I love communities where I can walk or bike to the grocery store and drug store.
However, same eco-greenie-enviro-people who like rant against ‘sprawl’ never admit the reason for it. Families have flocked to developments on large lots in small communities far from urban centers to have the freedom and security to fashion their lives without being subjects of the urban political class. A little bit of land (even if it’s only a half acre) gives families some control over their own environs. In small communities, a single individual can still hope to influence the local government, without having to make payoffs in the form of campaign contributions to a permanent political elite. Low population density and distance from urban centers offers families hope of escaping violent crime.
The problem is that as suburban communiies grow, the same corrupt political bureacracies grow with them, with lots university-educated professionals voting democratic and eager to replicate all the ‘progressive’ policies of the urban areas they have fled.
Well said.