Go to zoning: Many cities have passed ordinances limiting the size of stores, from tiny Greenfield, Mass. to Kaua'i, Hawaii, and from Clearwater to Chicago. The reasons are manifold: protecting ''main-street'' shops, curbing traffic, saving neighborhoods, maintaining urbanism and more.

This is not a matter of what some call classicism. Big-box stores may be perceived as serving the middle and lower ends of the income spectrum, and they do -- but not exclusively. And there are many reasons not to like Wal-Mart, from its confiscatory land-use practices across the country to its predatory pricing practices to its longtime and well-documented employee practices. Further, the economic-spinoff factor from a big-chain store sends the profits right out of town (and out of the country, often) while smaller, locally owned stores help regenerate the local economy. But those are not at issue here.

TOO OFTEN REACTIVE

What is at issue is that for too long, our municipal governments have been reactive rather than pro-active. They sit back and wait to see what a developer might propose rather than dream of the city as it should be and then plan and zone -- and vote -- accordingly. Thus we take what's foisted on us, rather than what should be, as anyone who has crossed the Brickell Bridge or the MacArthur Causeway can attest. In the former, we've got a condominium complex being built just inches from the public right-of-way. In the latter (speaking of the unspeakable) is the horrific stacked big-box behemoth under construction at Fifth and Alton. What were we thinking? Or rather, what were they thinking?

Great cities spring from great ideas; it is just that simple. But it would be a mistake to think that a grand, sweeping gesture -- a Central Park or a Champs Elysees -- suffices. Ideas come in all sizes. Both the large scale and the fine grain count, and the latter is just as important as the former.

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