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0 pointsbobthepanda3y ago0 comments

Most cities are where they are because all the good spots have been taken.

Any new significant city will need billions if not tens of billions of dollars on transport links, water, sewer, etc, if there is even a way to bring a city sized amount of potable water.

And then you have to convince people to actually move their residences and jobs there. Most people don‘t like betting uprooting their whole family and social lives on a total unknown. History is littered of examples of new failed cities that in the best case scenario became really far bedroom communities, or in the worst case didn‘t get off the ground.

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soared3y ago

Cities are where good spots were x years ago, where x is somewhere between 300 and 100. The world is different with transportation/etc and the good spots don't look the same. See the flood of people to small mountain towns during covid. They weren't the best places before because they were hard to get to and from, but with highways, small airports, fiber internet, etc they are in many ways better than cities.

With enough investment in new roads and infrastructure we could easily build a huge city in Summit County, Colorado.

bobthepandaOP3y ago

By definition, the carrying capacity of a small mountain town, is small.

Summit County is currently in drought. Where is more potable water for more residents going to come from? (That‘s a pretty big problem in most of the West as drought conditions show no sign of improvement.)

The cities are located where they are, because barring major changes transport costs going from cheapest to most expensive are navigable waterways > rail > road > air. Flying out of small airports is pretty expensive and not something that most Americans can afford to do regularly.

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