Like Dallas and Jacksonville, they were small cities originally with a rail line going through it. Then in the age of the automobile, two things happened 1- you no longer needed rails 2 it was cheap land essentially :free-real-estate:. So Phoenix becomes this city that is open to whatever business will come because there’s nothing there. Instead of warehousing your stuff in California it was easier and cheaper to do it in Arizona. Then in the computer age, you got these Silicon Valley companies trying to figure out where to put things like server farms or a place to test their new products. California wasn’t good because energy prices are too high along with land and there’s some push back with certain products. One being the self driving car, which is why you see all these self driving cars being tested in Arizona. They want this because it’s better than admitting this shit shouldn’t exist in the middle of the dessert. But now you got these rich fucks in the Middle East who want to recreate this bullshit because they desperately need capital in the future when the oil runs out. It’s why i would say Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the three city’s spiritual successor. They are cities with nothing in them with as much culture as a McDonald’s restroom. I’ve visited all these cities in my life and can just say that there’s a reason why prostitution is such a big business in all these cities. But you couldn’t build a city like Phoenix anymore in the US. I hope it burns down in the impending climate crisis. :amerikkka: