@sickburnbro @WoodshopHandman @MisterLister The problem is economic activity - it is drawn to population centers, which in turn concentrates the population even more. This phenomena is called the rank-size rule.

The solution is forcing companies into sparsely populated areas where you then build social housing. Communism did that quite nicely, but it had other problems ofc. This is why OP concludes Eastern European cities are nicer than US, one was developed with foresight, the other by market whims.