Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer
Part I: The Place.
Of all the questions I get on Twitter the most common is this: “How do you build a town?” We know well how it used to be done, but these last one or two centuries we have forgotten how to do it (with only a handful of notable exceptions during the last century1). The other day I was asked again, but this time with a set of premises that made the question a little easier to approach. I have anonymized all the details but the general idea remains: four guys (friends) with money have bought a suitably large piece of land in Texas and now want to create a car-free human-scaled town2 of the kind that I am always writing about.
In this text I intend to set out the most bare-bone basic premises for how to start a good town, what is needed to build something anti-fragile3 and sustainable4 under the above mentioned scenario. I will go back to this text and edit it, add points, or discuss certain aspects deeper in future texts, especially those points that stimulate questions or controversy.
This is my first published long form. It is my general idea to write as little as possible while still getting the point across. I might delete this first attempt.
- Size and borders: “You can’t have a garden without fences.”
To create a human scaled town we first establish what is a good size, and this is simply one third of a square kilometer, or 82 acres, or 0.13 square miles. 80 acres was the upper limit for a good family farm in medieval England, and it is still the size at which the most flexible and efficient farms run, both modern and more old fashioned Amish family farms. It allows a town where no point can’t be reached on foot in 15 minutes, and it allows comfortable living for a population of 3000, which was considered the ideal size in medieval Europe: the upper limit of efficiency and comfort, productivity and harmony: more and you get crowded, less and you risk being without some important trades and activities. Even though the premise talks about a town of 600, we plan three centuries ahead for a maximum population of ca. 3000.
A good town (the urban) is clearly defined and set apart from the countryside (the rural). The suburban has no place here. Hence the town needs to be as clearly marked out and defined as the individual family lots will be: to here, but no further. For this purpose we will mark out land to be used as a wall, raised embankment, hedge, fence, moat, canal, etc. Some sort of edge which is not routinely nor distractedly crossed.
As for shape, I recommend a somewhat irregularly oval shape, near round in one extreme, or rice grain shaped in the other extreme, for the simple reason that the best towns and cities seems to be oval to some degree5. As far as possible the existing topography should be kept or even enhanced. Perfectly flat land is only popular with boring developers. So: no bulldozing allowed. Existing trees should be left and existing paths should be left in place (even when slightly inconvenient). New paths and streets should follow the contours of the land. Anything historic (an old campsite, an ancient grave or remains of an old farmstead) should be kept and protected and venerated. History is in short supply in new developments, and interesting stories can be woven around something as mundane as an abandoned old cart or well.
- Water, energy, food and connections: the needs hierarchy of towns.
Since the premise is Texas, and undeveloped land, I am imagining land that is more or less parched, but with short and intense annual rains that risk flooding the entire area. The town will be in a perpetual state of drought and need to be prepared for flash floods6. Hence cisterns, reservoirs, water harvesting will be vital, and whatever gets built, roofs will harvest water into private cisterns or ponds, and all streets will direct stormwater to overflow-proofed cisterns. An area the size of two or three football pitches outside the town will be devoted to flood protection and temporary storage of water. During most the year this land will be dry and a perfect spot for sports, barbecues, festivals, playgrounds, fairs and markets.
This arrangement should make the town self-sustainable in household water at least. Pumping groundwater should not be an option, it is simply not sustainable in an arid/semi-desert environment and Texans already know how to build and manage water harvesting infrastructure. There is no need to reinvent the wheel and spend tons of resources on piping in distant water.
There will be an urge to build each home optimized for air conditioning. Don’t. All buildings must be useful and livable even with the power cut. Hence, natural ventilation, strategically designed windows that open, etc. is necessary. Obviously you can add AC (Air conditioner) on top of that, but in no way should the town be dependent on AC. I don’t think a town can casually produce the energy it needs by itself (for that a far more serious effort would be needed), but even if the grid is cut, it should have enough to power food storage, basic lights and communications (WiFi etc.). This can be achieved with limited private and public PV (photo voltaic or solar power). For hot water, solar heaters are useful even in a Texan winter, and all homes will be equipped with fireplaces, wood stoves and chimneys.
Once you remove the need for heating, cooling and transport from a town’s energy needs, you are left with something that will easily run on limited solar (and the attached batteries) in case of a grid failure. This will also save the town and its people large amounts of money even in the near future.
