I'm amazed that the author didn't include european cities in the comparison. There are many zoning laws to ensure that cities provide good quality of life by a

I'm amazed that the author didn't include european cities in the comparison. There are many zoning laws to ensure that cities provide good quality of life by approximating the "urban village". This is done by keeping the density uniform and avoiding overly specialized areas like shopping malls, company campuses, sprawls and so on. It allows people to walk or use public transport for a short time for most of your daily needs. Of course there are economical ramifications: there are laws requiring a minimum building size, in order to provide housing at reasonable prices, instead of setting a maximum to make prices go up.