[nicbou]

I come from one such city in Canada.

There are no sidewalks in my parents' suburban neighborhood. You just walk among the houses, and there is nowhere to go. It's no surprise that we spent our childhoods at the mall.

These dead neighborhoods are connected by high traffic roads, also with no sidewalks, each more boring than the last, each loud and dangerous.

In Germany, wherever you go, there are little paths. They go along fields and streams, between houses, from park to park. It's easy to find a pleasant place to walk from your home. It's something I dearly miss when I visit the home country.