Can You Buy A City?

Video Description: Compare news coverage. Spot media bias. Avoid algorithms. Try Ground News today and get 30% off your subscription by going to ground.news/citybeautiful
If you had enough money, could you buy an entire city? Or maybe just a small town? Is something really a city if one person owns all the property?
Resources on this topic:
www.loveproperty.com/galleryl...
people.com/home/town-californ...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/...
www.nyc.gov/assets/finance/do...
www.opendatanetwork.com/entit...
www.senate.ga.gov/committees/...
Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
Trans rights.

[@CityBeautiful]

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[@GeoBlits]

Thats so cool

[@AMPProf]

But, is it possible to get to the answer.. LOLZZZ. Own a town??

[@AMPProf]

@NicksDynasty, @Cotif 11 @md.abdullaalwailykhanchowd3974 @AMProf @W-uh3og saying same thing.. Buy together so "START City beautiful city?" I SAY YES

[@Kaede-Sasaki]

Buying an unincorporated area and then incorporating it into a municipal govt is self-defeating as one cannot own nor control a municipality, only each resident can. The best option would be to buy a large area of land, lay out main streets, and lease out plots of land to construction companies who then sublease or sell their lease to those lessees (residents and workers). You would be the owner and could control everything since nobody owner the land, within the law (similar to landlord in apartments). Even if you democratise and give everyone a vote on the board (city govt), you could still maintain exact ownership and thus property tax (similar to how the government does it)

[@longiusaescius2537]

@Kaede-Sasaki what about Rosemont Illinois?

[@W-uh3og]

Consider the following: if all of us that appreciate walkable cities pitched in we could buy land and incorporate a city and build safe bike lanes

[@glock4455]

That's basically what happened with ciudad cayalá, a privately-owned neighborhood in guatemala city with lively streets, shops, offices and homes

[@lenapadua2346]

That's the dream, babyyyyyyyy!!! Let's do this thing

[@AMPProf]

@NicksDynasty, @Cotif 11 @md.abdullaalwailykhanchowd3974 @AMProf. Pluse you So @NicksDynasty, @Cotif 11 @AMProf @md.abdullaalwailykhanchowd3974 @W-uh3og saying same thing

[@spacetoast7783]

Good luck corralling hundreds of thousands of people into taking the same huge risk together. There's a reason NH never became the bastion of the libertarian party.

[@ericnelson4761]

If I ever won the lottery my plan has been to buy some land and hire someone smarter than me to plan out a walkable city. I have no intentions of running it, just want to make it exist in the United States.

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

“In the way to his castle…” I like how you just casually reference a man owning a castle and don’t elaborate

[@brianisbrined9255]

I've been to the castle. Very cool place. They have guided tours.

[@TheLightningZap]

yea he just owns a massive ornate castle in the middle of the mountains

[@allaware1971]

The Hearst family is a well known American magnate of lumber, paper, and media. Old money.

[@NoName-rl3fh]

If you need elaboration you must be young or uninformed. Catch up.

[@NoName-rl3fh]

​@@TheLightningZapdid. He is dead.

[@barryrobbins7694]

Larry Ellison actually owns one of the Hawaiian Islands - Lanai. Edit: “only” 98% of the island

[@AMPProf]

2% is what, State Safety units?

[@barryrobbins7694]

@@AMPProf I believe there is a small community on that part of the island.

[@dragon_nammi]

That's kind of messed up

[@barryrobbins7694]

@@dragon_nammi Yep, for the residents that still live there it is a monopoly to the extreme.

[@eugenetswong]

That type of owner sounds like the first person to virtue signal that we should return land to the natives without even trying.

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

Don't let Amazon or Disney see this video.

[@AMPProf]

Disney world florida is an official Comercial city. It's got a zipcode too

[@zacnomore]

Not to mention Disney already has done this multiple times. EPCOT was supposed to be this (that fizzled out), Celebration, FL and lately their new "story living" thing in a few different places.

