> I wonder why even early in the USA's history, before cars, before railroads, we distributed housing so widely as to inhibit socialization? It might seem stra

> I wonder why even early in the USA's history, before cars, before railroads, we distributed housing so widely as to inhibit socialization? It might seem strange but there's a lot of people out there who don't hate you but also don't want to hear from you unless it's on their own terms. > I usually assume that this USA-specific "missing middle" of dense housing is a result of car culture and the suburban nightmare we've created across the country. The south and Midwest were built before cars. I don't think this hypothesis tracks. It seems like it's just a popular topic on HN that exists among a younger, city-living crowd who are searching for answers. Answers which they'd like to use to influence national policy, whether it fits or not. Edit: that's not to say we can't have more spaces that have less or no cars, but folks here use "car-free" a lot, and not just with respect to their locality.