Blue State Blues: California’s Third Largest City Is a Mostly Empty, Forgotten Dream
17th October 2024
100 miles northeast of Los Angeles in the high desert of California’s Antelope Valley lies the blueprint of a city. But the blueprint isn’t drawn on paper — it’s etched into the sand.
Miles and miles of unpaved roads are carved into the eastern half of California City, intersecting and folding into themselves only to bottom out into empty cul de sacs. Even though there are no houses in sight, the roads are marked with street signs — with names like Lincoln Boulevard, Rutgers Road and Aristotle Drive — that stand among the prickly creosote bushes.
Aside from the dusty roads and the telephone poles, the only interruptions to the landscape are old signs advertising land for sale. Some have fallen off of their wooden posts and lie flat on the sand.
Another famous victory for central planning.