There are some places you just can’t animate… like this California town laid out in Mojave Desert in 1965.

Now it’s just a bunch of abandoned roads (mostly).

California City sits on 80,000 acres of dust strewn landscape; it was a town that was supposed to rival LA in size by now.

I guess people forgot why we have settlements in the first place. Things like:

-for mutual protection

-for skill sharing

-for intra-city trade

-for inter-city trade

-as centers for learning, experimenting, teaching, research, making, growing…

-for shopping

-for tribal gatherings (aka office complexes, community centers and churches)

-for recreation and entertainment

-for increased creativity (now called collisionable hours) 

-for greater productivity through excellence

-for greater energy and land conservation

-for improved governance

-for greater sense of community and belonging

-for resilience in times of war or natural disaster

-as transportation hubs (where rivers meet, where railroads terminate, where airports function, where well trafficked roads/pathways connect, wherever Elon Musk’s hyperloop goes next!)

This list tries to explain why cities exist, and why some don’t make it and never will. 

@ profbruce

@ quantum_entity