That's not it. My hometown, which has slightly more population than Amsterdam, didn't suffer any damage to historical core during WW2 (so we have our pretty the

That's not it. My hometown, which has slightly more population than Amsterdam, didn't suffer any damage to historical core during WW2 (so we have our pretty theater and low-key fancy 19th century houses), yet grew a massive multi-tier commie-block suburbs and incorporated surrounding villages with their owner-occupied single-story houses. In between those suburbs. Soviets squeezed people into the cities and then gave them bare minimum housing there, yet people seem to prize them for it, while diverting all the resources from villages.