I agree that there are problems, but there’s still plenty of room to start new towns with better rules. Although certainly it varies, I believe that the process

I agree that there are problems, but there’s still plenty of room to start new towns with better rules. Although certainly it varies, I believe that the process is to get enough people to move to an area and then agree to form a town together. And the rules in existing areas can be changed too, if you prefer. Just get a group of like–minded people to all move to the same area. Also, I suspect that there are more towns out there that are dense and walkable than you realize, and more HOAs that are useful and reasonable (and that therefore never make the news) than there are terrible ones. The one my parents are in seems to have been run entirely without drama for decades; it just cleans the community pool and mows the median of the central avenue and replaces the sign at the front of the neighborhood every so often. A few years back a contractor replacing a culvert caused a flood and damaged a street and some houses; I’m not sure if the HOA hired them or the city did. Either way, the road was repaired and the pond refilled, and this is the most dramatic thing that’s ever happened in the area.