4 ms·
I mean, Texas is home to the largest unzoned city in the country. It’s also the most successful red state in the country, so it’s favorable amongst some groups,
by chomp 5y ago
I mean, Texas is home to the largest unzoned city in the country. It’s also the most successful red state in the country, so it’s favorable amongst some groups, especially those with business leanings. I don’t think they’d enforce parking minimums, but we do have municipal broadband restrictions.
As a resident, I also found it an odd choice. I’d build an experiment city (especially one that wants to be walkable with less reliance on a/c) somewhere with more amenable weather. Water is also more of an issue. West Texas land isn’t just cheap because it’s flat and brown, it also is a crapshoot if your wells pull up brine vs fresh water, or if you have to dig absurdly deep wells that you have to replace every 5 years.
- jeffbee 5y agoWest Texas has some kind of fatal attraction for a certain type of person, like the Ron Paul followers who tried to establish Paulville in Hudspeth County. Wrath of Gnon, much as I enjoy certain of their tweets, has that "reject modernity, embrace tradition" vibe that is also very closely aligned in several dimensions with libertarians and separatists. Compound that with the fact that land in most parts of far west Texas is incredibly cheap (because it is useless) and you can see how people fall into that trap. I think people should just remember that if they see some incredibly cheap Texas land advertised for sale online, it was probably used at some point to spread New Jersey sewage imported by rail. https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/02/us/for-some-texas-town-is-too-popular-as-waste-disposal-site.html https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/02/us/for-some-texas-town-is...
- taurath 5y agoI consider it the “western frontier” type person, and it goes thru Texas, Utah, Nevada and up to Idaho the Dakotas and Montana, with smatterings of eastern Washington, Oregon and California. Which makes some sense just from a hereditary standpoint since much of it’s only been started to get settled (by non natives) for a hundred years. Nomadland as a movie does a good job of getting the mood right.
- davidw 5y agoOften the type of person is someone who thinks they're a "western frontier" type, but can't afford enough land to actually support themselves. I found this story absolutely riveting: https://magazine.atavist.com/outlaw-country-klamath-county-oregon-guns-murder/ https://magazine.atavist.com/outlaw-country-klamath-county-o...
- splitstud 5y agoWeather is a 12 month phenomenon though. Where do you want to walk in March or november?