City living

[Bham1982]

The cities with the highest densities were either built before transportation improvements or have geographic features that limit sprawl.

Are we talking population density or built density?

In NYC, the areas with the highest population density follow transit improvements. The densest neighborhoods are all along rail lines. Examples would be Upper East Side, Queens Boulvard corridor, entire West Side from 59th Street practically to the northern border of the Bronx, Eastern Parkway, Ocean Parkway and Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn, etc.

But the areas with the densest and tightest urban form often have lower population density, and their built forms generally predate the subway and other rail lines. They're less dense primarily because 1. They have more commercial space and 2. They're extremely wealthy, so large units [[examples would be Soho, Flatiron and the like).