Ever hear of any new towns developing?

Question

It seems like everybody either stays in one place or moves to another town or city. I was thinking it might be cool to start up a new community and experiment with new laws and stuff to see how it might work.

Answer 1

1. Yes, it does happen. In USA such a scheme is called an "intentional community", although elsewhere in the English-speaking world the term "commune" is more widely used. They tend to be based on co-operativism and collective democracy, with sustainability frequently being a communal aim.

2. Read the relevant page from Wikipedia for an introduction to the concept.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commune_(intentional_community)

3. Then take a look around this website. You will notice that it has a huge database of intentional communities, mainly in North America, but around the world also.
http://www.ic.org/

4. Additional reading material.
http://60sfurther.com/Communes.htm
http://www.erowid.org/culture/communities/communities.shtml
http://www.communa.org.il/world.htm
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/communes/index.html
http://gen.ecovillage.org/about/index.html

5. Here are some leading US intentional communities.
http://www.thefarm.org/
http://www.twinoaks.org/
http://www.eastwind.org/
http://www.enota.org/

6. There are also similar, though less fundamental forms of co-operative living:
a) Cohousing (USA);
http://www.cohousing.org/overview.aspx
b) Housing Co-ops (various types - UK).
http://www.cch.coop/coopinfo/types.html

Answer 2

Might be easier to just get a bunch of like-minded people to move to a really small town that is already incorporated and "take over" (in a non-violent, vote-for-each other in the next election, sort of way).