"Walking can be a sign of powerlessness or low status, and new urban and suburban design disdains walkers. Many places have replaced downtown with shopping malls inaccessible by any means but cars, or by building cities that never had downtowns, buildings meant to be entered through parking garages rather than front doors."

Learn more about

• Suburbs:
  http://www.fandm.edu/levittown/one/default.html
• Strollers, idlers and city walkers:
  http://www.flaneur.org/flanifesto.html
• The history of the front porch in America:
  http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CLASS/am483_97/projects/cook/first.htm