It's not illegal to build what you describe in the US. I can think of dozens of such developments in cities all across America. Even our most suburban cities ha

It's not illegal to build what you describe in the US. I can think of dozens of such developments in cities all across America. Even our most suburban cities have tons of areas where there are apartment buildings with retail on the ground floor and parking either in the center of the building, underground, or in a central garage. Have you ever visited the country? Reading blogs and internet comments is not an accurate way of determining what a country has. There isn't a single city in the entire history of the US that has gone bankrupt because its suburban-style infrastructure was too expensive. What's driving cities to bankruptcy is pension costs; infrastructure is a tiny fraction of most cities budgets and is dwarfed by schools, police, and other services.