I think my home city of Denver has come a long way in the past decade in developing it’s light rail and mass transit system through RTD as well as commitments the mayor has made to inititives such as a million trees planted by 2010 and work featured by an array of architects and LA’s. It’s sort of an upstart big city with many options for everyone.
We looked at Tuscan hill towns for inspiration in school. Towns like Lucca are interesting because they were formed by warring families with defensive planning and many of the values very opposite ours today and some similar.