This isn’t about “quaint shops”. This is being able to walk or cycle to your GP, or to the local shops to grab some milk, or to the nearest park to play with your kids. In the most sought after places, it’s about being able to take regular, fast public transport to your place of work, because it’s obviously quicker & less hassle than driving.
In most of the US, you can’t build like this, because of zoning & planning restrictions, so regardless of whether the “middle and working classes” want them, they can’t. The fact that the neighbourhoods that do offer these features have incredibly expensive housing is evidence that people do want to live in these kinds of places.
The UK, like a lot of Europe is a mix - in general new development is very car centric, but still much higher density than in the US.
The author didn’t really talk about those practical concerns, the focus seemed to be about aesthetics. If you have a look at Milwaukee avenue it’s much lower density than anything in Europe.
I live in a much denser town and I couldn’t walk to the GP, school or train station. They’re all 30-40 minutes walk in different directions. And we don’t tend to just choose the closest services to where we live.
In most of the US, you can’t build like this, because of zoning & planning restrictions, so regardless of whether the “middle and working classes” want them, they can’t. The fact that the neighbourhoods that do offer these features have incredibly expensive housing is evidence that people do want to live in these kinds of places.
The UK, like a lot of Europe is a mix - in general new development is very car centric, but still much higher density than in the US.