For food, the town should not spare any effort to be self-sustainable. Food items are also a prime export product, especially high-end refined items (exporting raw materials/food isn’t a good use of resources). It provides jobs and income and is a sure way to draw tourists. For this purpose there will be no lawns, but plenty of gardens, orchards, street side herbs, roof top apiaries and flowers to feed the bees that inhabit them. The rural area (the “market garden zone”) surrounding the town out to a radius of one mile should be devoted more or less entirely to food production in some form, and it should be farmed primarily by the people living in town on a professional or hobby level (either one is fine: create the best allotment system in Texas!). The second belt, is the farm zone. Here I would recommend, if not enough farmers could be found, to offer the land at good prices to Amish families to farm. 800 acres is enough for 10 farms. They also have the expertise to run a farm in any sort of energy crises. The rule of thumb is that only people who live directly off the land should live in the rural area (the “farm zone”).
Inside the town basic facilities for food processing should be found. From feed and dairy refinement to meat processing. People should be encouraged to plant espaliered fruit trees on every suitable south facing wall. Poultry, pigs and rabbits should be kept, not only for meat, eggs, but also to produce high quality fertilizer for the poor soil in the area. And this goes for humanure7 as well. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers should be completely banned from the start. Water should be treated organically and as low-tech as possible, on site.
A good “code-hack” for any small town was developed in Seaside, Florida: “one 14×14 feet area of a lot has no height limitation”8. This will spur people to build towers and spires, which are useful for housing bats and pigeons which will help in pest control (pigeons are also an unbeatable supply of food). Some space in the town itself should be reserved for food production: dovecotes, commons for grazing, etc. A small town like this needs no parks, so instead institute seed gardens (small gardens used only for producing seeds) of vegetables and herbs. Encourage people to keep flowers (to help honey production): consider instituting a program where each square foot of flower pot space gives you a certain weight of honey from the public or private apiary.
Ideally you want to build a new town in a region where there are already people present, near larger cities or along a “necklace” of small towns. This makes it easier to attract citizens, and it also makes the town less isolated, more easily connected to outside markets, tourism etc. but in this scenario the land is marginal and a bit far from towns and airports. Hence, save space for a convenient and scenic (you can’t do fast at this scale) rail or canal or river ferry connection to the nearest larger town. It will raise the value of the town land itself and everything it produces will have a better access to a market (especially perishables). It is also a great way to bring tourism into the city without having to provide parking.
It is possible to build isolated cities but the chances of succeeding is so slim I would not recommend it. Decide from the beginning where you want a possible rail station, by the gate? Inside the town? Through the town? It is easy to prepare the ground now, rather than wait until it is all developed and built up.
- Materials and harmony.
All materials used, as far as possible, should be of local origin. In Texas that means the town will be built from rammed earth, adobe bricks, some fired bricks or stone. No concrete, vinyl sidings, clapboard (not ideal in an arid town environment anyway), plastic etc. Before anything gets built, a pattern book9 for the town must be developed that should have a few very basic buildings types for new residents to easily build and that fits in anywhere in town. A color pattern will be developed using locally accessible earth tones and pigments (if the local geology provides some odd hue of green or yellow here’s a chance to make the town stand out from the beginning). Official or public buildings should be set in a specific color to create a coherent pattern for the town. I recommend bright yellow and white trimmings for this purpose.
- The problem of undeveloped and vacant lots.
In the beginning, especially in a town planned for 3000 but only housing 100-600, there will be plenty of empty lots. These should still be managed and walled or fenced, with the understanding that they will, sooner or later, be built upon. These “gaps” can be filled with low walls and contain gardens and playgrounds until they are sold or developed. Fast growing trees can be grown on empty land and used as energy or raw material.
- Who will live there?
Obviously the town will need to generate a working income, so lots will be sold to the highest bidder, but you will also want to reserve lots for the people who matter to the town itself. I.e., you need things like a parish house, a dentist (save an excellent spot in the town center to offer at low cost to whomever decides to practice dentistry there), a schoolmaster, a clinic, a grocery store (at least) etc. Your first and most obvious potential clientele will be the builders, plasterers, masons, well drillers, cistern makers, ditch diggers, hod carriers, carpenters, plumbers, glaziers, electricians, wifi technicians, who are actually building the town, so you will want to offer them a chance to live there, affordable, within their means. Let the people who contribute and have skin in the game have a first go at acquiring land. The surveyor who surveys his own home will work twice as accurately, the carpenter who builds are food for his cousin or boss will work twice as hard.
