Todays ever disconnected life style may very well be a result of a disconnected environment. As we built more and larger highways, people could live further and further apart. The very impetus of public life was no longer there, proximity of important buildings and the people that used them. Suburban life segregated use of land and split up the important buildings. Also, as cities emptied out, many of the buildings and reasons that would have attracted people there were also "emptied" out to the fringes of development as they were opened up by highways and a shifting population. If the public life so sought after today is so good, why was it so readily and willingly abandoned?