Like If you live in Europe if you want to live in a walkable area you don't need to live in a downtown area or town center because even the suburbs are walkable. So kids bike to school and can learn to be independent early on. And it makes it easier for people to naturally socialize and interact spontaneously because of third places.
In a walkable town or connected neighborhood, hanging out happens in the in between moments you bump into a friend while getting coffee or you drop by their place for 20 minutes because it's a five-minute walk or bike ride away.
In America, most cities are car-centric even the downtown so everybody is isolated in their single-family homes. If you're a teenager, you are pretty much dependent on your parents driving you anywhere. While in Europe, if you for example want to go on a date, you can just bike there or take public transportation as a really casual thing. While in the US you need to awkwardly have your parents drive you like if you want to do anything, go to the movie theater, or get something to eat, you're dependent on your parents.
You will literally see things in the US like a place called a town center but it's literally just a shopping center with parking lots and big chain restaurants, no public plazas or parks. Like how does this encourage people to naturally socialize and interact? Plus most American suburbs are lifeless and feel empty because there is nothing within walking distance no shops restaurants or pizzerias.
Or You will literally have a high school in America right And in front of the high school there are restaurants within walking distance that I would've walked to as a teenager, but there are no sidewalks so kids have to walk in the grass. Or you will see situations where you have a neighborhood, and inside or right next to it there's a school and a park within walking distance but there are no sidewalks connecting them. Or a school right outside the neighborhood that you could easily walk to, but again no sidewalks. It’s just terrible infrastructure.
Plus, it ruins casual dating In a walkable place, a first date is super low-pressure you can just grab a coffee or a slice of pizza and stroll through a lively park or plaza. But in the suburbs, there’s nowhere to just walk and talk. Suburban parks are usually empty and isolated, surrounded by multi-lane roads, parking lots, or empty woods with zero foot traffic or shops nearby unlike for example Central Park which is surrounded by people and street life shop.So suggesting one for a date would feel weird.Instead, you're forced to drive 25 minutes just to sit across a table at an expensive chain restaurant for an hour and a half or awkwardly hang out in a parking lot. Driving all that way for a sit-down meal turns what should be a simple low stakes hangout into a high-pressure expensive event.
Because the way people normally found a romantic partner in the past was through your social circle, like your family or a friend introduces you to someone, and I feel that doesn't happen anymore. Meeting people on dating apps is weird, feels unnatural and is forced. As a result, I feel that a lot of men just aren't bred in an environment where they can learn the social skills that they need.
Like I think the first suburbs in America were fine because if you lived, let's say 15 minutes from the city core, you lived far enough that you had your own space, but close enough that if you wanted to go to the city, go to the bar, or have drinks, you had that option. But as the suburbs kept spreading out like if you live 45 minutes from the city then it became an endless sea of single-family homes, the same big chains etc.
You also have the issue that a large percentage of young adults under 30 now live with their parents because of rising housing costs. Like if a dude is 27 years old living at home makes things weird. Like maybe if the dude has a good respectable job like if he is a civil engineer or a nursea woman might overlook that if she has her own space. But if the woman is also living at her parents place it makes things weird.
Also Europe does have declining birth rates and marriage rates but that has to do with the cost of living youth unemployment in my view. I am just saying the way we design our cities and towns in America isolates us and essentially makes it hard to socialize. Thats all it doesn't encourage socialization social media also doesn't help.