You also want craftsmen and small business owners to relocate to the town and they will need workers. All buildings must be owner occupied. You do not want a town of renters or absent landlords. Set lots aside to develop “guest houses”, inns, small hotels or rentable properties for short or long-term visitors and guests. Reserve the most valuable street front lots to people who want to run stores, eateries and other businesses.
Without motor vehicles and endless power flowing through the socket, this will be a remarkably quiet town. The loudest noise you will hear on a typical day will be children playing or a conversation between neighbors in the street. And so it should be.
- Build to the edge of the lot
Keep the lots small, and all buildings aligned right to the edge of the lot facing the street, leaving backyards and courtyards, common or private, and walled gardens on unused space.
- Personality, neighborhoods, and character.
Even a small town needs neighborhoods, and neighborhoods need a character and “color” or personality of their own. Since there are four guys building this town, assign a quarter each for their personal whims and quirks. One guy might have a thing for public wall mounted fountains, so he asks all the builders there to install them. Another might have a thing for the color purple, so he asks all buildings to use the color in some way for doors or trimmings and flower pots etc. This sounds whimsical but it is vital: most people love the quirky and detest the bland.
- The Story, the founding Myth.
Any town needs a story or a founding myth, and if it does not, let’s make one up10. The easiest way to make a new development, town or building fit in is to make it look like it has always been there. The newest building on the block should look like the oldest. In the case of Texas, this means the town will be built to a Mission, Spanish-colonial, or German-colonial style (or a mixture of these). It should look like it was founded and laid down in 1667 or 1746, not 2022. People will call pastiche or Disneyland on this, but don’t listen to them: if you use genuine materials and colors it will only take a few years to mellow in and look like it has always been here.
- Build the least valuable lots first.
Don’t develop the best lots and the best locations first. Save them for later. In the meantime, “pop-up” stores and light movable homes and buildings, simple stick frames place holders, can be placed on the prime lots, to be replaced by more permanent constructions as needs and wishes becomes apparent. Here’s a chance to build the funky saloons, the charming post office, the rows and rows of shops and cafes that makes a town a fun place to visit without committing for entire generations. If they do great, make them permanent, if not, move them out, replace them, experiment.
The same thing applies for street furniture: fountains, benches, water troughs, hitching posts etc. Build fast and simple place holders, and see which ones are used and loved: make them permanent. The ones that no one cares about, remove or change or replace. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Also remember the golden rule of place making: when building anything, build on the least attractive part and improve it while keeping the views of the more beautiful parts intact.
- Public space.
Texas is hot and sunny so streets should be relatively narrow and main streets should have covered walkways or porticoes (look at Bologna for a famous example, or old Havana with its tarpaulins shading the streets, or old Singapore with its covered merchant sidewalks). Useful street trees should of course be planted, as many as possibly under the limitations of water and rainfall, with a good mixture of flowering trees, shade trees, evergreens and fruit trees, both male and female, with an emphasis on useful native trees. Give each neighborhood its own square and make the entrances gated or arched, and the streets offset (i.e. no street intersects another). Each neighborhood or even set of homes should have a pocket square11 adjacent. The town itself should have a central square12 (even if it does not have to be in the center of the town itself: it can also be in front of one of the main gates or up on the hill or down in the hollow), with some sort of trees and water feature if possible. Water should be available in the form of fountains and faucets, water troughs and wall mounted fountains as far as possible almost everywhere.
- A grand entrance.
Just like the front door is the most important part of a home or building in how it interacts with its neighbors and the street itself, so should the town have a dignified entrance. A gate or portal or archway or flanked street or special pavement etc., something that tells the visitor “this is our town, we live here, and we are proud of it!” You really can’t go over the top here. The gate can be lockable if wished, or open at all times. It can be freestanding or built into homes or a building in itself
- How to live without cars.
The most common response when I claim we should keep cars out of cities is “what about emergency services?” Having a single ambulance in town is no problem, and hopefully it will be rare to even see it on the streets. Same with firefighters. Long hoses and mobile pumps and ladders are good enough for a town with no buildings over two or three floors. Still, a small ladder engine can be kept in town if deemed necessary.
A town without cars is more accessible for everyone, including the handicapped, wheelchairs, etc., especially for the two large groups of people who can not drive even under the best of circumstances: the elderly and the young.
