I mean, yes and no

It started out that better off people get conveniently located nice houses with a yard. That became “the American dream”, and so when the middle class was suddenly strengthened it was very in demand… So they kept building them, further and further out, until distance became insane

A lot of them were originally planned communities, so it wasn’t too insane. You might’ve had a walk to get out of the neighborhood, but nothing like it is today.

The car centic infrastructure came in later - the sprawl kept growing, people had to travel further, and so they keep making faster roads with more lanes. Which are the opposite of walkable

Add in the death of mom and pop shops… You can’t have a warehouse in every neighborhood. Corporations want to go big, a Walmart replaces 100 other shops. And add in the parking requirements, which are like full fire code maximums minus employee count (which is basically arbitrary nonsense) , and your land requirements become insane

This wasn’t designed like hoa’s and redlining, this was organic, like cancer. They played hand in hand, but this was a natural development…a very bad one, but one that emerged indirectly