up in Cary so have no emnity toward it, but the best way to describe Cary, including its downtown, is "curated." In fact anyone who's lived in this area for any length of time would laugh heartily at the idea of Cary as the genuine article.
Apex too is one of those places that I know has a real town, but which I associate with the expanses of sprawl. I have not been to the downtown area. Cary is definitely "curated," but so are most of the small towns I'm familiar with, which are now surrounded by much newer development. For towns that feel more "real," I think of the Shenandoah Valley (Staunton, Harrisonburg, many much smaller towns, almost villages). But getting the form and land use right is at least half the battle to me.
I've seen suburbs near me trying to make more placemaking downtown centers like this one. Marietta Square is one and Austell, GA seems to be trying to make their downtown into more of a place to go
Next you should visit downtown Apex. It's more of a real small-town downtown. I grew up in Cary so have no emnity toward it, but the best way to describe Cary, including its downtown, is "curated." In fact anyone who's lived in this area for any length of time would laugh heartily at the idea of Cary as the genuine article.
Apex too is one of those places that I know has a real town, but which I associate with the expanses of sprawl. I have not been to the downtown area. Cary is definitely "curated," but so are most of the small towns I'm familiar with, which are now surrounded by much newer development. For towns that feel more "real," I think of the Shenandoah Valley (Staunton, Harrisonburg, many much smaller towns, almost villages). But getting the form and land use right is at least half the battle to me.
Some books which discuss informal street marketing in history are:
https://www.amazon.com/Shopping-Ancient-Rome-Republic-Principate/dp/019969821X
https://www.routledge.com/Food-Hawkers-Selling-in-the-Streets-from-Antiquity-to-the-Present/Calaresu-Heuvel/p/book/9781138329706
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/roman-street/983F200E0E59E84C42B5BFF4401F572E
Cool!
I've seen suburbs near me trying to make more placemaking downtown centers like this one. Marietta Square is one and Austell, GA seems to be trying to make their downtown into more of a place to go