There are many ways to move goods and materials, pianos and washing machines, that do not include moving vans and trucks (even though obviously exceptions can be made for these purposes), cargo bicycles, wheelbarrows, hand powered cargo rail etc. For residents who are temporarily unable to leave their homes a human-scaled walkable town is the perfect setting for quick and local delivery services, or just plain charitable spirits and “helping each other out.”
But where will people keep their cars? Outside the city boundaries somewhere.
- To grid or not to grid.
I have this pet theory that you can tell how free a city is by how irregular its street pattern is. Grids are great for managing traffic, and nothing else really. A town with an irregular street pattern is far more charming. If you think of a town as a home, the streets in a gridded town are corridors, not useful for much anything, but in a town with an irregular street pattern they become rooms, or real places. If you have a grand building, let it stop a street (in urbanism this is sometimes called a “terminating view” or a “focused street”). If you have several beautiful elevations in a row, curve the street to properly show them to the pedestrian (it can be hard to take in a building if you are next to it on a straight street or lot line). Consider also if streets are always necessary. Sometimes it can be better to divide buildings and blocks be series of interconnecting pocket squares or little plazas.
Consider what a street can be good for apart from just foot traffic. Is the street narrow enough to shelter from the sun? Can the south side be covered to provide a place for shops or outdoor seating for a cafe? Is there a convenient corner to stop and fix a flat tire or water a thirsty mule? And what about when you enter a new street, is the “scene” well set? Does every turn and every corner fulfill its potential to present a charming or attractive scene?
I hope to add to the themes in this text and also follow it up in a Part II: The People, where I will focus on how to set things up to maximize the chances that an organic, real, honest, community, forms. This Substack will be open to free subscribers for a while. I wish to thank the Substack staff that have kindly reached out to me before and after registering.
Léon Krier is responsible for most of them.
Defined here as a town that is completely accessible and useful on foot or by hand and with human or animal muscle power, both in terms of size, space use, and materials (for example anywhere in the town is reachable on foot within 10-15 minutes, and buildings are not so tall so that they can’t be used without elevators/lifts/escalators etc.).
Defined here as the way Nassim Nicholas Taleb uses the word: that which benefits from stresses and shocks.
Defined here as: “a place or practice that can keep going even after someone pulls the plug or disconnects the grid.”
In other cultures square or rectangular towns exists, as does circular, but according to the premises for this scenario let us go with something vaguely medieval and Western.
The most common cause of death in the desert is drowning (flash floods).
Humanure, i.e. human waste, nightsoil. A valuable resource. A good book on this is Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind, by Gene Logsdon. Recommended reading.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Good luck with that. If AC ceased to exist, the population of Texas would be cut in 1/2 within a year. Not to mention 3000 people living on top of each other within the confines of 80 acres during the heat. Damn snowbird type yankees freak out coming into south Texas in the summer even with AC.
You forget, the people who built Texas knew how to build homes that worked without AC. If the town builders offered house plans that took advantage of the breezes and made long eaves for shade, and made sure trees were planted on the southern side of the house, wouldn’t need so much AC.
as the joke goes, “if i owned both hell and texas, i’d live in hell and rent out texas”
I don’t think that there are enough rules, there must be more rules. While there might not be a president, governor or mayor, there will be the all powerful Home Owners Association.
I don’t think I would be welcome, I want a parallelogram lot and I prefer Anarchy.
Karen and Ken will head up the HOA, making life hell for all who live there.
Here here, make them HOA chairperson and chairperson (or whatever pronoun they prefer) for life. For each infraction they find they will be given 1 pint of honey from the ‘public’ honey pot. What could go wrong.
What an amazing coincidence! I’m just getting ready to build Stuckyville, a nice little town in the NJ Pinelands. Invaluable stuff. Thanks!
I thought you were headed to NW AR?
The Branch Davidian compound in Waco is the likely future any such gesture would generate from the government. But very sound otherwise. Pretty much like most small towns began in the day before master planners and greedy local tax collectors decided that they know better.
As the town is described, it will be in an area with few trees and they will soon be cut down to provide fuel for heating. If you move your town to NE TX, you will have lots of trees and rain.
There are places where Amish have down this in a county and control it. All it takes is like minded people to gather in a place, gain a majority and live like they like for the most part.
They’re not just like minded people, they’re a separate culture and they’re all related anyway. And they’ve done it over many generations.
Even if we had time, do you really think white people nowadays would be allowed to create an ‘extremist’ church for social and tax reasons, cut themselves off from much of society, and start creating towns and communities, without being Waco’ed or sued into oblivion for ‘discrimination’?