[@cabalenproductions6480]

Well there are Venture Capitalist type people planning to do a similar thing near the Sacramento Delta and it's near Rio Vista, CA. However Travis Air Force Base has dispute with them over security reasons. State of California and Solano County has a dispute over how it affects farmland.

[@AMPProf]

@@cabalenproductions6480 Travis has Classified sections so yah Weems right

[@Kaede-Sasaki]

Epcot's a lot better compared to Detroit, San Francisco, etc. Like to see disney take over those cities to see what could be done to address crime and drugs.

[@kennethjohnpadernal7853]

if you do buy a city I imagine it one of the most walkable and a pinnacle of urban design

[@laurencefraser]

Maybe, maybe not. If you buy an Existing city you have to replace the existing nonsense with the new, better designed stuff... which rather increases the number of costs and problems caused. Now, building one from scratch is a different matter.

[@AMPProf]

lord Youse yer feet

[@olli-lfe]

Buying a city and building one are two different things. I like the idea, but to get it to a state where we would actually like living there I'd imagine would cost an incredible amount of money.

[@isoscelessquare2153]

You should take a look at the history of Columbia, MD and Jim Rouse. He designed and built Columbia a unincorporated city of over 100,000 people and run for years by the Rouse company and massive HOA, probably the closest thing over ever seen to a real life sim city.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Interesting

[@robertbuss]

On the other side of DC is Reston, Virginia (Robert E. Simon town) which is a very nice private development. According to Wikipedia it is still not incorporated but has well over 60000 residents.

[@jandraelune1]

Bruce Willis and Demi Moore put in together buying up one building at a time repairing the town in which Bruce grew up in, end result was that they owned nearly the entire town.

[@Sofus.]

Warning! that guy Brent and his ghost town are very misleading, he is an investment banker who bought the mining town together with a bunch of rich investment guys. He runs around pretending to be off the grid and a "do it yourself man" but in reality it doesn't look like he's doing much.

[@jrr6947]

He never claimed to have bought it himself, there are videos of him with the other owners. And where else would he have found 1.4 Million? Thing is, he cares for the town on a deeper level, not just "I bought it now I can do what I want". He gets teams of builders from other KZbinrs and volunteers etc. to help him do restorations, help restore water lines and upgrading old systems. He honors the memories of those who lived there previously, showcasing the stories and history. And what is he supposed to do, really do EVERYTHING by himself? Then it will take decades to do a single thing, it's impractical and illogical. He does what he can with his expertise, he learned how to do other stuff on the job, so to speak, like smelting and climbing ropes and setting up geo exploration of the mines.

[@Sofus.]

@@jrr6947 You don't know what he cares about, he is not someone you know. But I think I can guess that investors care about, a return on their investment. As someone who has worked on construction sites for 20 years plus. I've seen alcoholics who could barely walk get a lot more done.

[@lukazupie7220]

@Sofus heard "investment banker" and started hating.😂

[@opinionater9388]

Mislead? If it's misleading I'm not sure what I'm being lead too. It's just some dude doing what he wants to do, and making a KZbin channel of it. I don't see any harm.

[@gogongagis3395]

This should be the pinned comment.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

There are a number of villages in the UK that are still owned by a family such as Clovelly in Devon, which is a beautiful fishing village, (which was beautified by Christine Hamlyn in the late 1800s, before then it was mpre akin to a slum). As a hold over from times when almost all villages and some towns would be owned by nobility, church and Knights.

[@connorchalmers8959]

Don't forget King Charles lifesize model village

[@Alex-cw3rz]

@@connorchalmers8959 poundbury although he doesn't own it, the buildings are sold off he just commissioned it

[@salkoharper2908]

These villages are just tourist selfie stops. They are not actual working villages. Nothing functions in them, only the gift shops. In Clovelly, the whole village is owned by some descendent of the family. They don't work or contribute or do anything. They are a lord of the manor, extracting rent from the village, which is now dead, except for selfie tourists. I would not hold up Clovelly as anywhere successful. It has no commerce, trade, industry or agriculture. It's a fake postcard village that is empty of actual 'Real' life.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Huh

[@CortexNewsService]

"Just because you own a lot of land doesn't mean you control the government." Rosemont, Illinois has entered the chat.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

"Looks at Reading Creek Improvement District in Florida that is fully and legally owned by Disney"...

