North American cities were destroyed, and we did it to ourselves. I can't find the link atm but NotJustBikes did a video on youtube showing how current car-dependent sprawling London, Ontario used to actually have a nice downtown. Or for a graphic example check out

https://citymonitor.ai/transport/parking/what-bombs-did-rott...

Just acres and acres and acres of asphalt hellscape where there was once life.