Totally agree. I think the lack of mixed zoning is fucking weird about this country. When I lived in edinburgh I was upstairs from a bar and an indian restaurant - but where I live now it's almost a mile to get to any kind of retail or dining.

I was also reminded in a recent story about revitalizing downtowns that lots of asian cities have all kinds of stuff inside high-rise buildings. Like you'd got a noodle restaurant that was on the third floor of a random building in hong kong. But the US seems to practically require that they be entirely office space.