Cripple Creek, Colorado grew from ~500 to 50,000 people in under a decade (1891–1900), despite two fires in 1896 that burned down a third of the town.
The catalyst for this growth was the gold rush, but it proved we can build new towns relatively quickly even despite major disasters.
When was the last time a town of 50,000 was built from scratch in North America? Why have we seemingly stopped trying?
Just like nobody is building houses like that house that cost our grandparents $8k (insulation was crap, probably not centrally heated, no ducting, definitely less sq ft, fewer windows, etc).
Here is Cripple Creek:
The startup cost is so much higher now because we expect a clean drinking water system, sewage system, roads...and we'd still call it "roughing it" if that's all we had. Most people in the US would not be willing to live 6 months without a public water system or sewer system. This is to say nothing about how much slower it is to build because of regulations.
I suppose my answer is that we have much higher standards/expectations now and are generally not willing to live with less for very long.
Many people in the US (in rural areas) already live without these public systems
I've lived in communities where everyone is on septic, but I think this furthers my point: it increases the startup cost.
When people moved to Cripple Creek, the expectation was likely an outhouse and well water. Easier to deliver.
I wonder if there's a technology that can cut septic and well costs 10x for new communities, maybe something like incinerating toilets as septic replacements
Composting toilets are cool. Urine diversion toilets make things cheaper (pee is sterile, so you can treat it easier than shit).
A drunkard's dream if I ever did see one
How come?
Because Robbie Robertson said so.
view on www.youtube.comHah pretty good song
It's a classic.
I immediately started hearing clavinet sounds when I saw the post title! 😂 I guess that song's going to be stuck in my head the rest of the day!
Other than rapidly growing suburbs, I’m not aware of any.
I’d lay the blame on the artificial scarcity imposed by anti development regulations.
There are still places with vast untapped mineral wealth that are prevented from being developed.
Where are the leading contenders in North America?
Pebble Mine in Alaska has something like a trillion dollars worth of metals and the only reason it’s not being built is political.
In general, these places are very remote. I’m sure northern Canada has some similar places.
Whoa I remember hearing all about whether or not to develop Pebble Mine when I was in school up there, had no idea it was that important.
It’s really crazy that they’re obstructing it. It’s in a great location too for expanding road and rail infrastructure in the state.
If I recall correctly, I think it was a fisheries related concern, something to do with salmon in the rivers but I have no idea how serious that concern really is
Correct. One of the largest fisheries in the world is downstream of the mine.
The estimated value of the mine is still orders of magnitude greater than that of the fishery.
They’ve proposed making the mine put up a bond for the entire value of the fishery, for the extremely unlikely scenario where they destroy it. People up there just don’t like development though.
People prefer the comfort and convenience of established cities with all the infrastructure already in place.
Surely there are people with ideas about how to better design our infrastructure from a clean slate
Don't you guys have a recent new city next to the space x launch complex?
Yeah I guess that's the best modern example, not sure if they're planning to really turn it into a general purpose town, or if it's going to be more of a corporate HQ for SpaceX
Well, space x doesnt really own it, so it's not up to them. It's uo to the people.
Every period of time has its specificity.