An idea from history: "Build whatever you like..."

 

A meme going around makes an interesting point ...

Note:

"Urban planning wasn't even a thing until the late classical Greek period and Roman Republic. Cities like Athens were literally just mazes of buildings with 'streets' being whatever was left. Hippodamus of Miletus invented the grid system in the mid-3rd century BC, with the first grid planned city being the Athenian port of Piraeus."

And also note well, that "town planning" wasn't even a "thing" here in New Zealand until the Town Planning Act of 1926 required councils to employ "planners" to tell what you couldn't do. Before that, here it was pretty much the Roman system, but with common law rights and wrinkles, to whit:  

We, i.e., the New Zealand Company et al, will build a grid of streets and sewers on a folded and hilly terrain. There will be a civic plaza at or near the centre (one day) and in the meantime, there's a pub and a church. Build whatever you like (but please take account of your neighbour's similar rights).

Strange to say that it's those suburban places, built then, by this method (e.g., Ponsonby, Devonport etc.) that are the places in which today's "planners" like to live. And the urban places (Rome, Athens, London, New York) in which they like to go and spend your money.

Go figure.