Our self imposed scarcity of nice places
I would imagine most people agree with the What and the Why of the article in about 30 seconds of reading.  What I think is missing from the article and perhaps from all of us is the How.  Tracing the line from urban design aesthetics to policy to legislation to legislators and lobbyists is a very obscure line with many sharks looking to stay obscure and keep their cut in the pipeline I imagine.<p>This probably explains the prevalence of bike lanes (I do use them frequently) because its so much easier for polticians to say “I built that!” than it is to say “I prevented abstract concept X!”