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I think Scranton/ WB is too far away from NYC to ever become a bedoom community, unless of course, there was high speed commuter rail that extended that far...
As to when it will stop growing-not any time soon. BosWash's population will continue to grow as it receives more and more international immigrants which in turn lead to more and more of the middle class moving further out. The region is doing well economically so many will actually move there from elsewhere in the US as the sunbelt becomes congested and expensive. I think central, southern, and Northwestern NJ will see alot of growth in the next decade but I can't see it extending into NePa.
This isn't a situation unique to your part of the country, this is happening all over the world. And I think the sprawling will be greater before city centers in various states are somehow forced to centralize even more so than they are now. Los Angeles is learning that just now, that upkeep is more and more difficult the furthur out you go. Natural disasters that used to take the focus of an entire nation, might not actually be feasable anymore with respect to the rebuilding of a large, spread out megapolitan. The more and more we accumulate, the more difficult the day to day maintenance is. Then an act of God takes place, and the country finds it just can't afford it. So I think when it gets too bad, then there will be an edict passed down. The kind that you would see in China. To come back to the center and, maybe, quit f-ing so much. It's inevitable. It's science.
Location: Midessa, Texas Home Yangzhou, Jiangsu temporarily
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I think Plaidmom is right.
The physical growth of the megalopolis will stop as soon as fuel cost become a real motivating factor.
For the last 100 years or so, fuel has been so cheap that it was practically free. Anyone remember $8 a barrel oil? Because it was so cheap cities and there suburbs could grow without regard to energy cost. The only factor limiting sprawl was time. i.e. Is a two hour commute one way too long?
That will soon change, and may have changed already. Oil is a finite resource and once we have used up all the easy sources then the rest will come at dramatically increasing prices. Now this is not an "we are running out of oil" post. We are NOT running out of oil, but we are running out of CHEAP oil.
In the last several years oil prices have increased significantly and are currently around $75 a barrel. Even at these "high" prices, people only spend a couple of thousand dollars a year on gasoline.
As fuel prices increase, I think we will see a reversal of the current trend. Upper and middle class people will start moving back to city centers while the working class and poor are forced further out into the suburbs. This is when the physical growth of cities will stop, but the population of cities will increase as people leave the suburbs.
Eventually alot of the West and East coast people will start begging to live back in the Midwest.It will stop growing when everything on the west and east coast is so exspensive that only the very rich will be able to live there.
Dont worry...soon enough noone will be able to afford a home due to such high taxes.....what will the goverment do then make us live in the street? When does it stop?
Dont worry...soon enough noone will be able to afford a home due to such high taxes.....what will the goverment do then make us live in the street? When does it stop?
Just wait until we have to start paying back the trillions of dollars of debt we've raked up during the current administration with spiking taxes. What ever happened to Republicans being fiscally-Conservative, anyways?
Obviously, there are still places to fill in around the BosWash corridor. California has more problems than the east coast with regards to land space.
I don't think Scranton will integrate into the corridor. You're going to be stuck in space with your nightmares. In the end, that is the cruelest fate of all !
Just wait until we have to start paying back the trillions of dollars of debt we've raked up during the current administration with spiking taxes. What ever happened to Republicans being fiscally-Conservative, anyways?
That ended January 20, 2001 when YOU KNOW WHO was inaugurated into office!
I'll tell you when it'll stop growing...when either Yellowstone erupts or that long awaited tsunami hits the East Coast after that volcano on the west coast of Northwest Africa or Southwestern Europe slides into the ocean.
dont joke, a natural disaster like that could happen, could you imagine what it would be like if there was a major flood in NYC, that is part of the reason I moved away from Long Island
dont joke, a natural disaster like that could happen, could you imagine what it would be like if there was a major flood in NYC, that is part of the reason I moved away from Long Island
If the megatsunami is anywhere near the size some experts are predicting it will be, it definitely wouldn't be funny at all. I just hope that it doesn't really happen, I don't even want to imagine what it would be like if cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C were all to get smacked by an enormous tsunami.
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What ever happened to Republicans being fiscally-Conservative, anyways? 
