[LeftHandPath]

I can certainly understand the sentiment - most parts of most towns are like this.

But if you look, virtually every town of reasonable age has a walkable "downtown" area. Even in small Kansas towns - look at downtown Ottawa, Seneca, Lawrence, etc. Or, across the country - Rock Hill, Greenville, Savannah, Tampa, Orlando, San Diego... The only ones that lack walkable downtown areas are the most recently constructed communities (Nocatee, Florida comes to mind - recent construction, the "town center" is effectively a strip mall).