Overcrowding in cities has historically been dealt with development of new development clusters and expansion of the city space and urban area.
Step-by-step explanation:
Historically cities have been wont to expand bigger than the capacity of the area that was to sustain the city due to rampant immigration into the city of working class people looking for work.
Usually this overcrowding and competition for resources has been used in regional development to develop more clusters around the city to make more places developed and urbanized.
It has also led to the expansion of the city space.
All metropolitan cities grow and engulf the suburban spaces around them into main metro areas.