I came across this City on a trip to Central America and I happened upon the greatest living example of an "Ideal City" layout in my life. I made a video of this living tribute to the Laws of the Indies.
Ideal City: Laws of the Indies - Asunción Mita, Guatemala - Top 10 Cities for People
The Laws of the Indies were from the time period of Castilian era of the Spanish "conquests" into the Americas. The King wrote 140 rules for how cities should develop. The included first building plaza with a government building, church and two side of commerce at the heart.
Urban design for human rights
These rules, in an odd way, were really the beginnings of human rights as we know them and modern government. The plaza was placed in front of the government building to have a place for the public to demonstrate their grievances. There was accountability.
This pattern would often repeat, as we see in the Americas, such as Savannah, GA below. Parks would be systematically placed throughout the cities and civics/education and faith were always based around it. While the conquests did terrible things, it added to the enlightenment - including clean cities, distribution of ideas and prosperity.
These planning rules all over the Americas
This design of an Ideal City lasted into the west rail cities of the West. You can see the design from Portland, Ore., to Santa Fe, NM and others. The design was such a wild success it mades its influence all the way to Australia.
The next time you visit a City that has a town square, look to see if there is one a few blocks away. Then, notice if there is shopping, a church, a type of civic building or similar. Most of this structure changed with the introduction of the automobile and modernism of the early 1900s.
You can read more in my blog post, about the street grid aspect.
Give an up vote, resteem or donations are always welcome. Let me know if you like this type of content. It's my area of profession. I can go into much greater detail if there is interest.
Thanks!
BTC: 16uzAK16Y6pMydi3FHLKXHSNAp222QPU1Y
LTC: 3PCvUqzyKF8yy57kXQyJDyRh3m2QNBmPpP
DSH: Xuk63u8DgKwfJfnkgGThH19mNVnqPhqkyX
ZCASH: t1Vsy3UxuwephyTTG69ACPcGErgwXFxDTGv
PPC: PVuJS3EzCrYFMF1oizuHSRBTYRiMvH8KwE
BAT: 0x1269FaF2c2cD13cd970Ff3d0B0ed621c68EcBd74
ETC: 0xDfb41b96003DAC1D708F03c17ea0544131dD4726