In the words of the urban scholar Lewis Mumford, “Neighbourhoods, in some annoying, inchoate fashion exist wherever human beings congregate, in permanent family dwellings; and many of the functions of the city tend to be distributed naturally—that is, without any theoretical preoccupation or political direction—into neighbourhoods.”
The best neighborhoods have regulations controlling the built environment that enhance the neighborhood. By “built environment”, we mean its buildings (houses, apartments, stores, offices, public buildings like schools, even industries, and so on), streetscapes (including sidewalks, landscaped strips, sidewalks, on-street parking, traffic & bicycle lanes, etc.), and its parks and playgrounds.