Amish are white. Some would view their beliefs as extremist and they pay little in the ways of taxes as individuals. So it has been done. Yes, I do think it can be done by non-Amish. The problem is that most do and want to do it. They have things that hold them down from moving, like a job, family, etc… So In that aspect I really do not think it can be done by non-Amish.
The secret to doing it is to keep your mouth shut for the most part. Once you get to a size say of a community like in Holmes county Ohio (close to 30,000 Amish and Mennonite, and yes I know there is division between the two), they will not Waco you. If you have 50 people and drawl extra special attention to yourself, then yes you are in trouble.
Oh, I had lived most of my live in that area and know it works quite well when you get the numbers.
I forgot the state of Utah is ran by Mormons.
These are all societies that were around back when whites still ruled the world. They were all still kicked out of their homes with violence. They survived because there were some folks who didn’t mind some pacifists doing the farming for them. The mormons are the only ones that don’t have a very long history, and while they do control an area, they have also given in to The System more than the rest. It’s not like mormons and even some others like mennonites aren’t racemixing nowadays, so they won’t stay white in the long run anyhow.
The social conditions have changed and the government conditions have changed.
“The secret to doing it is to keep your mouth shut for the most part.”
Agreed. But that is chancy outside of direct family. So how do you get to 3k, no less 30k?
If I knew how to get 30K to move to an area, I would have already done it. The reality is there are very few people who actually understand love liberty enough to move for it, let alone fight for it.
Another interesting fact is that there where not mask mandates in the Amish/Mennonite businesses in Holmes county that I could find when I was there. So the pacifist were the only ones that made a stand in any numbers. I find that interesting.
Just another thought, but if like minded people stay separated, the outcome will not be any worse. The current path has not been working out very well.
Here they were wearing masks at about the same rate as everyone else. Everyone put signs up, but I haven’t been to a business yet that has actually ‘required’ masks.
Back in the late 60s, a guy named Kemmons Wilson decided to start a town in Mississippi. Bought land. Incorporated it. Crime was starting to get really bad in a large city just across the state line. Turned out his venture was a success.
Back in the early 50s, Mr Wilson was upset at crappy motels when he drove his family to DC on vacation. Decided along with his brother in law Dutch McCool to go into the hotel biz. Worked out well too – Holiday Inn.
His city is Southaven, MS. Around 500 or so in early 70s. Today? Around 60,000 and is either the 2nd or 3rd largest in the state.
Auntie would like to know Jim Kunstler’s opinion and critique of this proposal.
Don’t know, but there is one guy saying it will work if it is built in Puerto Rico.
I am looking forward to the rest of this series. This is an interesting thought experiment. Already I’m thinking of difficulties with weather, how to deal with criminal activity, and even people who might want to “hijack” the town for their own purposes.
One concern from this article that I see is the availability of access to that small town in Texas. In most areas of the state, highways and paved roads provide the most access. That would mean the town should have a wall or some sort of marker with “no cars past this point” signage. I know other cities have adopted similar methods for certain areas in their cities. If the railroad ever did come nearby, the town could extend an invitation to them, perhaps in a mutually acceptable arrangement.
Thank you for the interesting idea! I live in Texas and would love to live somewhere like that.
Mrs Mitchell asks: “…how to deal with criminal activity, and even people who might want to “hijack” the town for their own purposes.”
You could have a charming vigilance committee that would meet on an ad hoc basis. Maybe something in a well integrated stucco with a lamppost.
You did say Texas didn’t you?
People are already doing pistol open carry across the state. We have had open carry for rifles since the state joined the USA. Like R. Heinlein said, “An armed society is a polite society.”, yet it takes a while for that to work itself out. We shall see how it plays out in the big Texas cities soon enough. Austin and Dallas are the ‘progressive’ strongholds, so if there is any issue with being armed up, those are likely places for this to work itself out.
If we get gangs trying to run roughshod over people, those in this state will quickly band together and take matters into their own hands. Nobody living rural does so without at least a single gun – because of wild hogs and snakes. I don’t see a bunch of gang crap going down unless it is in the burbs or the metropoli, where the gun haters tend to congregate.
Everything finds its level over time – just give things time to work through the social implications of the current state of things.
