Yeah, I agree, but I also kind of like it? I know it goes against a lot of popular opinion online, and obviously it’s annoying that I have to drive 5 minutes to get to a grocery store or 15 to drop my kid off, but my neighborhood is cut into the middle of the woods so we’re secluded and we get to see lots of wilderness around us. But our houses are close together so we’re all really friendly with each other and have a great community where it feels totally safe to let the kids play outside until far after dark.
It also helps that I love driving, and I specifically love my car, so even though I’ve driven 20K miles / 32K km in the past year, it doesn’t feel like much time wasted because I’ve loved doing it
It’s a different approach for sure. Back in USSR we had dense housing, but it was surrounded by lots of parks, so there was a lot of nature to enjoy as well. And it was definitely safer than anything I’ve experienced in the west. People would let their kids out to play completely unsupervised, and you’d have seniors go to the park in the evening. The idea of being mugged wasn’t even something anyone could imagine.
