At least in my area of Kansas City, and I believe many other cities, this is simply not true. Downtown Kansas City before WWII was similar to many European citi

At least in my area of Kansas City, and I believe many other cities, this is simply not true. Downtown Kansas City before WWII was similar to many European cities. It still has boulevards and parks, but it had 300 miles of electric street cars, row after row of mixed use business with housing above stores, and a train hub that carried passengers to about any town in the region. It was a vibrant city similar to European cities today. Under the guise of urban renewal after WW II, they literally bulldozed rows of downtown business' to install the interstate loop. The interstates chopped the neighborhoods apart making it nearly impossible to walk from one to another. They tore down about half the other buildings to accommodate parking for all the people that now lived in suburbs and drove in. They widened roads and shrunk sidewalks. They tore out most of the passenger train service and all of the street car lines. The effect was the downtown area of KC all but died, with many boarded up buildings. It became a place nobody wanted to live with a family. With several major infrastructure projects it is just now starting to come back. But it is still a far cry from what it was. It is still not that walkable. There is still little public transportation, with only one short street car line and one or two slow and clunky Amtrak trains a day. Most people still live in suburbs and drive in, so we have never deleted all the parking lots and rebuilt the buildings to make space for a vibrant business scene or ample housing.