Jim didn’t say it looked better before. He called the viaduct ugly and agreed it was better for it to be taken down, but admitted he had some nostalgia for it. On the other hand, it sounds like your ideal urban landscape is the Katy Freeway in Houston:
83F down here right now, that's probably our high for the day. May get another 90F next week but probably will stay in the mid to upper 80s.
Looking back I see 1978, 1952, and 1948 as the other comparably dry Sep-Octobers here. All of those years did not recover from the precip deficit through the winter though it stopped getting worse at least. 78-79 was cold and snowy as was 48-49. 52-53 had some good snows but was mostly above normal temperatures.
Must've been a lot of screening for the people/vehicles in the drive-thru. Would be so easy to just reach into the glove compartment and pull out a weapon.