Well, if you want to analyze _that_, you need to take the huge infrastructure costs of suburban sprawl too.

Every new cookie cutter suburban subdivision requires tons of asphalt, miles of pipes for water and sewage, and the cost in most cases gets [subsided by the denser parts of the city]<https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/7/6/stop-subsidizin...>.

Suburbia is not only unhealthy, it's also insolvent.

The article asserts that the "dignity" design elements are a "bigger factor" than density.

So it sounds like the author believes those measures are practical/possible in existing areas.

Sure, but your argument is "building those things will add up in cost" ignores the already huge cost of maintaining all the asphalt and car infrastructure. Planting trees is relatively cheap.