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Is “building a new city” meaningfully different from just expanding or growing the current city or introducing medium density?

I’m supportive of new cities as experimentation projects - think that’s great actually. If it’s take a sprawling suburb and build another one it’s like why would you bother doing that versus just doing the same thing you’re doing now in current cities?



I agree with you, expanding cities should be preferred.

But that doesn't happen either, maybe because existing cities are surrounded by private lands, or other stuff that is hard to displace, in a litigious place like US.


Or don't expand them, make them denser. Hopefully means less travel needed as well.


Yeah, building a city from scratch opens up new possibilities for governance, institution building, city zoning and layout. I'm for a lot of small cities, each experimenting.

Adding to an existing city plugs you into all these incumbent systems, including existing hierarchies and notables.




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