[@longiusaescius2537]

Huh

[@jubeat4451]

Also City of Industry, CA!

[@jfwfreo]

Bryce Canyon City in Utah is the perfect example of that (thanks to a loophole in a short lived law that allowed the owners of a hotel and associated land to incorporate and become a town so they could keep more tax revenue)

[@jfwfreo]

@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 They don't control it anymore, not after DeSantis got mad at them for being pro-LGBT or whatever it was.

[@NicksDynasty]

Let's become developers together. Start a money pool!

[@Floedekage]

I got $47. 👍

[@morgziliuz1972]

I got $20 😂

[@Mysterious_Person.87]

I got $15

[@Trainrhys]

There is an alternative we can do, hear me out but if we build an island in the sea out of anyone’s territory then we can make it a country and build city’s and since we are the government you wouldn’t have to run for mayor and with a low enough tax rate the billionaires will flock in

[@olli-lfe]

I like the idea, but how???

[@gertrudehustenpust]

THANK YOU! I have been wondering about that ever since I first watched the show.

[@matthewbradley1196]

My dream in life is to start an urbanist development co-op then with that co-op buy a small town and make it the headquarters, make it walkable, bikeable, build good public transit, make it affordable make it beautiful, connect it to bigger cities with good intercity transit, etc.

[@een_schildpad]

I literally have a notebook of ideas around the same thing! There's so much open land in the Midwest I'm picturing finding some land near a rail line and building a car free city from scratch. We'd be able to save so much on infrastructure costs because we wouldn't have to accommodate cars at all. My current thinking is that it would require 2 main things: monetary capital and human capital. We'd need to raise money to finance initial land and utility investments, and we'd need to form a community of interested residence and business owners to be early adopters. If we keep the town private/ cooperatively owned there's even a chance we could get around gun preemption laws and ban firearms in city limits. I think my next step would be to form an organization tasked with identifying and creating these pre conditions for launching the project. It could be billed as an experiment in designing human centered habitation that other cities can learn from and draw inspiration. I've spent a lot of time thinking and dreaming about this stuff 😂 but I'd really love to see it happen!

[@matthewbradley1196]

@@een_schildpad wow I thought I spent a lot of time daydreaming about this! You seem to have done a lot of research too. I love everything you just described, but I am still in highschool so I gotta wait a few years to have my dreams come true.

[@eugenetswong]

That dream is definitely achievable. I visited a coop, and it was a great place to live. It had no medium sized housing, but it was compact in a village style.

[@eugenetswong]

​@@een_schildpadI don't think that you can force people to sign away their gun rights. There was a case, where somebody did, but he won their rights back in court, if I recall correctly. It's like signing away 1A rights and banning topics. It's almost impossible to do. The best thing to do is to teach them gun safety. Regarding the rail line, I suggest staying away from the busy lines, because they can really hinder walkability. Class 2 & 3 lines are good, though. The only reason to live near a class 1 line is for the passenger rail. I encourage you to design the town around a well designed freight rail line, and then add passenger rail tracks, and then design the transit service. After all that, design in the medium sized buildings with commercial on the ground floor. I suggest that the 2nd floor be office space, including medical clinics, lawyer offices, and other private needs. The 3rd floor should be customizable throughout the life of the building. The 4th & 5th floors should be great apartments.

[@eugenetswong]

@@een_schildpad Do you know if it is possible to do all that by building a border town on Canada, so that Canadians can benefit on the Canadian side? I think that if Canadians contributed on the Canadian side, then it would be easier.

