why we need to re-think urban living and developement

So, inherently this is something that comes to my mind pretty often. The main proponents of this are Barb Chamberlain and James H Kunstler. As a result of Kunstler, Wal-Mart is also in this. Barb Chamberlain is a pretty involved individual in Spokane, Wa. and is dedicated to making places bicycle friendly, technologically green, and to borrow from Kunstler- to create a place "worth caring about." Amidst this a big push of Barb's efforts are related to biking (although I advocate longboarding), is to design, re-design, and build a city that is pedestrian and biking friendly. This would inherently have intense ripple effects and would impact every part of society. This could reduce obesity in the region, promote healthier environments (on the ground and air), and build a stronger sense of community. I don't believe the last one is as explicit as the others, however I believe as we strive to put people closer together, we are going to either have amazing communities that have positive impact or we will have more crime. I believe and would hope for thriving communities that could inherently build stronger interpersonal relationships with one another and by golly kids could actually play outside. Now the above things hinge on two aspects - how far away we live from our job and how well we design our cities. These are not and cannot exist outside of each other and because of that, for any of this to work would be contingent on one thing. People willing to set aside their selfish images, beliefs and take one for the team. For an example, with Kunstler in mind, if say a designer who works in the heart of downtown spokane says to himself, "I want a home that kind of has a suburb feel that has four bed rooms and two bathrooms, designed super modern," then he would potentially live 20-30 minutes away from the heart of downtown right? Now in perspective we deal with traffic, but this house location could be 20-30 miles away to reach a suburb or relatively country yet modern location to find and raise a family. However, for th example of Spokane, to get from river park square to the south east corner of the valley is about 12miles, 22+minute drive (without traffic). Now I'm n ot in the most awesome shape and due to my adverse relationship to bikes (I had a bad experience as a child), I would drive my 32mpg car. So every two days I would spend roughly $10 on gas. Please stay with me on this. That's close to $25 a week in gas just driving to work, a huge mortgage payment every month, headaches, and more construction in further areas because you might have 2+ kids who will want homes in 20 years. All of that just because you "wanted" and "needed" that house. You "beleived" that you had to attain an "image" and it was all about "you." Sounds pretty selfish eh? Now you might say you have no other option, the city doesn't provide that kind of housing. This is true. That's where the other hinge has to come into play and Kunstlers ideas come in. We must design better urban sprawls because well, it doesn't fit the current need and over-population doesn't help either. This is where Wal-mart parking lots could stay parking lots, but have structures that provide housing, or schools in an innovative format that is aesthetically pleasing. I may sound idealistic but how come we don't move closer to our jobs? Why don't we revamp River park mall as a giant condo community with stores on the bottom, condos on the top floor and use that whole middle space for a school? Oh you don't want to live that close to work? But what if you could walk 3minutes and have lunch with your son or daughter? Walk 5minutes and be home? Your first thought is, "But Adam, I want *insert desired noun or adjective*." That's nice, but when are you going to take one for t he team? Take one for your family, city, nation. When are you going to be willing to build a place "worth caring about?"