The Plague of Suburbia

I've been thinking about urban sprawl a lot lately, trying to figure out if there is a way to cure it. Because, for the life of me, I can't figure out the appeal of living in the suburbs. Sure, you have your own house, but the yard is so small that you can't do anything in it and you don't have any of the privacy that you want because your neighbors are so close. I don't see why people don't like Condos more for their ability to keep you close to amenities and at the same time it provides an environment that you aren't responsible for cleaning and maintaining. Of course, a lot of people, who have nothing else to look forward to in their lives seem to get a lot of pleasure about putting a lot of work into their ugly houses that look exactly the same as their neighbors. But, the work can't make the house look too different, or you might be fined by the city for not being enough of a conformist sheep.
The biggest problem that I have with suburbia is it's lack of positive externalities. While a rural area provides recreation space, carbon sinks and water purification and High density urban areas create dynamic environments full of interesting shops and are very easily maneuverable using public transit; suburban areas provide nothing of benefit except for a box to live in. They aren't dense enough to provide services that urbanites enjoy, yet they are too dense to provide the lifestyle that ruralites enjoy. Therefore, you need to drive everywhere in your Toyota Camry or Ford Explorer (the staples of the suburban sheep) and you spend half your day commuting which increases stress and makes you fat. It seems like a high price to pay for the ability to have a barbecue in your own backyard. Y'know, because the professional quality outdoor grills that are available in modern condos are so unappealing.
I was reading the wikipedia article about urban planning. Apparently there is a new movement called 'new urbanism'. The jist of it is that New Urbanism encourages design based on walkable communities. The community is no more than half a mile in diameter, and is fairly high density. In the community centre there is a public school, doctors office, community centre, set of shops, and a transit centre. Apparently Florida has several communities designed like this and they work quite well. I've even read about an infill project in Toronto that is using this design scheme.
Basically, I spend a lot of time driving around suburbia and observing suburbanites, and I can't help but feel that this way of living is nothing but wasteful and inefficient.