Very interesting. This indicates that the problem is more long-term than just lack of diet and exercise. Once a city or neighborhood is planned, it sets the strategic direction for that town and it is hard to deviate from it. If the trend is for “outskirt” consolidated shopping centers, then this is going to be the reality.

I curse you sprawl! You take away my sidewalks, my ability to connect to my community face-to-face, and you eliminate the local, small business owner who knows me and force me to buy at places with inferior sales staff.

Well said. No question, our build environment is a huge issue in reducing our mobility. An even broader perspective is offered by thinking of the obesity epidemic in relationship to global warming.
As I blogged before: the key to solving one of these issues is solving the other.
AMS

Who would have thought that our neighborhood could make us fat – but when you take a closer look at all the new construction and developments being built it really does seem to be true. I recently read a blog on Prevention.com that also addresses this issue – newer neighborhoods are making people fat. I tend to believe that these developers are creating neighborhoods with conveniences of their residents, but are not
realizing that these conveniences can be damaging.

You have hit the tip of the iceberg. We have become a society of convenience. We want everything ‘just blocks away’. But as you noted the space needed for the behemoths is becoming more scarce, so our intention of having something close only pushes it away.

I recently interviewed a pair of architects – one designs buildings, the other infrastructure. Both are ‘green-minded’. They believe that city planners need to be thinking about sustainability first and convenience second. Sustainable can be as simple as reusing a building or space. Or it can mean, if you insist on creating a new subdivision, you do so with the mind of ‘creating’ a neighborhood.

Basically that means putting up an old-fashioned small town in the middles of suburbia. You build homes within walking distance of the stores you are building. And rather than making parking be the first feature at the front door, walking paths sweep throughout the area for a pedestrian friendly development.

Personally, I am about a modified take on the Portland plan. They have drawn a giant circle around the city and told developers they can build and rebuild within that line. Until everything inside the line has been reused or the land parsed out, there will be no development outside of it. That has allowed the city to become about the bicycle and the bus. They walk a lot too. You don’t hear about Portland being one of the fattest city’s in the country.

So yes, your points are quite valid. I would love to see an even more in depth study from you regarding this. I really enjoy learning how others are dealing with these issues.