I always thought it was a smart way that the city planned the construction with the alleys for garbage truck access, utility provisioning, parking, etc.
No, I live in the woods. But there's this a creepy ditch in there that sort of has the creep factor of an alleyway. When I was a kid, I liked investigating it, but I was always scared to look in the big ol' pipe for fear that a dead body was stuffed in there.