As I exited the Dupont Circle metro station, I overheard a young woman behind me telling her friends, upon observing the neighborhood, that it looked like they were in a village, a cute small town. This highlighted something for me, that many people perceive urban spaces as some combination of skyscrapers, monuments, and slums, and have little familiarity with the residential neighborhoods that comprise the better cities. Places like DC, Philly, San Francisco, and Boston do have recognizable central business districts with tall office towers and condos, but they also contain a collection of somewhat self-contained linked residential neighborhoods.
