difficult and time-consuming

"Difficult and time-consuming as town centers are to develop, they can add immeasurably to community pride and satisfaction, while boosting the tax base. Charles Bohl, director of the Knight Program in Community Building at the University of Miami, regards such centers as "live, work, play" settings that answer a wide-spread hunger for community life. "We are still in the infancy of reintroducing town centers after six decades of not building them but destroying them at a rapid clip," he says. The centers that have emerged in recent years are all imperfect. But they point in the right direction -- toward a much-needed rebirth of public gathering places."

-- Philip Langdon, "Creating the Missing Hub" (in Planning Commissioners Journal #62)

note: this article is also available as part of a collection of articles on Downtowns & Town Centers .