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Well it’s not “nothing to do with” cars or density. The only reason American cities attempted (really, converted) into Euclidean zoning is because cars made it seem easy enough to transit zone to zone to live your daily life.

Walking 8 miles to the grocery store is clearly untenable, so never would’ve happened without widespread cars.

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But the issue also exists in dense areas of Chicago where things aren't far, they are just laid out in a way that doesn't really allow for the same environment as traditional European cities

This type of zoning (Euclidian; zoned by purpose) was very new and only tested in SCOTUS in 1926, suspiciously 18 years after the Model T was introduced. I don’t know if the US pioneered it but it doesn’t seem to have taken hold in Europe til recently too.

I’d suspect very old (pre-car) and historically-preserved parts of Chicago, like Boston, DC, and New York, have a much less Euclidian setup.

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