[ChainOfFools]

san diego long time resident here. the city has the climate you describe only by virtue of it being centered almost entirely within a coastal scrub biome about 20-30 miles wide. it's a sweet spot both created by and geographically impacted within the enclosure of a low coastal range immediately east, beyond which things get very hot and barren almost immediately.

this strip exists in some form for most of the so cal coastline up through roughly the central coast, where the mountain range edges up to the water line itself.

it's just not anywhere near enough land. Too narrow, and much of the land is impractical to live within outside of retirement or vacation circumstances (not even considering that vast swathes are on military property).

It cannot absorb a mass westward migration. this is evident in the property values where settlement has already been long established.

[jcims]

Understood, i spent the weekend roaming around Borrego Springs.

My broader point is that there is a lot of land in ’the west’ that doesn’t meet the criteria that the author is talking about. Oregon, Washington, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado all have attractive destinations that aren’t (literally or practically) the desert.

Also, anecdotally it seems many of the folks migrating to Austin are actually moving east.

The point the author is making is legit, I’m just engaging in the time honored tradition of roasting bad titles.

[khuey]

> It cannot absorb a mass westward migration. this is evident in the property values where settlement has already been long established.

Sure it can, if it were built at any remotely reasonable density. But there are plenty of people deeply invested in that not happening who already live there.