[@jay_racher3416]

Great video 🎉 now PLEASE do a video on Benicia CA. My city is on the edge of a negative budget and is at a point where changing perspective on development is paramount to the cities success. So many suburbs in the US face this challenge but many go bankrupt or in debt. Please cover this topic as it’s important for people to understand how fast everything can go downhill when the can is kicked down the road. 🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@cabalenproductions6480]

Vallejo had went through the same thing. The issue here is that whenever Solano County, California is mentioned on the news it's split between Sacramento and San Francisco news outlets.

[@StevenJosephLee]

I feel like a natural follow up to a video like this is intentional communities and founding your own city. I know you touched on it, but exploring how a person or group might go about it could be an interesting subject.

[@Trainrhys]

Or making your own country as it would actually be easier and you would have more power presuming Russia doesn’t want you

[@michaelmatisse2808]

In France there are a lot of functional hamlets for sale. In most cases the owner has to manage the town himself (and pay for electricity poles and cables, water pipes, maintain roads)

[@audegottoeaudegottoe363]

Have a Wonderful New Year's !//thanks

[@Xerf1]

Hi, could you make an episode about how to design cities in desert countries? I have been living in Abu Dhabi for almost three years now and there are some unique challenges. At the same time, car centricism seems to to universal. Your videos mainly focus on cities in temperate climate zones, but since cities are everywhere, maybe you can make a video in how to make a city in hot dry climates nice for people. Not just for cars, like here.

[@SmrdiTiBabka]

I would love this too. What if we used resources for the line in some sensible way? :)

[@vladtheimpalerofd1rtypajee316]

Tropical countries too

[@AMPProf]

Dubai is a myth

[@AMPProf]

LOOK FIR eco village new mexico

[@vladtheimpalerofd1rtypajee316]

@@AMPProf Dubai is better than any city in India.

[@elijahmiller6925]

Can you make a video about the new city proposed in Solano County? Massive acres of farms bought up to build a futuristic new city?

[@Amish_Trivedi]

"Totally-Not-a-City-Beautiful," California.

[@nlpnt]

I thought you'd mention Bryce Canyon City (Ruby's Inn), Utah which incorporated under a loophole that was closed behind it.

[@eugenetswong]

TOPIC REQUEST: annexing. What is it? Are there strategies to prevent it? I recommend that you plan just for fun to buy a town/village, and then build it up into a great town. Another project worth investing in is building medium sized buildings in a university town, where you can find a good pool of renters. Design in the medium sized buildings with commercial on the ground floor. I suggest that the 2nd floor be office space, including medical clinics, lawyer offices, and other private needs. The 3rd floor should be customizable throughout the life of the building. The 4th & 5th floors should be great apartments.

[@kiwin111]

You should do a video on special districts. It's an interesting concept of home rule, and California has a few. There are some unincorporated communities that have formed special districts to obtain their own police forces and lay taxes.

[@SM0SS]

Quick note on Massachusetts, that's the required population to incorporate as a city. That's a specific government structure where you don't have an open town meeting but rather elected representatives that run the town government. Towns have open meetings where every resident can vote and the smallest town is Gosnold with a population of 70. I've simplified the difference a bit, smaller towns can use a representative form of government and municipalities that exceed the threshold to become a city can maintain the town meeting form of governance.

[@markwestfall9410]

There were a couple of ghost towns for sale in British Columbia. One was the town of Kitsault, on the coast at the far end of a fjord. 300 homes, a mall, hospital, curling rink, school, pub, store, etc. Used to be a mining town, till molybdenum collapsed.

[@gmg9010]

For my state of North Dakota it’s 500 residents for something to become a city.

[@gmg9010]

@@BoBandits yeah we weird down here could ya stop sending all that smoke from fires you have down this way I mean last summer I could barely breathe lol.

[@johnniemiec3286]

The Detroit at $7B number got me a little. I am curious how much of that $7B in property is controlled by Dan Gilbert, and the Ford and Illitch families.

