This week’s issue of Banker & Tradesman features an interesting intersection of the trends of modern living.

On the one hand we have Scott Van Voorhis’ column about local cities and towns making the most of a desire for urban living. Municipalities are rezoning their bucolic downtowns to allow for more residential construction, creating a city feel in a suburban locale. The goal is to attract new residents both young and old – the Millennials, who so love their urban experience, and the Boomers, who have had just about enough of picket fences.

Many of those new residents are likely unable or unwilling to afford the living experience covered in Jay Fitzgerald’s story about the amenities war currently underway in Boston.

As Fitzgerald writes, home gyms and high-end fixtures are no longer enough to attract buyers to these luxurious aeries. Partially due to high construction costs, new units are smaller and thus many amenities – fire pits, roof decks, pet-washing stations, chefs on call – are available to all residents, and shared among them.

So the trend towards urban living continues, taking new forms outside the hub and growing ever more costly within it.

Much contributes to the attraction of urban living – shorter commutes, a vibrant nightlife, culture and ease of travel are all strong factors. What is often overlooked, however, is just how isolating a suburban existence can be.

Especially for residents without children, or whose children are grown, Greater Boston’s burbs are downright boring. There are no bars, the restaurants run to family fare and even the grocery store is a 20-minute drive.

Increasing numbers of workers are eschewing commutes altogether. A work-from-home arrangement quickly becomes untenable when, once the work day is done, there is no social interaction on a suburban side street.

Our communities are changing to accommodate our evolving definition of community.

Society doesn’t look the way it once did. The Internet is of course going to ruin society once and for all. The ways we work are changing, from the contractor economy to the expectations of how and when work should be performed. Commutes are long, on terrible roads or awful trains, and getting longer every day. Nuclear and extended families are scattered. Time is precious and must be carefully allotted.

The desire for community, for connectivity, social interaction and a sense of belonging, has not gone away; it has only intensified. Both literally and metaphorically, at the end of the day, people want to be with other people.

The old suburb model no longer meets that need. That is what truly lies under the trend towards urban living – not a rejection of what came before, but a realization that it isn’t working.

The packaging looks different, but the engine is the same. Downtown rezoning for mixed-use development and shared ultra-high-end amenities have the same root – the desire to draw people together and create a community.

And that desire, whatever form it takes, will never change.