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Dude, there's a golf course just up the road. This is exurban Vegas in 2023. It was "remote and inhospitable" in WW2, before anyone bothered to put a city the

by ajross 3y ago

Dude, there's a golf course just up the road. This is exurban Vegas in 2023. It was "remote and inhospitable" in WW2, before anyone bothered to put a city there. That's an extremely high traffic interstate highway a mile south. The LA/Vegas corridor may look pristine and empty (owing in no small part to significant regulation that keeps it that way!), but it's not remotely a "low density" population area.

robertlagrant 3y ago
> owing in no small part to significant regulation that keeps it that way What regulation keeps it that way?
- ajross 3y ago
  We're literally in a subthread discussing a mine that shut down because it couldn't expand...
- lazide 3y ago
  Anything on the California side has to deal with extensive environmental impact regulation, and deserts are fragile. That mine is in California. If you go exploring in Balarat or around Death Valley, it’s easy to find intact mines that are 70+ years old with everything nearly intact (except for the rat nests anyway). As to if that regulation is appropriate given its remote location, etc. that’s up to the California state legislature. Notably, mining is a much larger part of the state economy in Nevada, on the other side of the border.
lazide 3y ago
By just up the road you mean 20 miles? Of open desert? I-15 is high traffic, but once you get off it, you’re in the middle of nowhere for most of its length. Like ‘if you get out of your car and stop walking, no one will find your body for decades’ kind of middle of nowhere. Have you driven I15? That it is regulated to prevent building definitely helps preserve that - but doesn’t change that nature? Not that anyone would likely be building in those alkali lake beds anyway.
dragonwriter 3y ago
> The LA/Vegas corridor may look pristine and empty (owing in no small part to significant regulation that keeps it that way!), but it's not remotely a "low density" population area. So, you are saying that there is a dense urban strip city hidden under the regulated, pristine desert? Or... what?

by ajross 3y ago

robertlagrant 3y ago

> owing in no small part to significant regulation that keeps it that way What regulation keeps it that way?

ajross 3y ago
We're literally in a subthread discussing a mine that shut down because it couldn't expand...
lazide 3y ago
Anything on the California side has to deal with extensive environmental impact regulation, and deserts are fragile. That mine is in California. If you go exploring in Balarat or around Death Valley, it’s easy to find intact mines that are 70+ years old with everything nearly intact (except for the rat nests anyway). As to if that regulation is appropriate given its remote location, etc. that’s up to the California state legislature. Notably, mining is a much larger part of the state economy in Nevada, on the other side of the border.

lazide 3y ago

By just up the road you mean 20 miles? Of open desert? I-15 is high traffic, but once you get off it, you’re in the middle of nowhere for most of its length. Like ‘if you get out of your car and stop walking, no one will find your body for decades’ kind of middle of nowhere. Have you driven I15? That it is regulated to prevent building definitely helps preserve that - but doesn’t change that nature? Not that anyone would likely be building in those alkali lake beds anyway.

dragonwriter 3y ago

> The LA/Vegas corridor may look pristine and empty (owing in no small part to significant regulation that keeps it that way!), but it's not remotely a "low density" population area. So, you are saying that there is a dense urban strip city hidden under the regulated, pristine desert? Or... what?