[BigRedSpecial]

Excellent points here being made by all. This issue I take with suburban living, is that it is a fantasy. What is being sold, doesn't actually exist.

I recently read a book I picked up used, Suburban Nation (amazing book that I would recommend to anyone - extremely insightful not just concerning the problems with modern "planning", but also outlines where we can go from here). The authors describe the initial flight from city centers to the outskirts as "exodus en mass" - everyone left the city to get away from everyone else, simultaneously. Resulting in the cluster fuck we have today.