[bix6]

Why didn’t we do this? Seems cool.

[boc]

Because it's like 1000x more efficient to move stuff on water vs land, so industrial cities clustered around ports and rivers since it's way easier to move stuff around.

[sophacles]

Because it trades most of the benefits of cities for the hassle of suburban life and less efficient food production.

[zonkerdonker]

Big cities aren't typically in such an ideal planar geological setup as that. I'm having a hard time imagining how something like that would work in the Bay area, NYC, Seattle, Miami etc

[TimorousBestie]

To be fair, Alexander was writing in the seventies, long after automobiles and the suburb had killed any hope of humane urban planning in the States.

[HoldOnAMinute]

Because of perverse incentives