The Lively & Liveable Neighbourhoods that are Illegal in Most of North America

Yes, and it's often referred to as 'gentle density'. The idea is to build relatively dense housing, but at a human scale - mostly 3-5 storeys. Combined with narrow streets that support walking and cycling, this creates enough density to support a 'real' city centre with shops, restaurants, offices and so on. I think these videos convey the idea well: * [VIDEO] * [LINK] Of course, this is not to say that you _can't_ build other kinds of housing. But many cities are badly balanced.

There is something in between NYC and an American-style suburb. I encourage you to take a look at Not Just Bikes [1,2]: [1] [LINK] [2] [VIDEO]

The whole medieval cities designed for walking is not actually true. Not just bikes youtube channel( [VIDEO] ) has a great video about this. Here he has taken Houston as an example.

No but there is way less dependence on cars, at least in medium cities and up. Many developments in america just build suburban deserts where there is just more single family homes around you, where you have to drive to the next supermarket, both because it's so far away, and because sometimes there literally isn't a way for pedestrians to walk on. There are a few good videos on the subject: * [LINK] * [VIDEO] * [LINK]

Oh boy you are in for a treat. Google parking minimums and single family zoning. And watch some videos from this channel: [VIDEO]

Urban Design and police has become a kafkaesque mess. It has become near impossible to summon the political will to actually build something livable. Developments generally lean towards familiar and easy, instead of building anything interesting. Tragically, in many parts of the world, one of 3 types of plans fall in the easy+familiar domain. You have the grossly inefficient suburbs of the US, lifeless concrete planned cities of communist fame and wild-best of haphazard urban densification as seen in Indian cities like Bangalore. What's even worse, is that the average consumer is woefully under-equipped to recognize problems with this system until it is too late. It isn't until their kids start growing up that they realize how dead the suburb feels, and how the car dependence relegates one of the parents to a soccer mom nanny. Why it takes 2 hours to get to anywhere in Bangalore or why the incredibly dense concrete jungle feels spiritually dead despite how hard you try to fix it. Years of brainwashing towards the American dream and a tall condo with a view, really do not help consumers make informed decisions either. Not like contractors do user-studies anyways, but still. Funny thing is, these problems are already solved in some capacity. City has been studied to death for millennia. It is no wonder that people in modern 1st world countries, pay good money to spend 1 week in European cities that have been "preserved" as they were. I am not even advocating for some replica of

Not Just Bikes talks about zoning in the US vs Dutch cities in this video: [VIDEO] . My impression was that the US has more restrictive regulations on what can be built.

To back up what you said: The Lively & Liveable Neighbourhoods that are Illegal in Most of North America (Not Just Bikes channel) [VIDEO]