Plato would not deny that there are many different social and political patterns for cities, since he acknowledged them even as he fought against them. His pattern, though, was to have impersonal and necessary backing. The others could be said and imagined and built, but not thought through within true knowledge. How many planners still seek that necessary Form? The Idea of The City.
Maybe there are no Cities to plan any more.
Our agglomerations refuse single forms. They reuse, they multiply.
(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001