The presented research is a review containing an original synthesis on some of the causes of urban development problems. The article covers historical and contemporary aspects of selected phenomena since the end of the 19th and 20th centuries in cities with patterns of European and American structures. The research background focuses on issues related to morphology, function, and form. The aim of the research is to present the results of the review, mostly canonical publications surrounding the history of architecture and town planning, grouping them according to the observed regularities. The research thesis assumes that the observed trends that are present in today’s discussion on urban development stem from some phenomena that appear in both selected urban patterns. The research methods are based on the literature query on the development of cities and the issues raised in the articles. The results are combined with a discussion and focus on the author’s synthesis of the observed trends, and they are divided into historical and contemporary groups describing selected causes of the current crisis.