Interesting
The Planned City in California That Was an Almost Total Failure
After more than 60 years, most of it is still empty
Would you want to buy a house in the middle of a desert?
No, me neither. Which is probably what went wrong here. Let’s dive into this…
California City, California
California City covers an area of 203.63 square miles (527.4 square kilometres). That makes it the third-largest city in California by land area. Yet it only has a population of about 14,000. That’s about 69 people per square mile.
British YouTuber Tom Scott visited it in 2015:
Where is it?
100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Los Angeles, in the Antelope Valley in Kern County, California:
What was the plan?
It was all the brainchild of Nathan “Nat” K. Mendelsohn, a Czech-born Columbia University sociology professor and real estate developer. In 1958, he bought 82,000 acres (33,000 hectares) of land in the Mojave Desert. His dream was to create California’s next great city, to one day rival Los Angeles in population.
In the early 1960s, development started to take shape. The Central Park was built, along with two golf courses, a Holiday Inn, and a post office.
By the time it was incorporated in December 1965, it had 5,900 landowners, 232 homes, and 817 residents. That’s 25 times as many landowners as homes. It just goes to show how grand the plan was, but just how empty it was of people.
But it seems that the plan worked as far as Nathan Mendelsohn was concerned. He sold all the land. He made his money.
But the developers who bought the land lost out. Because getting people to live there was a big problem. Why? Perhaps it’s because most people don’t want to buy a house out in the middle of the desert.
What does it look like now?
You can explore some of it on Google Street View, although you can’t go round all the planned streets.
- Here is a the main road, with its junction with one of the residential streets.
- Here’s a section with a few houses.
- Here is the library in the city centre.
- Next to the library is the City Hall.
- Here is a McDonald’s on the other side of the road.
- Here is the city church.
- Here is the post office.
- Next to the post office is the Police Department.
- Here is the Elementary School.
- And here is Central Park.
What can we learn from this?
Err, don’t plan a huge city in the middle of a desert?
And yet, that’s exactly what former Walmart president and billionaire Marc Lore wants to do with Telosa. He wants 5 million people to live in his new planned city. It could be in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, or Appalachia. He hasn’t decided on the exact location yet. He just wants it to be in the desert.
But why the desert? Because desert land is cheap. So it’s all about maximising the profit, rather than finding the best place for humans. No surprises there then. That’s how he became a billionaire in the first place.
More from me…
- Should We Cancel Offensive Old TV Shows (e.g. Fawlty Towers “N-word” Episode)?
- Why is Alcohol an Accepted Part of Society?
- Should Protesters Be Allowed to Block Traffic? Is it the Best Tactic Anyway?
- An Open Letter to People Who Light Bonfires in Their Gardens
- Join Medium to Read Unlimited Articles or Earn Money From Your Own Articles