Starting Your Dream Village/Town/City (buyer, middle school, tornadoes)

[limeresh]

I am a young dreamer. Sometimes I think about where I'd like to live where I grow up... and then I wonder: does one have to move into an existing city/town/etc?

Each town had to start on one particular day. On that land, the first person had to settle there without it being a developed community, didn't he? My question is, is this still happening somewhere in the United States? Could any person dream up a cool plan for a city, acquire some land, and develop it according to their blueprint? Does anyone know of any examples, or how long this takes?

Am I crazy? Is every town-sized chunk of land claimed?



By the way, I am a longtime lurker of the forums, but I finding other threads about this proved a bit difficult. Also I apologize if this is the wrong forum..

[VerBoston]

There is a large section of Northern Maine, the Moosehead Lake Region that is under consideration for a massive development; something like 400,000 acres.
I know there has been a lot of opposition to this, so I don't know if its still being developed.

RESTORE: Plum Creek Watch

[schmidt486]

I would love to do something like that. It is my absolute DREAMMM to make my own city!

[Widowmaker2k]

Well, one certainly could go out and found a new town, but there has to be a reason for people to move there. Typically, there is some sort of natural resource that makes an area desirable for newcomers. Where I'm from, most of the towns were founded 150+ years ago to mine gold or for logging purposes. Cities that are built on natural harbors evolve as port cities...in the Central Valley, cities grew up around large agricultural areas. So yes, somebody could go out and found a new city, but there has to be a reason for it to exist (even if it is as simple as a rest-stop on an interstate).

The most recently founded major city that I can think of (and this is totally off the top of my head, please correct me if I am wrong) is Brasilia. Founded in 1960, it currently has 2.5 million residents and is the capital of Brazil. It was originally designed specifically to be the capital city, and thus grew quickly as the rest of the country grew.

[Newarkbomb]

hah when i was in middle school i
i'd draw up my own country and have states and capitols and all that. i was corney but i just loved that kinda stuff.

but to answer your question, Yes it's possible. You just need a lot of money and have the power of persuasion to do so.
Like AK, CO, WY, PA, NE etc all those states that have empty land could be developed but no one has reached out and claimed it as there own. It takes loads of time and money.
You'd probably die before your population reaches 1000.

[JR_C]

Check out Seaside, Fla.
Seaside, Florida - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Dangerfield]

I'm not sure if this is what you're inquiring; but, just last year an Italian buyer bought the town of Albert, TX for 3.8 million.

[projectmaximus]

Well...it depends what your ideal city is. Are we talking about something the likes of Chicago or NYC? Cause you can't just create something like that simply by willing it to happen. However, if you want to start your own small town it is possible. There are quite a large number of new urbanist communities that have popped in the last decade, and creating something on a small scale like this is obviously doable. Your little village or town won't have any history, and will be dependent to a degree on the communities around it, but if you have the financial backing, you can plan it the way you want it.

There's also the possibility of rebuilding a previously existing city. That happened in Greensburg, KS after Tornadoes ravaged the area...and the leaders decided to reconstruct the entire city "green." Something similar, albeit to a much lesser degree, has taken place in New Orleans after Katrina.

So, go get lots of money and find a plot of land outside of a big city where people will want to live sustainably while still having access to all a big city can provide, hope the housing crisis stabilizes soon, and then build your dream mid-sized city or...

become a recognized and reputed urban planner and hope for a natural disaster to wipe out a city while still leaving enough of the land in tact so that you can rebuild and still keep the locals from relocating.

[bradly]

Originally Posted by Newarkbomb

It takes loads of time and money.
You'd probably die before your population reaches 1000.

Rio Rancho, New Mexico was founded by New Yorkers in the late 1960's.

It took them 10 years to reach 5,000 people, and eight years later it was incorporated at 20,000.
Today Rio Rancho is one of the Fastest growing small cities in America with 89,000+ the city is growing so fast now and has nothing but desert land ahead of its self...plenty of land to grow for hundreds of years to come. It has now linked its self to the Albuquerque Metro.


I'm sure you can start your own city..it has been done before.
Some will grow faster than others.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by bradly

Rio Rancho, New Mexico was founded by New Yorkers in the late 1960's.

It took them 10 years to reach 5,000 people, and eight years later it was incorporated at 20,000.
Today Rio Rancho is one of the Fastest growing small cities in America with 89,000+ the city is growing so fast now and has nothing but desert land ahead of its self...plenty of land to grow for hundreds of years to come. It has now linked its self to the Albuquerque Metro.


I'm sure you can start your own city..it has been done before.
Some will grow faster than others.

Interesting....I didn't know that and I wonder what the reason was for starting the new town there?