Quote:
Originally Posted by Wharn
This is likely a result of the childish privacy complex found in so many North Americans. Though there are plenty that do well in standard low-density layouts, there are those who absolutely cannot bear having any contact with their neighbours, and thus seek outrageously sized lots.
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Couldn't have said it better myself. In the Byron area where I grew up, the typical residents wake up in the morning, emerging from their 2-car garage in an SUV, drive to their job, drive home into that garage, and disappear never to be seen again. Intelligence says these people are in hiding in their rec rooms or in their backyards, protected from the outside world by ultra-tall wooden fences. The only people that ever emerge from their secure compounds are those who have dogs and must walk them, and the kids who go to school.
After I spent that month in Latin America two years ago, where the streets were vibrant with kids playing, adults out shopping, and people selling food on the street, the first thing that struck me coming into my parents' neighbourhood was how DEAD everything was. I thought I was in a cemetery. Everyone was hiding inside. From what? Their neighbours? And where were the kids? Not outside kicking a ball around, but likely inside playing Xbox for hours on end.
It's not unique to London either. I'm working in a smaller Ontario city right now and it's the same deal in the suburbs there. Absolutely dead.