Author compares apples and oranges though. The closes thing to a planned communities (&quot;hellholes&quot; as people refer them to in this thread) are so called &quot;sleeper districts&quot; in ex-USSR. Outskirts of towns, full of multi-storied apartment buildings, all looking the same, with a large &quot;univermag&quot; (supermarket) somewhere in the middle.<p>I used to live in Greater New York area and it&#x27;s full of little towns like Union, Springfield, Millburn that look and feel very close to the European towns the author likes that much. Even Short Hills - the &quot;sleeper district&quot; of the affluent East coast - looks amazingly good, and it&#x27;s strictly residential.<p>The deeper South you go, the more planned neighborhoods are there. But saying that &quot;all US is like that&quot; is a stretch.