There is the old saying "for Europeans, 100 years is nothing; for Americans, 100 miles is nothing". So I'm not sure you can compare areas with radically differ

There is the old saying "for Europeans, 100 years is nothing; for Americans, 100 miles is nothing". So I'm not sure you can compare areas with radically different density. If I got all the debates about US zoning and building sensibilities right, then it's very unlikely they'll try to build high-density apartment blocks there like in Barcelona or Paris.