Urban-Suburban, Cram Together or Spread Out

Written after reading article on sprawl and mixed use development in Washington Post today.

What is the opposite of suburban sprawl?
What is this conceptual uptopia that the opponents of suburban development have in mind as an alternative?
They say that they want denser development where people can live, dine, shop, and work all in the same location within walking distance or within the reach of mass transit. It seems that their assumption is that cars and the suburban land use made possible by cars are the roots of all evil, that environment is damaged by suburban development patterns, and that highly planned compact urban development is less harmful.
That said, the "new urbanists" and "smart growth" advocates ignore some simple human traits and practical concerns.

1. People don't always prefer and can't always afford to live where they work and/or perform all of the other activities of life.
2. People don't always prefer to live right on top of thousands of other people.
3. People love the freedom that their cars afford them.
4. Mass transit sucks in most areas of the US and usually can't always get you to your destination in a reasonable amount of time to within a reasonable distance.
5. People do other things on the way to and from work such as shop for groceries, take classes, etc. I can't see myself lugging 10-15 bags of groceries for my family while boarding buses and trains.

Beyond all that, just based on the population and land area of the US, if we were to all spread out evenly to the maximum extent possible, we would each occupy roughly 8 acres. On the other hand, if we all packed together at the density found in Manhattan, NY, we would collectively only occupy a patch of earth with an area of about 100 miles by 100 miles. So we have plenty of room in the US to spread out all that we want.

My take, my bottom line conclusion is that those who don't want "sprawl", don't want it because they are not in charge of it and/or no one is in charge of it, it is not "planned" enough for them, it is not always neat and optimized, it charges forth in error sometimes, it responds to market forces not academic studies, it is unbridled.

I say if you want to spread out then spread out. I say that dense urban development probably does just as much damage to the environment as suburban development, maybe more. I say that in some ways I like the sprawl, the boom town feel, the brand new everything, new malls, new homes, new roads, new schools, new parks, etc. etc.