Final: So Where Should We Build Ten New Cities in the US?

This is the 9th and final article of the series Where to Create Ten New Cities in the US.

The groundwork for this series came here:

• Deserts, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Snow, Paradises, Swamps: Why Do People Live Where They Live in the US? (premium)

• The Top 50 US Cities: Why Are They Where They Are? (paywall)

The first eight articles in this series are:

• First Principles on Where to Create New Cities (premium)

• 1. Guantanamo City

• 2. Starbase

• 3. Presidio

• 4 and 5. The Salton Sea: Salton City and Bombay Beach

• Reviving Lakes (premium)

• New Lakes (paywall)

• Satellite Cities (paywall)

So here are the ten cities I propose, along with takeaways.

The Ten New Cities I Propose

1. Guantanamo City

Transform the military base into a Hong Kong of the Caribbean:

2. Starbase

Boca Chica is the ideal point in the US to serve as the trading hub between the Earth and Space.

3. Presidio

It would be a new city in the middle of San Francisco, unburdened by what has been—because it’s federal land, so it could be exempt from local and state regulations. This liberation would make it the fastest source of wealth creation in the history of humanity.

4. Salton City

It could have been an amazing city if the Salton Sea hadn’t run out of water. We could revive it with more water, and make it into a walkable, futuristic city. The water would come from the Pacific, as the Salton Sea is below sea level.

Image originally from Casey Handmer, who refers to this concept as Hyperdrive City.

5. Bombay Beach

It was a summer destination when the Salton Sea had water. Give it its water back, and push its development as the summer destination it should always have been.

6, 7, and 7 bis. Owens, Mono, and Walker Lakes

They were both deprived of water because of LA’s thirst. With desalination, we can give LA the water it needs and reserve these lakes’ water, so they can grow back into communities. Owens Lake will likely remain a small agricultural community, but Mono Lake could evolve into a new Tahoe, except on drier land. Walker City could become an outcrop of the nearby military base.

8. Lake Mohave

It’s an existing lake between Lake Havasu City and Las Vegas’ Lake Mead. It has barely any life in it. It’s all federal land, dedicated to human enjoyment. This enjoyment can be improved, many jobs created, and many great lives lived, if we incorporate it into a city.

9. New Lakes

There are dozens of valleys between California and Colorado that could be filled with new lakes and host new lives, from Dixie Valley in Nevada, to the Escalante Desert or Sevier Lake in Utah, to Green River in Colorado. Each new lake could host a new, different, original city.

10. Satellite Cities

These are new communities near existing cities. This is the most common type of new community development, which depends in a big way on local regulation. The key for these communities is to sell a grand vision, but share it with the right people only at the right time.

There are dozens of such projects in the US at any given time.

Takeaways

It’s not easy to build new cities. Most sites have been tried already; if they didn’t work, it’s because there was something wrong about them. The result is that new cities must have a strong argument going for them. They’re either

• Some exceptional situation, like Guantanamo Bay

• Otherwise poor sites that become important due to some new technology or geopolitics, like Starbase

• Sites that are missing a key ingredient—usually water—but can either regain it or get it from scratch

• Sites close to existing and successful cities

• Sites that are less than ideal, but are viable and could beat better sites because they have become complacent—especially through regulation

In other words, new cities are usually water arbitrage, regulatory arbitrage, extensions of existing cities, or simply unique spots.