Projects in US instead catered to house the poorest part of society thus they became fertile ground to breed criminality and further ghetto-ization. Giving people houses in areas where there's no real jobs or connection downtown makes things even worse.

It's no surprise that a country with a better public transport, such as the UK, made its projects a largely successful experiment. In Eastern Europe this kind of housing too was aimed at the masses, not the poor.

I would not say that the issue was the city planning per se. The US is filled by poor neighborhoods/open space ghettos too.