[nop_slide]

Our (the states) reliance on car central culture is killing us in more ways than one.

I grew up in the suburbs and you could easily go a week without substantially interacting with people.

Jump in your metal capsule, drive 7 mins to Walmart, walk quietly across the huge parking lot, get your item and return home.

Contrasted with dense urban city with public transit, you will serendipitously bump into people and be forced to interact more with society, even if it is just exchanging pleasantries.

This is killing ourselves socially, not to mention how much cars cause physical death.

[wing-_-nuts]

That 'dense urban landscape' basically does not exist outside of NYC in the US. I'm not sure I'd choose it as a forever home anyway.

For me personally, when looking for a 'forever home' I'm starting to look at smaller college towns. They often have a walkable core around the college, you have access to continuing education opportunities and a college library.

While yes, living around a gaggle of college age kids can be tiring as you get older, a local university fosters a lot of intellectual vibrancy that you wouldn't get without it. You can always hang out with the older folks who teach the classes and serve the college age population.

[potato3732842]

I assure you that living in the city you can easily go about your business for a week or more without talking to anyone if you so choose. People who don't know each other don't interact with each other in the city.

[giraffe_lady]

In affluent white neighborhoods somewhat true. Not at all true in my part of the city.

[add-sub-mul-div]

I loved living in a city more than I like driving around the suburbs, but suburbs exist and you can't wave a magic wand and turn them into cities. Being mad at cars isn't a solution, they're necessary for how much of the country is laid out.

[vundercind]

And I feel like this could all come to no good

The kids who populate these cul-de-sacs will never know what stood

Beneath their cookie-cutter houses, fields and streams and woods

They'll sit in cars and wait for mom to drive them out of this boring neighborhood

- Defiance, Ohio; “Oh! Susquehanna”