You might be onto something. Maybe the lack of central planning in US, and most reliance on private developers, prevents the introduction of denser housing.

Not to go full Hausmann (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann's_renovation_of_Pari...) and eminent-domain the half of the city and rebuild a 1/5 of the city in higher density buildings, in 15 years. But we could ramp it up and start with the low hanging fruits, with empty buildings, parking lots, gas stations, etc. Show results. Show the building owners that they could building higher on their lot, do the math for them, stream line the permitting, help with financing.

Here is also pace to consider. We are biological creatures, and we only support change at a certain pace, without going fully stressed.

> parking lots

This would do a lot on its own. Remove parking minimums and pull out the parking lots. This is why transit is important, and single occupancy vehicles as the primary means of human transport in urban areas is just not sustainable nor is it efficient.

We waste so much space to parking that does absolutely nothing but act as property storage.