Why do desert cities have such shitty skylines?

[caligrad]

This question has been beaten to death for far too long. ITs been answered 80 differnt ways the past 50 years. My question is, in comparison to what exactly? when you take out the massive skyline of NYC, followed by Chicago. The US USED to be known for tall buildings but not so much massive downtowns. So what are we comparing desert cities to if you take out NYC and Chicago? Boston doesn't have a massive downtown, Philly has THEE most over hyped downtown since its not necessarily massive either, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Charolette, Nashville, Denver, i can go on and on and say none of these cites have massive downtowns in respects to their cities size. So. What are we comparing Desert cities to in regard to "Not having big downtowns". Globally cities are just now building big downtowns, thanks to Asia providing the modern blue print, so in true Fashion, the USA will wait until the rest of the world has caught up to then decide to densify its downtowns. Same as we're doing with bullet trains.