"The storefronts are a nice urban touch, but if you look behind this building..."

Interesting way to characterize "cityness." The blogger (www.urbanophile.com) appears to be saying that having parking (at least a large lot) is per se un-urban. Yes the parking lot (below) does look very big and the sidewalk is barren and anything which proclaims a "tradition" makes me suspicious, but I had just hadn't ever seen storefronts as an "urban touch" rather than the essence of urbanity. I think that it is a practical necessity that there will be parking lots in outlying yet urban neighborhoods. 

Then again, I haven't been there and perhaps indeed the scale of the lot even with  permeable front, the wide sidewalk and the on-street parking doesn't work as urban. Is the main entry from the parking lot? I see no people in either location.

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The storefronts are a nice urban touch, but if you look behind this building you see a gigantic parking lot. This is perhaps an example of faux-urbanism. 

Putting the parking lot in the back doesn’t make it any less a strip mall. It is a difference in form, not function.

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