[HN Gopher] What are startup cities for? (2021)
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       What are startup cities for? (2021)
        
       Author : luu
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2022-04-02 06:41 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (devonzuegel.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (devonzuegel.com)
        
       | Apocryphon wrote:
       | We only have 55 years to build Night City.
        
         | wsinks wrote:
         | Heh, according to the lore, we only have -28 years, since
         | Richard Night built it in 1994.
         | 
         | Not sure we _need_ Night City in Northern California though.
         | I'm a huge fan of the fictional Cyberpunk world though. :)
         | 
         | https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Night_City
        
           | Apocryphon wrote:
           | According to the lore, it's built exactly half-way between
           | San Francisco and Los Angeles. So at Morro Bay, near San Luis
           | Obispo. The impracticality of going along the coast as
           | opposed to going down I-5 aside, it _would_ be interesting if
           | there was a third major coastal metropolitan area like that
           | (never mind the existence of San Diego!)
        
       | gigaflop wrote:
       | Some big problems I see with big new cityscape ideas is the
       | 'legacy support' and 'network effect'. We can play SimCity all we
       | want, but for the ideas to make an impact, they need to be
       | implemented.
       | 
       | 'Legacy support' is figuring out how to deal with the non-blank
       | canvas you're starting from, if you're starting with a populated
       | area. Sewer lines are already dug, buildings exist, people live
       | there, etc, and now you need to solve _those_ problems, too.
       | 
       | When's the last time a bunch of people in lower-income housing
       | were happy to be forcefully relocated? Because you're not going
       | to be buying land in high-income areas(due to cost, Nimbys, and
       | probably being in the suburbs), and those people need to live
       | _somewhere_ while the probably-union contractors go over on time
       | and budget for the project.
       | 
       | 'Network effect' is getting people to live at your site. Why is
       | your cityscape more attractive than what someone else already
       | lives in? And, remember that the people most likely to be able to
       | afford to live in your new development may not end up living
       | there full-time, since the first round of buying/leasing will
       | favor those who have a bigger pile of cash. Will those people be
       | a net positive to the community, or will they treat it as a
       | vacation home?
        
       | badrabbit wrote:
       | I hope any new city has good bike lanes.
        
         | jppope wrote:
         | +1
        
       | RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
       | I feel they are 20-30 years too late.
       | 
       | It seems like the winds have shifted.
       | 
       | In the late 1990's to early 2000's, it really did seem like human
       | conflict was winding down and all the divisions/ideologies were
       | slowly being subjected to "hey, let's all get along together and
       | make a lot of money". You saw that with the EU, with China,
       | NAFTA, etc.
       | 
       | After the 2008 crash and with covid, it seems things are
       | changing. People are no longer willing to let go of ideology just
       | to make money. Nationalism is returning. Religious fundamentalism
       | is returning (see Trump, Modi, Erdogan, Orban).
       | 
       | Hong Kong was the ultimate "startup city" with a huge amount of
       | autonomy, but that is going away, as China asserts control.
       | 
       | My guess is that in this current environment, startup cities will
       | breed a lot of resentment in the surrounding areas and serve as
       | easy scapegoats (see for example the Blue cities in Red states
       | where there is a lot of conflict about governance and who has
       | prerogative).
        
         | ipaddr wrote:
         | Your timeline includes 911.
        
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       (page generated 2022-04-04 23:02 UTC)