<story><title>How to build a small town in Texas</title><url>https://wrathofgnon.substack.com/p/how-to-build-a-small-town-in-texas</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thebradbain</author><text>I would argue that, for better or worse, Marfa, TX in West Texas is a real manifestation of this essay. It&amp;#x27;s only a town of about 5000, completely walkable, and homes that were selling for $20k before news got out that it was a secret artist enclave just 10 years ago are now going for north of $1 million (even more eye popping when the median single family home price in the most expensive metro areas of the state, Austin and Dallas, are around $500k). Outside the town is farmland and oil fields. Inside the town is a collection of bars, restaurants, hotels, museums, and high art, all from a once-dying&amp;#x2F;repurposed small town on a defunct train line.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;A desirable place to live &amp;#x2F; visit&amp;quot; is its own economic engine. See (also mentioned in that article) Seaside, Florida.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.themanual.com&amp;#x2F;culture&amp;#x2F;marfa-texas&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.themanual.com&amp;#x2F;culture&amp;#x2F;marfa-texas&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;2012&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;156980469&amp;#x2F;marfa-texas-an-unlikely-art-oasis-in-a-desert-town&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;2012&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;156980469&amp;#x2F;marfa-texas-an-unli...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>helen___keller</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m very invested in urbanist discourse (which is to say, all things that lend themselves to less cars and more people doing more walking&amp;#x2F;biking&amp;#x2F;transit). That said, the fantasy of building a human-scale town from scratch is, unfortunately, a fantasy.&lt;p&gt;The author is half correct in saying that we&amp;#x27;ve forgotten how to build towns. It&amp;#x27;s better to say, the creation of new towns have become economically obsolete. Their niche is gone. Historically, towns formed organically around sources of value, such as farmland or rivers or mines or whatever, where many people making a living in the same region benefited from being in walking proximity, which enabled commerce. That concern just doesn&amp;#x27;t exist today, due to cars.&lt;p&gt;You don&amp;#x27;t need a town with an inn when the truckers stay at motels and rest stops. You don&amp;#x27;t need a town square when people shop at the big box store on the highway and local producers are part of a complex global supply chain.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>qdog</author><text>Marfa is in the middle of nowhere, the jobs seem to be of the landscaper&amp;#x2F;service industry type unless you are arriving with money from somewhere else.&lt;p&gt;Sounds more like a touristy set of rich estates at this point, I expect the laborers live in the surrounding area and drive into town just like a large city.  I did some labor during HS and in the summer it was driving 20-40 miles from our small town in nowhere Texas for the jobs we did.&lt;p&gt;During the early 80&amp;#x27;s oil boom there were several small towns in Texas that kinda looked like OP&amp;#x27;s model, but once the boom went to bust they started dying and never recovered.  Probably around the Austin area in the 60&amp;#x27;s a lot of places looked more idyllic (there were no stoplights between downtown Austin and I think Lampasas at that point), but it&amp;#x27;s all sprawled out and become a Metropolis at this point.&lt;p&gt;Not clear that any sufficiently attractive area would not end up being encompassed in suburbia or a high-end enclave (Westlake by Austin comes to mind).</text></comment>
<story><title>How to build a small town in Texas</title><url>https://wrathofgnon.substack.com/p/how-to-build-a-small-town-in-texas</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thebradbain</author><text>I would argue that, for better or worse, Marfa, TX in West Texas is a real manifestation of this essay. It&amp;#x27;s only a town of about 5000, completely walkable, and homes that were selling for $20k before news got out that it was a secret artist enclave just 10 years ago are now going for north of $1 million (even more eye popping when the median single family home price in the most expensive metro areas of the state, Austin and Dallas, are around $500k). Outside the town is farmland and oil fields. Inside the town is a collection of bars, restaurants, hotels, museums, and high art, all from a once-dying&amp;#x2F;repurposed small town on a defunct train line.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;A desirable place to live &amp;#x2F; visit&amp;quot; is its own economic engine. See (also mentioned in that article) Seaside, Florida.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.themanual.com&amp;#x2F;culture&amp;#x2F;marfa-texas&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.themanual.com&amp;#x2F;culture&amp;#x2F;marfa-texas&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;2012&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;156980469&amp;#x2F;marfa-texas-an-unlikely-art-oasis-in-a-desert-town&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.npr.org&amp;#x2F;2012&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;156980469&amp;#x2F;marfa-texas-an-unli...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>helen___keller</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m very invested in urbanist discourse (which is to say, all things that lend themselves to less cars and more people doing more walking&amp;#x2F;biking&amp;#x2F;transit). That said, the fantasy of building a human-scale town from scratch is, unfortunately, a fantasy.&lt;p&gt;The author is half correct in saying that we&amp;#x27;ve forgotten how to build towns. It&amp;#x27;s better to say, the creation of new towns have become economically obsolete. Their niche is gone. Historically, towns formed organically around sources of value, such as farmland or rivers or mines or whatever, where many people making a living in the same region benefited from being in walking proximity, which enabled commerce. That concern just doesn&amp;#x27;t exist today, due to cars.&lt;p&gt;You don&amp;#x27;t need a town with an inn when the truckers stay at motels and rest stops. You don&amp;#x27;t need a town square when people shop at the big box store on the highway and local producers are part of a complex global supply chain.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pram</author><text>Marfa is hilarious to me. I&amp;#x27;m from west Texas and I&amp;#x27;ve driven highway 90 dozens of times, there is literally nothing out there. A complete wasteland. It&amp;#x27;s painfully boring. I don&amp;#x27;t believe anyone buying these properties are living there year round.&lt;p&gt;Alpine is a much more scenic town and it&amp;#x27;s just up the road. I&amp;#x27;d probably buy a house there instead.</text></comment>