[@ironqueen_osrs]

There is this prince in the Netherlands that owns an absurd amount of property in the capital city, Amsterdam. It is wild to me that even in 2024 these things are still possible

[@AmigaCammy]

I would love for you to make a video on ghost towns! I live in one in Tasmania that was bought for around a million dollars and repopulated. In Tasmania there have been a few of these ghost towns sold, they used to be worker villages during the construction of hydro-electric power stations.

[@Andromeda2976]

Would love to come visit when you´re buying Harmony! Blessings

[@fernbedek6302]

Time for Canada to purchase Detroit. We can probably manage $7 billion.

[@fernbedek6302]

@@CoCo-qi5nr I don’t know, but something to help the people of Windsor have a nicer view.

[@ecurewitz]

They don’t want it

[@deyanangelov7624]

awesome video!

[@kevdification]

I love this, can you do one for owning a country?

[@MM-24]

Cool video concept - and well done. how did we not talk about Disney World and Columbia Md?

[@hewhohasnoidentity4377]

Nevada considered allowing companies to be given powers similar to a county government if they bought large pieces of land and met investment targets. It was called "Innovation Zones." It was very unpopular with the livestock, feral hotses and the few people that live in the wide empty land.

[@ttopero]

I was waiting for you to tie in the recent story of Solano into this video: buy the land, build it yourself. Still similar outcome as others with cities but control of it is more important than ownership. Tax & fee power = $$$$$. Heck, if you can install a speed trap for your one block because the rest of the road is 40+, you might be able to pay it & live there for free, with speed cameras of course-don’t need to mix with those passing through😉

[@cabalenproductions6480]

Yes I know this one Travis Air Force Base, and the surrounding cities in Solano County has concerns over how it affects national security, income inequality issues, the Sacramento Delta environmental concerns and yes Solano County has to respond to both Bay Area and Sacramento commuters at the same time.

[@d.b.4671]

You touched on incorporation minimums in the video, and it reminded me of a question I've had for a while: should there be incorporation _maximums_ as well? At what point, if any, might a place be populated enough and dense enough that local governance becomes a necessity rather than a suggestion? And what would the justifications for that decision be?

[@coreypowers2988]

Idk if there's any justification for this to be needed tho? If an area has enough people where they need government services, they'll naturally want to incorporate themselves to create those services - unless those services are already being provided by another level of government or private entities. At which point, incorporation doesn't provide anything new or substantial to warrant its creation necessary

[@hundid5930]

Can you do a video on Irvine and the Irvine company / Donald Bren. Very interesting development story. Man just basically built / planned a town of 300k over like 50 years.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

89% of the population of Coober Pedy, South Australia voted against incorporation but the state forced them to incorporate anyway so they could tax them.

[@woah99]

I thought this was a real investment video. The thumbnail is really good! Glad to see Ghost Town Living mentioned!

[@AMPProf]

The Real investment of Imagination

[@Floedekage]

Ghost Town Living has been showed to be a scam.

[@easttexan8168]

Mark Cuban bought an incorporated city in Texas called Mustang. It's basically just some rural land that used to have a mobile home park and a night club/liquor store, but I think most of the buildings/trailers are gone now and no one lives there anymore.

[@paulebroderick]

Surprised you didn’t discuss the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District / Reedy Creek Improvement District, and the idea of company towns in general.

[@rogerorchard2317]

It does bring up what a city is. Around the world, different things make a city, a town, or a village. I come from Cornwall, and for years, people have been trying to determine whether Truro is a city; I think for the last few years, they have said it is.

[@graham1034]

How about buying a big chunk of vacant land and then building roads, utilities, housing, amenities, etc. Start renting it out to people and you own every square inch of land in the area and can control almost everything. Probably a good idea to write up a contract that tenants can sign so the powers are agreed to by everyone.

[@eugenetswong]

That would be a good plan for a university town that needs more housing for students.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Yeah Singapore does something like this with it's public housing

[@ShapeShifter499]

I was wondering if you might touch on the planned city in Solano County, California. A bunch of local land was brought there.

