Beauty and Boredom in Kansas City

Every so often, I walk forty-five minutes to work rather than taking a bus.  My walk takes me through Kansas City's Brookside neighborhood, an area full of distinguished-looking old houses on gridded streets with sidewalks.  Sounds great, right?

Yet my walk is missing something: variety.  Once I leave the commercial area a couple of blocks from my apartment, I see almost nothing but single-family homes until I get to work.  One lesson of my walk is that even if an area is incredibly well-designed, it gets boring without diversity of uses.