3 ms·
This is something that I fail to understand - why are there so many people there? Is there unobtainium in the hills that can only be mined from the region? Prio
by 3eb7988a1663 1mo ago
This is something that I fail to understand - why are there so many people there? Is there unobtainium in the hills that can only be mined from the region? Prior to modern air conditioning, why would people setup there when there are seemingly more hospitable areas?
- Retric 1mo agoPeople did prefer living in colder areas before AC. The arrival of AC meant there was suddenly a lot of very cheap land around cities that are extremely unpleasant without AC. This resulted in migration and a housing boom which drives up the economy attracting more people.
- 3eb7988a1663 1mo agoSure enough, Wikipedia says the population in 1940 was only 65k (which is still too many, but whatever). I would still assume that AC installation was very uneven and a luxury at the time.
- giantg2 1mo agoI would guess that swamp coolers were fairly common.
- frollogaston 1mo agoYeah, and those actually work in the desert unlike in coastal areas
- altairprime 1mo agoSuburbia requires land and desert land is very cheap when market-priced, so long as the true costs of drinking and lawn grass watering for the land are externalized. Unfortunately, that leaves the region exposed to the Colorado watershed collapse and associated “which metropolis gets the axe” politics: America’s desert metropolis Is on the short list to lose water (6 hours ago) https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/us/arizona-canals-colorado-river.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/us/arizona-canals-colorad... (I suspect the interstate highway system also contributed to migrations, but haven’t done the research.)
- anigbrowl 1mo agoLarge silver and turquoise mines, basically.
- estearum 1mo agoCheap land