But that's a solvable problem. It's a chicken-and-egg problem, certainly, but if more people want to live in walkable "major downtowns", we could just, you know, build more walkable "major downtowns", not just inflate the prices of ones we already have. There's nothing really stopping us from building more cities or at least planning more suburban/exurban neighborhoods to be independently walkable and with enough amenities to be city-like other than status quo momentum and what remains of the current "American suburban dream" of single family detached homes and cars over public transportation and walking.