USG60 - it all comes down to land use. There are so many advantage to higher density I wouldn't even know where to start naming them. If the new urbanism took off in OKC and everyone bought into it then at some point the urban core would become saturated. At that point each new block would have the same density as the proceeding black. Prior to WWII new blocks were built just the like the block that came before them. There were not subdividions like we know today, there was just a continuation of the existing urban fabric. After the automobile, everything changed. The houses got further apart, business got further apart, and people got further apart. The automobile stopped being a luxury and became a neccesity and then it became a self-perpetuating cycle. You had to have a car because it was too far to walk. You can't build things close together because you needed room for parking. So the cycle repeats.