“Until the government starts working to BUILD CITIES, TOWNS, AND NEIGHBORHOODS, again (an American tradition that died in the 1930’s), we’re going to be stuck in this mess.”

Sometime I’d like to read your more complete thoughts on this.

I’ve never thought about it the way you put it. And although we’re not building towns, neighborhoods etc the way we think of them circa 1950′sish(a ways back ) , maybe we still sort of do, the form has just changed. We build neighborhoods, it’s just that commercial and retail are a little further away. It seems your idea of a town or neighborhood is an ideal, and maybe that’s the way it should be. But I would argue we do have them, not just the way you(we) want them. I do admit that there’s a lack of sense of community out in the suburbs. Although I’m 30 miles from downtown, when I think of community, I think of Houston as a whole.