Big Media Matt says what I've tried to say many times, that no one is trying to turn the entire country in Manhattan. It's about creating economically viable spaces, often with rather modest changes in policy and focus, in which automobile reliance is reduced. These spaces require walkability and a sufficient population density to support certain kinds of neighborhood retail and services. Decades of bad policy and planning have worked in the other direction in many places which were pretty well-suited for this kind of thing, as a standard urban response to white flight was something like, "People are moving to the suburbs? Let's make the city more like the suburbs!"
And no one is trying to make every place like this. Some people like the country! Some people like exurbs! Some people like typical suburbia! But I do believe that many people would like the option to live in such placed, and those options are fairly limited or nonexistent in much of the country.
