Yes Boston is very similar to what you describe. You can see it so clearly on a map - a European like core around the statehouse and the common, and then increasingly gridded districts until you get nothing but 6-lane roads and strip malls.

Yes, it has been done, although the best one is about 4.5 hours long, rather than 2. Additionally, there are a few scenes that are essential to the story that have non-essential characters in them, which can make for a slightly confusing watch if you haven’t seen the ‘proper versions’.

Well, unlike Hong Kong, Northern Ireland is part of the UK. That’s what all the fighting was over. I suppose implying that Dublin was a British city might have the same effect.

Here is a solution for the US that finds a compromise between public ownership, and hence inefficiency, and private ownership, and hence limited provision:

Do you not have compulsory purchase in the US? Can’t the government just make you sell it?