As I'm sitting at an Oak Ridge Starbucks on a rather generic strip I'm beginning to see Starbucks has done something fairly obvious and smart to the strip building typology. They've included an outdoor shaded patio. It isn't much, but creates a fairly pleasent space where people can spend leisure time outdoors on a quasi public realm. It feels like it could be right on the sidewalk, if there was a sidewalk. Every other building on the strip takes a defensive posture in the form of shrubbery, solid walls, dark tinted glass, or glass plastered with advertising. The Starbucks patio bleeds into the parking lot and onto the strip itself, in this case Turnpike road.
The Starbucks itself is empty, and there is nobody else on the patio right now, but that may have to do more with the people of Oak Ridge doing their church deeds at the moment.
The remainder of this particular strip isn't too bad - lots of plush grass landscaping in need of fertilizer and watering - and I think the other side of the street has a narrow token sidewalk (I've seen one pedestrian in Oak Ridge). The Starbucks patio is a good step and maybe over time we can band-aid something good together.
And if you prefer to by-pass the patio and indoors, there's always the drive thru.
