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user-inactivated  ·  3357 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The cost of sprawl (comparing all of downtown Florence to one Atlanta four-leaf highway interchange)

I don't think the demand for suburbia is still so strong, but then I've never had a family. Personally I'd rather my children grew up in a center of culture, learning their way around a city, becoming independent, than in sheltered, dull suburbia. Neighborhood park substitutes for front yard, hopefully crime isn't a factor.

American suburbia exploded postwar, and the needs of the populace now are different than they were then -- but we're locked in, because of shortterm profit-maximizing infrastructure decisions. I think if we could get a fresh start, maybe the preference for space over community might fade.

Mixed-use hybridized communities are a more practical step -- you might check out that thing I just posted about an Austin neighborhood that got featured on NPR's Cities Project. It's half and half.