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For visiting only

Brandon Donnelly avatar Brandon Donnelly

https://twitter.com/donnelly_b/status/1826029406135136634

The street in front of our hotel is about 8.3m wide. ( I actually measured it .) And this is generous for Palma's Old Town. The building directly in front of us is also 6 storeys tall and has exactly zero setbacks and stepbacks. It is one straight elevation all the way up. In other words, it is an urban condition that does not follow any of today's generally accepted rules of planning. The street should be wider. And the building should have a bunch of stepbacks, right? Maybe not. Lots of people seem to love this kind of dense, unplanned, and walkable built form in Europe. Eating outside on a narrow street is a feature. But for whatever reason, when people return home, many don't seem to want it anymore, or worse, they actively oppose it. It's an interesting dynamic that I don't fully understand. Because personally, I enjoy visiting places that I could see myself living in. What about you?

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Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.