many thoughts of nostalgia and wonder can come by walking through the old town section of any town which has one, but one thing I seriously commonly think when i do is "why aren't town areas and buildings designed this way still?"

The urban designs from america around the turn of last century feel so welcome to me, at once. Thoughts reflect in my head of how at-home i felt after several years at the University of Oregon, around beautiful architecture like Deady Hall (1875), mingled amongst huge old trees.

Anything built around this time has such an accessible, interesting feel for me in ways that modern designs and architecture do not. It seems buildings today are designed with features that are meant to be viewable on scales of from freeways and from blocks away in cars. With old hand-laid features and little ornate embellishments on all extra pieces of architecture in old town, it was made for and beckons close-viewing. To appreciate old town places you have to be out on foot, taking it all in.

it is much more welcoming of a place to go out and take in some sunshine on a lunch break and share bread with a stranger, or watch an impromptu musical performance. that is, if we filled these places with life again. They are currently full of homeless and trash.