I am in Southwest Georgia in a medium sized city where I have lived most of my life. I have always noticed the lack of sidewalks in the city, but it wasn't until I was studying Sociology in college that I began to formulate my own hypothesis of why there was such a dearth of them. I believe it is an attempt (a fairly successful one might I add) by the powers-that-be at minimizing the ability of "riff-raff" to travel from one neighborhood to another. By "riff-raff" I mean minorities. Typically those with the means to travel do so by car, and have no need to walk. Those who cannot afford a car should stay in their own neighborhood because they won't contribute much to neighboring communities anyway, or so goes the mentality.