They pose questions such as:
Why is it a crime that I don’t want a house of Value City Furniture 35 minutes away from a metropolitan area with access only to strip malls? Not everyone enjoys driving in four lanes of traffic on their way to Red Lobster. Why is it that for years we tried to drink close to the city, but now we want to venture off to “El Rancho” for cheap tequila and barstools we don’t have to fight for?
Taken from here (an interesting rant about how Americans ostracize those who don’t choose the default American lifestyle)
This is more than just a previous generation rejecting the ways of their parents, this is people shifting back into the patterns they have been doing for long before the age of American politicians. They’re not alone, many people from Ayn Rand to Richard Florida have been advocates for the city. It’s not a liberal vs conservative thing. It’s not a young people vs old people thing. It’s not even a capitalist vs. socialist thing. It’s something of free will and civilization vs government intervention.
Despite their best efforts, people and governments are realizing that sprawl is not intuitive with human nature and social behavior. So they’re trying something different, you can call it “Smart Growth” or “anti sprawl” measures or whatever else you want to call it. What it is not is some conspiracy effort to make America “more like Europe” or “bring European socialism to America”, we already have our own brand of socialism in America that has been packaged up differently. And it’s certainly not some ridiculous 21st “mandate” from twenty years ago from a phantom government in a league of nations (because as you know, this international government body dictates all domestic policy for the United States and we always pay attention and implement said policy).
The reality is that paying for all this infrastructure is far too expensive and creating communities that are not economically diverse in what the produce. We’re learning that you can’t build economies on strip malls, movie theaters, and fast food. We’re learning that people don’t like being so far apart from everything. We’re learning that people now view the old symbols of freedom as symbols of an outdated and obsolete society. They want to be able to come out and play and be able to walk places instead of getting stuck in traffic and being completely auto dependent.
People are doing what they’ve always done. It’s time to take a step back and let the market work.