[sgtyork]

Maybe you need to travel more. Having lived in Ft. Worth, New Orleans (before the hurricane), Chicago, and Milwaukee, believe me, other than the shopping strips they don't look the same when you really drive around. An example, with frugal Polish/German ethnicity there are more duplexes in Milwaukee than anywhere. New Orleans had houses on stilts.

[HairOfTheDog]

There are still neat places... and I hope there always are. But you can't deny that upon driving in to most towns, the signs point to the same chain stores we have at home.

[Clemenza]

The key is good zoning. Yes, Houston, Fort Lauderdale, and suburban Atlanta are practically indistinguishable, but places like New York (including many of its inner suburbs), Chicago (ditto), and even smaller metro areas like Pittsburgh still have alot of character.

Here in Seattle, its a mixed bag. You have a-s ugly sprawling communities like Kent, Lynwood, and Marysville, but such communities are cheaper to live in. Well-zoned towns such as Kirkland and Edmonds are, conversely, more expensive to live in.

As a native New Yorker, I am sickened by some of the exurbs that I see on the I-80 corridor (Western New Jersey through the Poconos in eastern PA), or in eastern Suffolk County. Most of the folks who choose to live there, however, do so because it is cheaper than living in Morris or Somerset counties, where many commute. Nevertheless, you get what you pay for (ugly developments, no character, long commutes, etc.).