Owning a town

[Bad Aim]

I have read stories of people "buying" an entire town. Now, I am not talking about someone going in and buying New York City. But there have been stories of someone coming in and buying an entire town that houses maybe 200 people, has a post office, store, gas station, and maybe a coffee shop.

If I won the lottery and bought myself a town, would I automatically become the mayor? Could I build several buildings in in the area at my own expense? Could I try to create a "new" town on top of the old and encourage people form nearby cities to come live in my town? And if I did do something like this and made a successful town of about 20,000 people, would the state or federal government be able to come in and take away from me what I rightfully built? (I live in the U.S.)

I recently came across an article about a couple that did buy a very small town for under $500k.

After reading the article, it made me wonder if someone like Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation could buy a small town, build it up to a large town, and offer affordable housing and jobs. It would be, I think, a great investment.

[Abaddon the Despoiler]

Only a narcissist would want to own a whole town.

[76561198356019466]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Abaddon the Despoiler:

Only a narcissist would want to own a whole town.

Even this one?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibberts_Gore,_Maine

[Bad Aim]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Abaddon the Despoiler:

Only a narcissist would want to own a whole town.

Buh-Bye

[Electric Cupcake]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKYEXjMlKKQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EQcBL5v9To

[St✩rlight]

Yeah I was looking at a site last week selling ghost towns. There was a whole village is Spain for 260k

[Bad Aim]

The town is currently called Wauconda, Washington. It sold for $359,000.

I would offer links to the site I have about this story, but you need to have a paid subscription in order to view the story. I am sure you can look it up with the information I have given.

But my questions still stand. Are they now the mayor's of that town? Assuming they had money to do it, could they create affordable housing and build businesses and make this town a place for low income people to go and live?

It's something I would do if I had the money.

[St✩rlight]

I doubt it. Usually towns are abandoned because there is no money and no economy. You're just buying the land with the buildings.

[Abaddon the Despoiler]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Munithe EXT:

I doubt it. Usually towns are abandoned because there is no money and no economy. You're just buying the land with the buildings.

Stop bringing reality into his narcissistic fantasy.

[Bad Aim]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Munithe EXT:

I doubt it. Usually towns are abandoned because there is no money and no economy. You're just buying the land with the buildings.

Actually, if you look up the town I am referring to, you will see that it is very small but not abandoned. You can also do a satellite view of this town and see it is surrounded by lush green land, perfect for farming. At least, I would assume so. I am not a farmer.

[Angry Gandalf]

Ask Milton S. Hershey

[Bad Aim]

I just found out that in Whittier, Alaska there is a 14 story building that houses most of it's residents. It also houses businesses, grocery store, laundry mat, post office, health clinic... Pretty much everything a town would need.

This is a great idea! Build something like this along with several small apartment complex's and tiny house communities and you have yourself a town that is pretty much ready made to live and work.

If you can then get some businesses involved, maybe a couple of call centers, you could easily have a thriving town for low income people.

It's a shame someone like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett don't do something like this. They would have the money, resources, and most importantly, connections to pull something like this off.

[Tiberius]

It wont be any different from an industrial complex. Industrial complex has its own residential area and infrastructure, that you can almost call it a town

[GunsForBucks]

Look the world isn't so simplistic.

There is infrastructure like electric and water supply to consider. Then the roads needed to manage all that.

Just buying land and some buildings to fix up won't solve the problem. It would take a lot more investment to connect back into the world around it.

Communications etc railroad if you are making things.

But that is just it. People just don't build anywhere. Places get built up because of what is there.

Factories will be located near resources they need. Planning logistics like this is what creates places ... towns even form around highway crossings.

The fact some place is abandoned is because whatever was there that brought in jobs has dried up. You could revitalize some place like that but the costs would be much much more than just buying the land and buildings.

[GunsForBucks]

You could even find some nice fertile river valley to create a city in... but the state could come along and say they need to flood the valley to create a dam for the city a few hundred miles away.

[Bad Aim]

Początkowo opublikowane przez GunsForBucks:

Look the world isn't so simplistic.

There is infrastructure like electric and water supply to consider. Then the roads needed to manage all that.

Just buying land and some buildings to fix up won't solve the problem. It would take a lot more investment to connect back into the world around it.

Communications etc railroad if you are making things.

But that is just it. People just don't build anywhere. Places get built up because of what is there.

Factories will be located near resources they need. Planning logistics like this is what creates places ... towns even form around highway crossings.

The fact some place is abandoned is because whatever was there that brought in jobs has dried up. You could revitalize some place like that but the costs would be much much more than just buying the land and buildings.

True....

<sigh> You have several very valid points. Just because the town isn't abandoned doesn't mean that it would be a good place to try a social experiment like this. And if it failed, that would be a lot of money that could have gone to causes that are known to work out a lot of money.

It was just a thought. I am always looking for ways that could improve the world we live in.