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Design and community
Insofar as community involves social grammar plus habits and attitudes, it can happen almost anywhere, but design can powerfully foster or obstruct it. The design and spacing in Kentlands worked very well compared to the sprawling suburbs around it. Any one streetscape was quite satisfying. Still, the multitude of similar streets felt more suburban. Also, there were no workshops or insurance agencies or corner stores or auto repair interspersed as there might have been in a town that size. On the other hand, Kentlands mixes housing levels and types, which makes for unexpected juxtapositions, for instance half a block of town houses followed by half a block of large houses, or thin detached town houses, that look abrupt to the usual suburban eye.