Love him or not, Elon is giving it a go also as Starbase TX:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boca_Chica_(Texas)
I like some of the ideas, but the whole thing sounds like a thought experiment more than anything. 80 acres is a good size for a town, because it was the size of a large farm once? And yet you’re going to pack 3000 people in there?
The desert is mentioned, where and why is there a town there at all? What are they making or doing? It’s already been stated that market gardens and farms will be outside.
From some rough numbers, I came up with 1650-ish Edo (Tokyo) having a population density of 9784 people per square kilometer, while by their own description, they want 9000 per sq km.
Who the fuck would want to live like that, no less in america but some place like Texas?
I guess they could sell me one of the farms away from town. Assuming it’s not the desert.
the problem with planned communities is that they almost never go according to plan. those great cities we see now, they evolved over centuries. theres no really effective way to speed up that process anymore than, admiring a noble 500 year old tree, one can make such a tree pop up out of nowhere in 5 years.
in ancient times, new cities were indeed founded. they followed the patterns we consider ‘better’ now and they did have a rational plan as their beginning, but they still grew from those small beginnings over hundreds of years.
and they didnt all work out- perhaps the majority were abandoned or never got beyond trading posts or fortified bases or villages.
and one final item- whats the most important thing in real estate? location. the next most important thing? location. the next most important thing? location.
the sad simple reality is that all the good spots have already been taken centuries ago.
In the chaos and collapse the equation changes to favor being out in the boonies to avoid the worst of it. that’s isolation into locations that have been historically undesirable. The niches there are places with enough good land for a small local community, minues the good natural corridors connecting them to the rest of the world. Modern machine transportation made possible settlements in places that made no sense otherwise, but also bypassed some backwaters. Still, a small farming community riding out the storm is a lifeboat, not a foundation of a new civilization. Eventually we’ll have to move back to the good sites (places where waterborne transport connect a lot of things together are at the top of the list) and actually reestablist that civilization.
in the meantime the focus is lifeboat.
My missus and I live on around 80 acres. 80 acres with 3000 people defines hell on earth.
Agree with you here, Llpoh. I have 40 acres and still have troubles with my non-resident neighbors (weekenders).
I started laughing at HSF assumption that all of Texas is near desert. We have had 47 inches so far this year – hardly dry or a desert. Another thing in Texas is to avoid counties where they have been doing fracking – the disposal wells for the fracking fluid make quakes, and nobody knows when these foul fluids will appear in water wells – surface water may wind up being the ‘new normal’ for future generations where they currently dispose of these wastes.
Perhaps a better way might be to simply pick yourself an existing small town that is currently in the midst of collapse? These are easy to find, and have a start on infrastructure already and home prices are nearly always cheap. But nobody is going to move if there isn’t work. If you actually live in one of these towns, your population is likely to be 10-20% OTR truck drivers, with others working retail and fast food jobs. You need businesses to support any plans for a town. Historically, businesses appear and grow with a town, but only if your local government is actively trying to recruit them – most small town government is more of a social club than anything else. Recruiting another “Dollar Store” is enough for these clubs – forget an actual company building something that employs a couple of hundred folks.
Small towns notoriously imitate their larger cousins, and you will still find Karens and brother-in-law bullshit even in towns with 3-6000 folks in them. They pass stupid laws, and since everyone in the city government is in a sort of “social club”, they tend to do some very untoward and stupid things exercising their power.
EX: passing a leash law in a town without a dog catcher or police force. If you think the county sheriff is going to help you out ticketing someone for their dog being loose, guess again.
HSF needs to keep doing what he is doing – it’s working for him.
Personally, I do not want to be involved in “townie” bullshit, which is why our place is 15 miles or more from any ‘city limit’ signs. And if riding horses is prohibited in your town, you have already proven exactly how ‘free’ your little bunch is….
I didn’t write this. And as much as I have enjoyed my time in Texas I would never live there.
It was simply an exercise in what can be done to improve the world instead of the endless litany of complaints about what’s wrong with it.
fair enough…
I have a feeling that many people who moved to my state may be simply “in transit” – they just don’t know that yet.
Lost me me with the car free insanity.
“Carfree” will eventually work itself out as oil prices rise during the coming 50 years. People will discover why dirt roads aren’t so bad when you have daily horse apples to deal with. Oil is going to climb in price whether people realize it or not. When the 55 MPH rule is reinstated, then you will know oil is being revalued permanently upwards. This will happen, as it is a ready-made solution they deployed before, and politicians are only creative when it comes to lining their own pockets.