Do some of the hundred-km-long ones still exist?  Could you offer some names/links?  (Coz I'm fascinated.)

Re: the city as village, well, I've always thought of the centre of the city as a village with excellent amenities.  But town/city in England was a religious designation.  A city has a cathedral.

And I dunno but I like the idea of the city connecting out to its food sources in the countryside, and also keeping food inside its borders, along pathways, in gardens...green cities...  So I suppose the geography and the surrounding agricultural possibilities...work to give each city a "flavour"...on large rivers you can transport a lot by boat, but if the river is small but the surrounding hills and valleys are fertile...and oh yes...I live by the sea, so ports...ships...

Worra great great diary, I'm rambling.  Thanks, I enjoyed reading it, the tone, the approach...I'm rambling...and also this afternoon I will take the bus out of the city centre to the edge of the city and once again view this place...

...an earthship, power independent, it needs quite a bit of land for food...I liked the environment, but my wife and daughter didn't...like you say, utopias are always populated by our friends and not our enemies...did you say that?  I realised this when I realised that by getting rid of the car (e.g. by petrol being too expensive)...the city would soon resound with the sound of a thousand thousand tiny motorbikes revving at lights, teenagers on hybrid bikes making a racket...in yer face...but that's okay...better than the car...

...ach oh aye!  Great diary!

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.