They aren't poor, no, but it isn't temperate and that was the point I was getting at. Cold doesn't make things impossible by any means even if folks in the states act like it does, at least where I was.
I've never lived in NYC. I spent the first 35 years of life in Indiana, though, in towns smaller than this. The crime wasn't bad. One place even happened to have bus service. Indiana has about the same population as Norway over less land area, though admittedly it likely isn't as rich. Indianapolis is probably the only place comparable to Oslo as I can't remember how big Ft Wayne is.
Large cities aside, it doesn't take much to make a city walkable. Put sidewalks in, zone correctly, and put up areas to lock up bikes. If we can require places to have a minimum amount of parking spaces, what is so difficult to require a place to park bicycles? If you can zone for different things, wouldn't it be possible to zone for grocery stores near neighborhoods and give tax breaks to those chains instead of large box stores?
Concrete "fixing" does require some regional specialization, and I'm sure one solution isn't going to work for everywhere. Most cities aren't NYC, though.
Edit: I should also mention that part of the trend here is to make it more inconvenient to drive in town. They are actively taking away driving lanes to encourage walking and public transport. Most of the smaller cities in Indiana could do some of this as well.