10th Anniversary Post: Snout houses? In Oak Hill Jackson??

Not the suburbs. Really.Ten years ago, when this blog and Cedar Rapids' post-flood rebuilding were both still young, I was surprised to see infill housing on 9th Avenue SE in a style more typical of suburban developments, with garages in front. My uncharacteristically short post--200 words!--caught the attention of Cedar Rapids Gazette reporter B.J. Morelli, and his piece caught the attention of the Linn County Republican Party, who responded with derision. If there's no such thing as bad publicity, I had hit the jackpot.The argument against garage-front houses is partly aesthetic--windows are more pleasant to see than garage doors--but the strongest argument is functional. When houses greet the street with windows, they represent a human presence that is at once comforting, interesting, and sociable. David Sucher (City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village [City Comforts Inc, 2016]) discusses the look of houses in his chapter on "Feeling Safe," alongside a picture of the Kentlands…