>When people leave cities for suburbs, they're saying that they prefer suburbs to cities Indeed, forget iconic. Places whose design is merely not utterly deran

>When people leave cities for suburbs, they're saying that they prefer suburbs to cities Indeed, forget iconic. Places whose design is merely not utterly deranged are so rare in North America, yet so desired, that your choices are to be extremely wealthy or else to consume very little of them. You can't get the extra bedrooms to raise kids in reasonably hospitable urban settings because adults wiling to pay $2500/mo outnumber them. People leave for the suburbs because they're cheap. They're cheap because they're abundant. They're abundant because of a comprehensive suite of restrictions and subsidies designed to make them so. Wander down the El Camino Real. An endless ribbon of stroad, fast cars, parking lots, strip malls. A place whose sidewalks are a farce. A place that makes it very clear you are not mean to be outside your car except in the smallest doses. A place no one really likes driving, either. That's a choice. All that mileage could instead have the character of San Francisco's loveliest neighborhoods. Could be a place worth caring about. Could be community and home and identity and leisure. If you allowed it.