I grew up in two different environments:<p>A small, late 1800&#x27;s built, pedestrian friendly town in a rural county, and later after moving to another house, in the countryside in the same county.  In both places, there was a lot of economic diversity.  Kids who lived in trailers socialized and spent the nights out with kids who lived in old houses, and vice versa.<p>Something I&#x27;ve noticed about people like you whose entire childhood was spent in the typical suburbs of the USA:  
You associate these awful places and their awful traits with &quot;safety&quot;.<p>&quot;Safe&quot; streets, &quot;safe&quot; parks, &quot;decent&quot; schools:  As a person whose raised my kids in an urban environment, the idea that these weren&#x27;t available (without driving) in our location is a myth that only burbs raised people buy into.<p>Two years ago I moved to a part of the country (for a job) that has no urban center nearby.  I now live in a subdivision.  Never again.  The neighbors don&#x27;t interact with, let alone socialize with each other. The streets are vacant, because nobody walks because why would you walk to nowhere.  Vacant streets means kids by themselves have no eyeballs on them, so parents don&#x27;t feel comfortable letting them explore.<p>The most evil part of it all is the economic segregation.  My kids currently go to school with other upper middle class kids.  Nobody lives in trailers in their school, or even apartments.  No economic diversity translates to minimal racial diversity.  It&#x27;s terrible.<p>I&#x27;m moving away from here in a few months, and I&#x27;ll never live in one of these shitholes ever again.  You can find nice suburbs that aren&#x27;t laid out in pedestrian hateful designs like the typical ones you see these days.