You can tell a lot about a town by the feel of their streets, big wide ones, small narrow alleys, dirty, clean, the personality of the streets tell you what you need know about a town.
I remember visiting a town in Europe a few years ago with very neat streets, very ordered and tidy. It struck me that there was something unusual about them, there was little colour and even less variety in any view of them. The towns folk were much the same, not uninteresting just ordinary, the food was very plain and the people offered little more than I could have read about in a book.
I always look at streets in a town, it tells me what I want to know. It was the streets of Stellenbosch that made me move here, I remember thinking the first time I visited how I wanted to live in a town where they take such good care of the streets, imagine what they do for the people.
Streets are representative of the type of town , leafy wide streets tell you the town is old and they have preserved their heritage, lots of open spaces tells you people like being outdoors, lots of open areas near the roadways for people to walk their dogs and play ball games is a sure sign people live in their communities, not only in their homes.
Candle lit tables on pavements, art on street corners and children cycling around tell you that this is a town that is alive and well lived in. It tells you you will meet people and share in the vibe of the town when you visit, it tells you, you will meet the locals and experience the culture of the town, and that's what you want, isn't it?