Special Economic Zone

[stick n move]

Is this something that could work here? Theres an obvious reason why they work in places like China to attract foreign investment to certain areas with special conditions not found in other cities, but is this something that could be leveraged here too? Lots of cities here are starting to become pretty unfriendly to business as well with all kinds of different groups you have to pay, then fight the neighborhood, just to get scaled back anyways.

I could see designating an area with special tax codes and even building a city from scratch with no history to preserve, no entrenched nimbys, just pure market forces dictating housing, office space, transit needs...etc. I think its a pretty interesting idea why or why not. I was looking around on maps too and even came across an area called Cairo il that has become abandoned but it at the confluence of the mississippi and Illinois rivers and has tons of room to grow in all directions. Im sure theres still a few pretty good locations left that were overshadowed for whatever reason.

I really wonder what could be done with in 21st century america with a special economic zone setup somewhere with room to grow, room to house people, build transit, build bike paths, parks.. whatever the market needs in all directions. Could America build its own Shenzhen?

 

[George_Apley]

One of the reasons there aren't many large cities along that stretch of the Mississippi is that it's a massive flood plain. Often if no significant settlements develop in a region there's a geographic reason for it.