After hurricane Katrina, somebody (FEMA? the State?) spent a lot of money examining ways we could rebuild in a more sustainable way. This included the idea of mixed-use zoning (where instead of having houses over _there_ and the grocery store can only be _here_, you let people live next to where they work and shop), and these ideas were all shot down as "socialism." And so the highways continued to come through, to give intersections where we can put a new shopping center when the old one already has significant vacancies, the parking lot heat traps get bigger, also preventing recharge of aquifers, and on and on. We as Americans are fantastic at missing opportunities to fundamentally change for the better.