[@clydecessna737]

I've been to Campo; it was a Japanese internment camp in WW2. As I remember the main building where families were crammed together still existed and I believe it was then (1980s) being used as a Bible Camp. Nothing else there really.

[@anirudhagarwal9361]

Need to make it sustainable. A construction or land development company can do this along with a transport company to build public transport and mixed use neighbourhoods. Then, as development continues, sell individual properties for homes, businesses, schools, and so on. Don't know if it can be economically sustainable though. Maybe only governments can do that. It also helps population to spread out more and keeps property prices affordable.

[@pongop]

Yes, Hearst Castle and the Central Coast!

[@Korina42]

Haven't you heard about the tech bros who want to build a Silicon Valley 2.0 from scratch in northern California? What could possibly go wrong? Up here near the top of the state the unincorporated town of Bridgeville put itself up for sale a few years ago; sadly they didn't get any takers; it's a beautiful area on the banks of the Van Duzen River.

[@HuggieBear39]

Kim Basinger used to own Braselton, GA

[@ArchOfWinter]

What if you buy both properties and debts of a city and then privatized public services? If you become the creditor of the city and know it can't pay off debt, like Detroit at it's lowest, can you then stipulate how the city is run as a mean to collect the debts? You don't need to have it paid off since having the debt paid off would mean you have no reason to stipulate any control.

[@atl5305]

Could you make or point to videos of companies building cities from the ground up and how they get that done?

[@robertbuss]

New Morgan in Pennsylvania is an example of creating a new town. The owner wanted to earn money dealing with trash and didn’t want to deal with nimbys, so he created a new town with 10 residents.

[@adiuntesserande6893]

The town of Otis, Oregon comes up for sale like clockwork every eight years or so.

[@jusjetz]

What about the 3x3 Super Block design where Pedestrians and motorists can coexist like in Barcelona Spain? It deserves its own video

[@andyman127]

@citybeautiful The closest situation that this topic brings to mind is the Bryce Canyon City outside the national park. The city is essentially owned by one family though a loophole that has been closed.

[@4729Punisher]

My town of 45k was bought for 500 million dollars in 2006. The guy bought the downtown and 1200 homes. It's now a way better town with a pretty cool college campus and research center.

[@wilsonli5642]

There's an interesting example in upstate New York that I was wondering if this video would address: Kiryas Joel. This is a village that was incorporated based on land purchased by a group of Hasidim and populated by their followers, and I had heard of it described as a "private town", although it appears that legally speaking that is not accurate. It's got a population of 30,000+, which is pretty significant.

[@mooveegal]

Would be great to include examples like the purchase of Buford WY by Vietnamese business men, and Hollywood celebrities with Kim Basinger in GA, Bruce Willis in ID, Johnny Depp in France, etc.

[@richardgallegos5624]

an old friend of mines family owns many towns and cities in Canada the land was given to their ancestors through a royal land grant from England hundreds of years ago, there are thousands of people who descend from that original family who receive money from it

[@zUJ7EjVD]

That New York is worth just 1.3 trillion dollars really puts in perspective that billionaires are richer than any person should ever be.

[@RBzee112]

Fair market value would be much higher.

[@lukazupie7220]

Not rly, it shows that they spend very little on themselves and basically just invest everything further... which benefits us all.

[@Matpeixelegal]

​@@lukazupie7220 I Hope they'll see this bro lol

[@Daddo22]

There's a big difference between owning a stock and having that much cash on hand...

[@zUJ7EjVD]

@@Daddo22 Not that much of a difference.

[@MrDmytr0]

In my opinion, the construction of a floating city-state-society outside territorial waters and existing jurisdictions is an interesting idea. Although with a high probability, people will bring with them all the defects of existing societies.

[@NoName-rl3fh]

"You don't want any one person to have video game power..." Um, no. You absolutely do. Thats like, literally half the reason to even do it.

[@joyg2526]

What if all the residents jointly bought their own town? Could the people create their own local style of government, like create a council as a method of governance?

