I salute those who stay off the grid and those that carry. We're on the same team, but have different approaches.
I for one love a walkable city. I absolutely love walking to shops and activity, without having to start the car. Love it, love it.
The problem is that most cities aren’t planned for it. The walkable cities tend to be old urban centers that are in or near poor dangerous neighborhoods and the middle class would not accept living there. Suburban areas tend to be unplanned bedroom communities with very little supporting infrastructure besides the occassional strip mall, so nothing is walkable.
I would love to live in an upscale European style village or town where shops and activities are strewn throughout the living centers and transit is at your doorstep. The problem is, previous US attempts at walkable areas are more like Soviet blockhouses rather than European villages. Also, any planned upscale village built today would be required to be “diverse” and would offer Section 8 housing, so there goes the neighborhood right off the bat.
But yes, I would kill to live in a small European style village where all of the shops and activities I use on a weekly basis were within a 6 block walk of my front door, with light rail to a larger city within 2 blocks of my door, and all of it upscale with very low crime.
No disrespect to those who love rural living but it is not for me. I would love to live in a small upscale walkable village and I would gladly suffer a bit of density to have it. There is space in the USA to cater to both those who want 20 acres and those who want a large lavish high rise apartment in a beautiful urban setting with a solid economy and low crime.
Build it and I’m there. This hardly exists in America becasue it is done wrong almost every time. I can’t think of a planned community in the USA that would feel like living in a French or German village, sans language barrier and nation-specific architecture.