Secret neighbourhood
When we were in Vancouver last week we stumbled upon an area known as Mole Hill - behind St Paul's Hospital, if you know Vancouver. At first glance it looks like a very well established downtown area of beautiful heritage homes, and abundant gardens - probably belonging to well off professional Vancouverites(Vancouver has some of the most expensive real estate in N. America) The gardens and grounds are beautifully kept and each house has been lovingly restored. I took note of the banners identifying the area as Mole Hill and Googled it when I got back to our hotel room. Turns out that Mole Hill is actually an affordable housing community of enviro-conscious homes and sustainable community gardens. They have a great website with lots of before and after pictures of the houses(you can see details of every house) - also, check out the gardens. I am so impressed with this - this should be a model for other communities to follow. If you are in Vancouver you must go and see it for yourself.
Some before and afters from the website.