No, not argumentative. Just good discussion. Here's another article about productive places that you might enjoy.
http://designrochester.org/forum/2014/10/10/grhdrq7qi2kwuv247pgqpc3e2lejnh?utm_content=buffer38b9e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
The suburbs often think they are subsidizing the city, and perhaps in some places and at some time periods they were. But math doesn't lie. A Home Depot in the suburbs occupies many acres and probably pays a tenth of the tax per acre of a restaurant in a storefront downtown. The same thing is true of a suburban McMansion vs. a downtown condo. The tax paid per square foot is going to be much in favor of the condo, and the condo requires less in city services (water, sewer, roads, schools, school buses, police and fire protection).
That's not to say McMansions should be illegal, just that the developers and owners of the McMansions should pay taxes commensurate with the services they are using, not just pay the same taxes as the compact, much more valuable downtown development requiring less services. There's a pretty serious market inefficiency built into our current development pattern.