Nathan Mendelsohn had a plan:
buy an enormous area of land in California’s Mojave Desert.
Lay out some roads, and then divide the bits between them
into lots that people could build houses on.
Then sell all those lots individually for a profit.
There was just one problem with his California City.
He built it, and no one came.
Buying land and then incorporating a city was a plan that worked for other developers,
who were building suburbs or cities on smaller scales.
But California City wasn't just going to be one suburb:
it was going to be enormous, a master-planned city sitting in the middle of the Mojave.
Even now, it is technically the third largest city in California -- by area.
It's a symbol of the futuristic optimism of the 1960s:
the space race at full speed; flying cars just around the corner;
Walt Disney talking about a great big beautiful tomorrow.
Nate Mendelsohn's dream was a new city to rival Los Angeles.
TED SUTHERLAND: Mr. Mendelsohn, I knew him very well.
He was a very kind gentleman. He was very bright.
He created all the roads to get the city developed.
And he built it in order to expand the city out.
He originally expected it would develop out there first.
TOM SCOTT: On a map, Mendelsohn’s plan looks successful. The roads are all named, this
is Lincoln Boulevard, over there is Norbury Street. They are legal roads, with speed limits
and traffic laws, your GPS will happily navigate you around them -- except they don't go anywhere,
they're just geoglyphs scratched into the desert surface for miles and miles and miles.
TED SUTHERLAND: Early days, it was not too many people, like 300.
So everything was slow, you knew everybody, and everybody helped everybody.
You never locked your doors. It was nice. They were selling lots here.
And they flew people in DC-3's and landed on a dirt strip.
And they brought them in from all over the world. And they sold lots everywhere.
But as time progressed, you know, you hit a slump, you can't survive.
And we had ups and downs. Lots of them.
TOM SCOTT: Now, to be fair to Mendelsohn and California City,
the plan did work, to an extent.
The advertising brought thousands and thousands of people in to buy land as an investment
--
but only a few actually moved here.
Fifteen years after California City incorporated,
less than 7,000 people lived here,
and a lot of those starry-eyed investors had quietly stopped paying property taxes
and let the state of California take back the land.
But today, California City is doing fairly well.
JENNIFER WOOD: You know, I think the reality is, when people come to California City,
and we've had many journalists come over the years,
somehow, I don't know, it's like they get a calling to go out into the desert.
And then they see all these carved out roads, and that "oh, well this city just failed".
The reality is: we're a full-fledged city.
TOM SCOTT: There are around 15,000 people living in the south-west of the city,
with all the amenities you'd expect a small city to have. And there's employment, too:
there's an automobile proving ground nearby,
the Mojave Spaceport's in the next town over,
and there's an Air Force base a few miles behind me.
JENNIFER WOOD: In my lifetime, will I see California City build out?
I won't live another hundred years!
But all that vacant land is an asset. Los Angeles doesn't have anything like that.
Many communities, they have to annexe more property to build. And we have it here.
And where can you see all the stars? Someone said to me, not long ago,
"there are more stars in California City than there are in Hollywood".
So Mendelsohn's idea for a planned city was sound, he just massively overestimated the
demand.
Or did he? Because ultimately, he sold most of those lots, all that empty land --
even if nothing was ever built there.
He made his money and moved on to other things.
From Mendelsohn’s perspective, California City worked perfectly.
Hey everyone, it's Bridget, from the Field Day team!
If you want to see what interested Tom in California City,
click the box on the left.
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