Reminds me of The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi.
Plans for a new city in the American desert
141–150 of 268 posts
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#142I 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…
In my experience growing up (in Asia) almost every city that created by a government saying "let's build a new shiny city in the middle of nowhere" was an utter flop at getting people to move in.
People have families, livelihoods, businesses, kids that need schools, grandparents that need care, friends, and emotional attachments to cultural things like food. "Shiny new buildings" are great to look for an hour but it gets old quickly. After that you start missing that noodle shack at the end of the street, the park the kids play in, and the sights and sounds of a bustling street market. Homes being 3X the price just because they are newly built, and a lack of jobs for both parents, doesn't help make people want to move, either.
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#143I 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 "r…
What's more did any of these planned communities ever pan out? There were plenty projects started in the 20th century alone. Guess Walt Disney's Epcot is the most well known failure.
Savannah, Georgia is a pretty city, based on the Oglethorpe Plan back in 1733.
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#144I 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 "r…
What's more did any of these planned communities ever pan out? There were plenty projects started in the 20th century alone. Guess Walt Disney's Epcot is the most well known failure.
Washington DC
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
> energy equation of building a city in a desert Solar and nuclear work great in deserts. I'd be more concerned about water.
Water is the biggest challenge. All the city's waste water will need to be recycled. That's doable, but to compensate for evaporation they might also need to pipe in water from coastal desalination plants if they cannot harvest enough rain. That's a lot harder.
I'd be concerned about their ability to handle sewage which requires water for processing. Burj Khalifa has to have its sewage trucked out daily because nobody bothered to plan for the load on the Dubai infrastructure.
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's still plenty of water in the SW for residential purposes. At least 70% of the water use is for commercial agriculture, an idea hatched in the early 20th century after two of the wettest decades in the last 1200 years. People living in this part of the world is not so much of an issue; growing lots of crops (especially high-water-use ones like alfalfa, rice, almonds) is.
I believe for the most part the water is owned by the folks using it. Is there even a way for them to sell their water to a new city?
West of the Mississippi, this is generally correct. The ability to lease/transfer water rights varies state by state. In NM where I live, it is extremely difficult.
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#147The cleanliness of Tokyo is 100% because of cultural issues, not because the government did anything special. Durning the major 2011 earthquake everything shutdown and you had to walk home. When you went into the “Konbini” (7/11, FamilyMart, Lawsons) in Tokyo there was always a bottle of water left. Why? Because culturally no Japanese would ever buy the last bottle.
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#148"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?
Do you think anyone else should act against their own interests, or just the middle class?
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#149I'm very curious, have there ever been any "cities from the ground up" projects that don't turn out to be total shit that end up just reflecting the urban planning fallacies of the day? (Looking at you, Brasilia) I mean, all of the cities that are most "livable" in my mind are old cities that were designed before the car and thus have enough density and public transportation to make things both close and also the kin…
Reston, Virginia ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reston,_Virginia#Planning_and_...
If your idea of the pinnacle of a planned community is a big, car-dependent suburb with big office parks and a wide away of chain theme restaurants...
Re: Plans for a new city in the American desert
#150The cleanliness of Tokyo is 100% because of cultural issues, not because the government did anything special. Durning the major 2011 earthquake everything shutdown and you had to walk home. When you went into the “Konbini” (7/11, FamilyMart, Lawsons) in Tokyo there was always a bottle of water left. Why? Because culturally no Japanese would ever buy the last bottle.
> The cleanliness of Tokyo is 100% because of cultural issues, not because the government did anything special
Social disapproval over time, including that expressed through government policy, has effect on culture. So, while it may not result particularly from the government doing something immediate to cause the cleanliness, I would be hesitant to assert it is independent of government action merely because it is cultural.