I feel every attempt at community-by-design bears within it the seed of inhumane horror. Forget about the energy equation of building a city in a desert, what's the on-boarding process for prospective inhabitants ? Putting the price of accommodation sky-high to make sure everybody's in the right tax-bracket (or even earns enough to not pay taxes) ? Going through an interview process to only take in people with the "right vibes" ? How do you get teachers, garbage collectors, plumbers, nurses, all sorts of manual workers ? Park them in a ghetto like in Dubai, make ideological adhesion rather than money the filter (good luck with funding) or try to automate them away ?
Plans for a new city in the American desert
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Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#12There are already so many dying or dead towns / cities in the US that building a new city in a desert sounds like thoughtless, careless waste (not to mention the ecological disaster of displacing / destroying the ecosystem of the desert). When there are so many habitable locations, why build a city in an inhospitable environment - so much energy resource is going to be wasted to make it habitable ... - https://en.wik…
If they tried to rebuild a functional modern city in an existing dying city it would be called gentrification and vilified by the current occupants.
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#13There are already so many dying or dead towns / cities in the US that building a new city in a desert sounds like thoughtless, careless waste (not to mention the ecological disaster of displacing / destroying the ecosystem of the desert). When there are so many habitable locations, why build a city in an inhospitable environment - so much energy resource is going to be wasted to make it habitable ... - https://en.wik…
This new city most likely depends on getting necessary regulatory and code approvals that would be impossible elsewhere. There's also a reason why towns become ghost towns, and the investors putting in $400B in funding probably don't want to start with one foot in the metaphorical grave.
From the sound of it, he’s still looking for all of the “investors putting in $400B of funding” at this point. For now, it seems he’s just doing PR and paying an architecture firm to make 3D renders.
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#14That initial stage isn't very promising. 50000 people on 1500 acres is only about 30 dwellings per acre, not very impressive. You can achieve that density with traditional row houses.
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#15There are already so many dying or dead towns / cities in the US that building a new city in a desert sounds like thoughtless, careless waste (not to mention the ecological disaster of displacing / destroying the ecosystem of the desert). When there are so many habitable locations, why build a city in an inhospitable environment - so much energy resource is going to be wasted to make it habitable ... - https://en.wik…
Because trying out new political structures that is the reason for building the new city. Nevada has passed a law recently that allows for basically the creation of new counties within existing ones. The county level is where quite a bit of political power lies, even though that level of government is often forgotten. Who knows what might come out of it, but I would like to see someone give it a try.
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#16Why would anyone move there? You need work to attract workers. Why would any company move/start there?
Middle of the desert smh. Why not build it underwater and get rid of all the pesky ethical/moral laws, allow any biotech research and free experimentation on humans?
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#17I love the ambition. One thing I've been really amazed about China has been the willingness to tackle big infrastructure projects - building cities like Shenzhen in a few decades and all of the infrastructure projects in the Pearl River Delta in general. I think we need more of that in the west. So I wish them luck - I hope real estate speculation doesn't ruin it. One thing I've noticed with US politics is that thing…
We already have lot of infrastructure projects here in America. It's called roads. Endless ceaseless expansion of roads.
I think we need to stop mindlessly expand roads, and reconsider our infrastructure priority before we can start doing massive megaprojects.
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#18Overall like the 15 minute focus but feel it is best achieved organically. Planned cities rarely work and they almost always feel weird.
Look at Brasilia for example. I dont see the desert aspect, with what water?
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#19"The cleanliness of Tokyo, the diversity of New York and the social services of Stockholm: Billionaire Marc Lore has outlined his vision for a 5-million-person "new city in America" and appointed a world-famous architect to design it" "The mission of Telosa is to create a more equitable and sustainable future. That's our North Star." I admire their ambition, but they are underestimating people's preference for inequi…
What would it take for the middle class homeowners of America to prioritize housing for everyone rather than the price of their home?
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#20Shenzhen and Dubai are key port cities, making them global hotspots for the flow of wealth and goods long before they became the modern cities of today. A city in the desert has none of those foundational benefits.