I've felt this as well. Before the pandemic, I lived in a small apartment in an up-and-coming part of my city. Downstairs was a very nice small grocery store, cafe, and central Asian food restaurant. I took the bus to work each day, and life was good.
Now, post pandemic, the small grocery store downstairs closed, as did the cafe, and the restaurant is take-out only. The neighbourhood also suffered, with many lovely small businesses closing and crime becoming as rampant as it was a decade ago. The city also raised the bus fare ~20%. This was basically the perfect storm to drive me into a house rental, buy a cheap used car, and otherwise turn me into what I resented just a few years ago.
I think this is going to be a trend for many late-twenty-somethings in north america, the regression of optimistic urbanists to begrudged suburbanites.
The thing is — the suburban-sprawl lifestyle cannot, and will not continue. If we don't put a halt to it in order to provide a soft landing, climate change will put a more-or-less abrupt end to it (not everywhere at once, and not always through the same means). The regression of optimistic urbanists to begrudged suburbanites just means more resistance to doing anything to solve our collective action problem around climate change, and a better chance of getting the worst-case scenarios.
"Imagination" should not be a substitute for hard numbers, and hard numbers keep telling us we're not doing enough to fix climate change, over and over again.
You want bleak? Look at projections of what the planet will look like in 100 years if current trends continue.
Now, post pandemic, the small grocery store downstairs closed, as did the cafe, and the restaurant is take-out only. The neighbourhood also suffered, with many lovely small businesses closing and crime becoming as rampant as it was a decade ago. The city also raised the bus fare ~20%. This was basically the perfect storm to drive me into a house rental, buy a cheap used car, and otherwise turn me into what I resented just a few years ago.
I think this is going to be a trend for many late-twenty-somethings in north america, the regression of optimistic urbanists to begrudged suburbanites.