[Adam503]

Too much travel done by car in the US.

Sidewalk cafes in Europe thrive off foot traffic to and mass transit and bicycles.

All those cars require all the parking lots. Parking decks are too expensive for every little cafe to build. So the businesses group to pool the parking cost. A strip mall.

You want a cafes scene? Get rid of most the cars.

[saraid216]

This is one of the critical things that put the lie to the claim that parking spaces = customers. Cars get rid of customers, so you have to put in parking spaces just to get some of them back.