When moving to town, we deliberately chose to live as close as possible to the old town square, the focal point of the city since it was platted in the 1830’s. We wanted to be close to our office just off the square and though we liked the idea of walking to the downtown grocery store or the park around the corner, rents and home prices were also generally lower in the historic core of the city, with the influx of new residents with higher incomes fueling the construction on the edge of town, at least in part. (Speculation played quite a role as well, as evidenced by the unfinished subdivisions today.)
Though the old part of the city was dominated by single-family homes as well, the new growth took on an entirely different form from the older portion of the city.
In the photo below of part of the core of Bentonville, there is a Walmart, at least one major employment nexus for the region (Walmart HQ), office space, a grocery store, an elementary school, a historic middle school, the city library, a nursing home, a dozen restaurants, dry cleaners, a coffee shop, several parks, a bike trail, at least 4 churches, and thousands of homes ranging from small garden apartment buildings to townhouses, modest single-family homes, and expensive preserved or restored historic homes costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Most neighborhoods have sidewalks due to a city ordinance, but none of them go anywhere outside of the subdivisions. There are restaurants, stores and other amenities somewhat close to this side of town, but every single one of them requires a drive, unless you’re willing to brave a walk in the shoulder of a highway — which some have no choice about.