Topics include:

Charles’s experience living in London as a child in the 1960’s and an adult in the 1980’s, and Robert’s visit in 2002
Charles’s experiences in New York in the 1980’s and that era in film
The Brownstones of  New York and Boston and how they originally started out as single family homes
Art Deco
Mass Transit systems
The demographic transformations of London, New York, and Los Angeles
How mass immigration has led to an increase in the demand for housing in cities
Robert’s recent trip to San Francisco
Chicago’s grid pattern
How Los Angeles started out as car oriented suburbia but latter became denser while not upgrading it’s transit infrastructure
Santa Monica, California and how the 1994 Earthquake transformed the city
The revitalization of downtown Los Angeles
Dallas, Texas and how it’s following the patterns of LA
How whites are moving back to cities while non-whites  are moving to suburbs
How single family homes are being replaced by apartments
Why Charles’s views the single family home as the ideal for autonomy of living
How the increase in apartment living coincides with the decline of families
Whether the key issue is density itself or the quality of architecture
The appeal of urban living and why people are willing to sacrifice living space for that lifestyle
The New Urbanist movement which seeks to recreate walkable communities