Instead of extensive pointless suburbs where everybody has his house, they built huge 8/10 story buildings.
The buildings were surrounded by parks, benches, places for kids to play.
People aggregated a lot and everything was relatively close (building taller means you can build a lot closer to downtown).
I have lived 6 months in Ohio, Columbus, and I can't but say you live much worse. One thing I noticed is that lack of good public transport is one of the major causes for neighborhoods to become ghettos and poor. You're a guy that lives some 15/20 miles off Columbus and there's a job in the city? Well, if you're that poor that you don't have a car you can't work there either. And nowadays you need at least 2/3k year for insurance alone. This lack of public transport is one of the major reasons why so many areas around big cities become slowly poor and ruined and people have tougher chances to start making a living.
In 2024 with everybody owning a car Polish neighborhoods have transformed. Cars fill every single space. Kids are constrained to small often remote areas. Benches get removed to get more parking spaces. People don't aggregate anymore, there's a much smaller sense of a community.
In many ways, the progress I have seen in Poland made the country just unhappier and lonelier. I would even bluntly say that my parents and my parents parents had it much better. They would party and dance every week, always on some trip or vacation.
Sure, the party would have people bringing their own glasses, salami and something to drink, but people really enjoyed the times.
Cars are just one of the major factors that transformed our cities for worse.