These days the car defines our how are cities are built. In the US, roads, parking lots and other areas dedicated to cars occupy half of urban space. Nationwide, pavement covers an area the size of Georgia. American culture has so embraced the automobile that most people think there is something fundamentally wrong with you if you don't own a car. Car orientation has made our cities and neighborhoods frightening and unpleasant places.
Employers move out to edge cities because nobody lives in the old downtown anymore.
Now it doesn't mater where you live anymore in this new car-defined milieu, the malls all have the same stores wherever you go. For that matter, the subdivisions and corporate buildings all look pretty much the same wherever you go. Work, home and shopping are now geographically distinct and widely separated, making car dependency even more entrenched. The old downtown's look different because they where built before the car was king, where the state of the art personal transportation was horses or bikes or walking. We like the city as well because it is still possible to have a sense of being part of a community, and to have real and spontaneous exchanges with other people.