"If you build it, they will come." A great line for a movie ("Field of Dreams"), but not necessarily a good principle in urban planning. Witness the constant building of roads and other infrastructure in American towns, and how they don't necessarily make those towns better places to live.
Chuck Marohn, civil engineer and city planner, started and runs a nonprofit called Strong Towns, advocating for the building and nurturing of resilient communities. He lays out the case in his book Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity. We pick his brain about the ways in which towns become strong.