[@laurencefraser]

I'm pretty sure that wouldn't actually change much of anything in most places unless non-resident land owners were actually the cause of local problems that couldn't be corrected otherwise.

[@elizabethdavis1696]

I want to live in a town planned by you!!!

[@Ferelmakina]

Hmm... Boca Chica, Texas, might have something to say about this... 😅

[@iamsandrewsmith]

I laughed at "I'll take one Pittsburgh, please." As my neighborhood in that fair city is currently being torn up to install new utilities, I might advise the buyer to keep the receipt. But I digress. : ) There is a small suburb west of the city, though, called Pennsbury Village. It's very tiny -- the whole place was originally developed as a townhouse community, then incorporated as a borough, separating it from whatever township it had been part of before. Since the entire community consists of one residential development, I suppose it could be an example of Level 4 in action.

[@sicko_the_ew]

I suppose you could do what Disney did if someone's zoning policy let you? (But I'm guessing trying to do things your own way inside the territory of any city is not going to be possible most times, and so at least within some city the only remaining option is to just to work out some way of efficiently cranking out what you can sell there, easily. Or not bother with that and just invest in something else.) Personally, I'd err on the don't bother, and look for something more appealing side. Could you build what's effectively a city as a "gated community" on non-urban land? Don't incorporate; just build a de facto city. There's something a bit like that in the Johannesburg region in South Africa - although it's just a slighty fancier version of Earth-anywhere, so presumably had to align with all the standard preconceptions to be "legislatively viable". I forget what its name is. Nice enough for what it is, but not something I'm going to invest any of my billions in. Maybe rather put it into something like a Ferrari demolition derby, given the lack of choices? Maybe it would be better to build drug rehab centres out in the countryside? I think you're allowed to do that. Make them ultra-luxury, and see if money actually can buy happiness after all. Give all residents the use of a Ferrari while there. That might give them something other than drugs to live for. Or have a fake money casino that spits out huge clouds of fake money most times someone spins a roulette wheel. And have a strip club where the strippers are all grandmothers who've had major surgery (so that they can also be happy feeling rich and becoming qualified to be politicians on the real rich payroll.) It's a corner. No way out, so all the crazy ideas arrive.

[@vesuvanprincess]

One thing I've been curious about, could a ghost town be adapted for a livable tiny home community?

[@scottmacs]

The family that owns Ruby's Inn managed to incorporate Bryce Canyon City and maintain power.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Nice

[@josecampos7157]

The majority of the "town" of Campo is owned by the county but much of the rest has one owner. Most of the property is former barracks buildings converted into a little over 20 apartments. It also houses the post office, VFW, church, hardware/ranch supply store, and a few other mostly empty buildings. I've been told in the 90s the owner found out her husband had a girlfriend, so she got rid of him and the property. Sold for only $2,000,000.

[@bigboyman5743]

what about company towns? don't companies own them?

[@Imber_swordsage]

if you owned 100% or you know close of an incorporated city would you be able to effect the zoning?

[@GazilionPT]

In my country you cannot buy a town, not even a ghost town. You may buy all the *buildings*, private gardens, etc., in a town, but streets (and such) will always be public access places, you cannot just fence them off and impede access to the general public. (Public streets may in some occasions become private, but that is usually as a result of a land swap: a public entity acquires private land for some public usage - e.g. a new road - and compensates its previous owners by giving back some hitherto public land - e.g. and old and now unnecessary road.) Something different is, for example, abandoned "mining towns" (in fact, "miners' neighbourhoods" in mining complexes). However big they might have been in their heyday, they were never real towns. Their streets were never public space, so you can buy those. But in any case, your so-called "mining town" will always be under the jurisdiction of an actual town (a municipality, a public entity). There are no "unincorporated communities" in my country. In fact, there is no unincorporated territory: every single m2 of territory is incorporated in some municipality, even uninhabited islands where you cannot go because they are a full nature reserve (e.g. Ilhas Selvagens - population: thousands of Calonectris borealis - are part of the municipality of Funchal - 300 km away).

