It's not a matter of people just moving around, it's the entire attitude towards urban planning and development. Laws can be a real barrier to the evolution of

It's not a matter of people just moving around, it's the entire attitude towards urban planning and development. Laws can be a real barrier to the evolution of effective, human-scale, mixed-use communities. Houston is a good example of where it's not simply people choosing to live in suburbs, rather the city itself is one giant sprawling mess. Until the last decade, Houston had a law requiring all single-family homes to use at least 5,000 square feet of land. Laws require roads to be extremely wide, and laws require buildings to have parking[1]. This makes it really hard to have pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. Also, while it's an old article (1996) and becoming slightly outdated, "Home From Nowhere" is a classic essay on the subject[2]. [1] http://www.planetizen.com/node/109 http://www.planetizen.com/node/109 [2] http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/96sep/kunstler/kunstler.htm http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/96sep/kunstler/k...