This is something that blows me away whenever I hear about America. Are people okay with that? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, I'm genuinely wondering if there's any backlash or outrage towards the lack of basic infrastructure.
I had the opportunity to spend 8 weeks last summer in Barcelona and I thought Brooklyn was one of the most walkable cities in the world. Its not about just being walkable, it's also about public places, being able to "loiter." having roads where cars and can not go, etc.
It's ultimately a matter of American's being silly about taxes and paying for public goods.
We go without because taxes are evil, public goods are socialism. We literally allowing our dogma to lessen our life expectancies and cap our quality of life. It's a sort of a unique American mental illness we refer to as freedom.