[@chrishale5213]

Virtually everywhere in the US still has to deal with the public entity that is the County Government. However, some unincorporated territory is so rural and their County seat so small, that you likely will sooner run up against state laws before you bump into County regulations.

[@GazilionPT]

@@chrishale5213 From what I understand, about half of Alaska is unincorporated, even at borough (equivalent to country) level.

[@jeremymcginnis7258]

I've heard that Bruce Willis once tried to buy all of Hailey Idaho.

[@alexanderspriggs6028]

I’ve just downloaded Ground news.

[@marilynm6346]

I wish we could bring back small towns. With small towns we have small businesses and depending on the size people will know each other and look after each other.

[@HonoraryBoomer]

Hello from Hughes County 👋

[@JayYoung-ro3vu]

In Ohio, an incorporated area can/does petition the state for city status once their population reaches 5,000. Villages like New Carlisle, Clayton near Dayton, and Canal Winchester and Pickerington, near Columbus are such examples.

[@roevhaal578]

Bryce Canyon City in Utah is run by a single family.

[@AMPProf]

[@longiusaescius2537]

Nice

[@daisyplyler]

In Fairhope, Alabama, I believe you don't own your land but you technically rent it for 99 years (and then can rent it again for another 99). I don't remember all of the details from my 5th grade field trip.

[@sulaimation6253]

really

[@siphious2911]

How about Larry Ellison and Lanai Island, which has a city called Lanai City? (Technically the government is out there)

[@danielwilliams2203]

I’m surprised you didn’t discuss company towns like Pullman, IL, or Fordlândia. Particularly relevant given Musk’s proposal for Snailbrook, TX.

[@tuberstoyreview2135]

I know this is off topic but it the city thing at the beginning actually a game. If so what’s it called?

[@rbmomert]

Buy that town! buy that town! Where can I buy my share?

[@iandaniel1748]

The big ❓ can change zone law and add more

[@bobbycrosby9765]

One of my retirement dreams is to buy some land and put an off-the-grid tiny home town on it for my friends.

[@AMPProf]

Like Hobbit homes or Cyber robot villige

[@Floedekage]

Why off the grid?

[@snowballeffect7812]

2:35 To those interested, Maggie Mae Fish did a nice essay on the controversies regarding Ghost Town Living

[@Michaelengelmann]

I’ll buy NYC & kick everyone out 😂 “GET OFF MY LAWN!”

[@AMPProf]

Lawn? Wtf OOOO SNAP LAWN

[@vault34overseer]

What if it is like a company town. You own the company, all the residents are living in the company dormitory. This seems a little bit closer to owning a town.

[@thinkB4WeSpeak]

They used to have company towns which was basically a sim city

[@SeaBassTian]

Surprised you didn't mention that actress Kim Basinger bought the town of Braselton GA in the nineties with hopes of making it a film production destination but then lost it when she filed for bankruptcy a few years later.

[@phyarth8082]

From Bob Marely song about Sheriff sometimes mayor is not boss of city :)

[@LibraryofLegacy]

What about buying a town and turning it into a resort town?

[@barryrobbins7694]

The actress Kim Basinger (L.A. Confidential) bought the town of Braselton, Georgia in 1989 for $20 million, but declared bankruptcy in 1993.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Huh

[@barryrobbins7694]

@@longiusaescius2537 She is one of those old-timey actresses.

[@definitelynotacrab7651]

We will all buy a city together and make it an urbanists dream!

[@counterfit5]

Uh, @ 2:10, it says up to $350k per square foot in Rhode Island. Where would that even be?

[@johnnguyen6159]

Feels like the figure for Detroit is off considering that that the Gordie Howe bridge is almost $7 Billion. That doesn't even include things like a $3 Billion Medical Center, $1.5 Billion campus, and a $1.5 Billion skyscraper that is suppose to be done this year.

[@hlghhjgkj2436]

But, can I establish a residential and commercial compound in a remote area and control it like Disney does with its own?