
The nearly 5M US Census Blocks with zero population (2014) - sndean
http://tumblr.mapsbynik.com/post/82791188950/nobody-lives-here-the-nearly-5-million-census
======
ransom1538
If you can, take a ride on a smaller aircraft over California. The first thing
I noticed was almost everything is uninhabited. US Forest Service manages 20
million acres of National Forest land in California. _Another_ large portion
is state park systems. California State Parks began the 1990s with over 260
park units, 280 miles of coastline, 625 miles of lake and river frontage,
nearly 18,000 campsites, 3,000 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails,
and 450 miles of off-highway vehicle trails on nearly 1.3 million acres. [ii]

[https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=940](https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=940)

~~~
brndnmtthws
Let's hope it stays this way.

~~~
maratd
Why wouldn't it? Humans prefer living next to each other, creating dense
clusters.

~~~
brndnmtthws
Well, for example: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-
science/trump...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-
science/trump-signs-order-at-the-epa-to-dismantle-environmental-
protections/2017/03/28/3ec30240-13e2-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html)

~~~
dublinclontarf
The Trump EPA is going to force people to live in the badlands?

~~~
closeparen
The worry is that the land will transition from public recreation to business
resource extraction uses.

~~~
Sacho
Is the worry substantiated by anything in Trump's order?

~~~
closeparen
>"Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that executive
departments and agencies (agencies) immediately review existing regulations
that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy
resources and appropriately suspend, revise, or rescind those that unduly
burden the development of domestic energy resources beyond the degree
necessary to protect the public interest or otherwise comply with the law."

Who knows to what degree these lands are considered "the public interest" vs.
"undue burden" in the Secretary of the Interior's mind. But the rules
regarding drilling on public land are specifically called out for review,
indicating that the White House believes they are currently too strict.

------
eknight15
_Despite having a population of more than 310 million people, no one calls 47
percent of the USA "home"._

Wow wouldn't have guessed it was that high. I'd like to see the same map but
excluding national parks/public spaces.

~~~
thriftwy
This reminds me how SF writers were expecting that people will colonize other
planets, 50 years ago.

We'll somehow go all the way over there and find a way to live in those
hostile conditions.

Guess what, fast forward, people don't _just_ want to stay on Earth, but will
also prefer SF proper, Manhattan and/or Paris within 20 arrondissements.

Even smaller cities are losing population. I guess that Spengler's narrative
lives on.

~~~
tlrobinson
Took me a second to figure out your first use of "SF" was "science fiction"
and the second was "San Francisco"

~~~
aqzman
I'm glad I wasn't the only one. I was very confused for a moment after reading
that comment. Never seen the acronym "SF" used for science fiction before.

~~~
__s
[https://google.com/search?q=SF+writer](https://google.com/search?q=SF+writer)
doesn't list writers from San Francico

SF straight in the title of [https://www.amazon.com/Other-Worlds-SF-Human-
Imagination/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Other-Worlds-SF-Human-
Imagination/dp/0307741761)

SF also serves to include both 'science fiction' and 'speculative fiction' but
that's a whole other debate

------
cleaver
If you go to a random spot anywhere in the world, there's a good chance
there's not a lot of people there.

The site [http://confluence.org/](http://confluence.org/) catalogs visits to
intersections of latitude and longitude. Drill down into one of the maps and
you'll probably find mostly empty spaces.

Map of USA:
[http://confluence.org/country.php?id=1&showmap=true](http://confluence.org/country.php?id=1&showmap=true)

------
terminado
It'd be interesting to see an overlay of areas that are inhospitable to wild
animals, perhaps excluding birds. Mostly because that would be a useful
indication of how much inhabitable land is monopolized by humans.

~~~
brewdad
Exactly what wild animals would we be considering? Pigeons live in the wild in
virtually every temperate city on earth. I think there are coyotes in New
York's Central Park.

~~~
bagacrap
Mammals that are at least as big as humans perhaps.

------
armenarmen
So census blocks include federally owned land? That would account for the
emptiness, as most of the west is government owned and not open to settlement

------
dlhavema
Maybe its just my phone buy i couldnt read the article. The end of every line
was chopped off, and it wouldnt let me scroll to see more...

------
swayvil
I know where I'm moving

~~~
awqrre
You probably can't or don't want to move to most of these places (parks,
lakes, deserts, etc...)

~~~
Piskvorrr
I'd guess "about half." The rest might be uninhabited and open to settlement
(e.g. North Dakota)...but the commute might be sort of long ;)

------
seltzered_
Somewhat related, a reminder that the US Census for 2020 is in a state of
hiatus - the US Census director resigned 20 days ago -
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/us-
census...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/us-census-
director-resigns-amid-turmoil-over-funding-
of-2020-count/2017/05/09/8f8657c6-34ea-11e7-b412-62beef8121f7_story.html)

------
mike-cardwell
The USA is about 40 times larger than the UK in land mass, but only has a
population 5 times larger.

You would need to increase your population from 320 million to 2.6 billion to
have the same population density as us.

You have so much free space you could absorb the entire population of Europe.
Logistics aside. Which makes some US citizens fear of immigration even more
laughable.

~~~
thriftwy
But come to think of that, immigration doesn't target flyover areas - not so
many immigrants come to middle of nowhere places. Instead the (desirable)
coast areas get packed.

Maybe the fears of immigration are laughable, maybe not, but your argument
doesn't hold water.

~~~
Robotbeat
That's false. There are lots of immigrants to Minnesota, from places like
Laos, Mexico, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Heck, Minneapolis/St.Paul is one of the
largest groupings of the Somali diaspora. Immigrants don't just live in the
cities but also small towns.

But anyway, who makes the mort stink about immigrants? The exact place you say
immigrants aren't coming: flyover country.

~~~
_delirium
Texas also has both a huge amount of land, and a large number of immigrants
(around 15-20% of the state's population is foreign-born).

~~~
RugnirViking
Do you have any insight for someone that knows very little about american
geography as to why this is?

------
brm
The fear is due to racism, scapegoating, and a general inability to cope with
a changing population...

[https://thinkprogress.org/poll-americans-anti-immigrant-
atti...](https://thinkprogress.org/poll-americans-anti-immigrant-attitudes-
are-fueled-by-racism-30968b83a908)

[http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/136843021667730...](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1368430216677304)

[http://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/spcl/documents/Craig_Ri...](http://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/spcl/documents/Craig_RichesonPS_updatedversion.pdf)

[http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10516.html](http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10516.html)

~~~
canoebuilder
_cope with a changing population_

Why is it just westerners/whites who are expected to cope with a changing
population?

Can you imagine a scenario in which say Beijing, or Tokyo, or Jakarta, or
Riyadh, or Nairobi, or Lagos, or Mumbai were filled with a foreign population
that was greater than 50% of the total population for the city?

Can you imagine a scenario where any country outside the western world had
demographic numbers showing that foreigners outnumbering the founding
population group of the country in the sub 25 age group?

These scenarios are unimaginable and quite absurd even to ponder for anywhere
outside of white countries. And yet, have you been to London? Have you looked
at demographic charts?

People can raise objections to the population displacement you seem to favor
without it having anything to do with "racism, scapegoating, and a general
inability to cope," or "muh jerbs."

There are plenty of westerners who think, "We've got a pretty good thing going
here, we've brought a lot of good to ourselves and the world as a whole. And
we'd rather not see our civilization drastically altered, because a drastic
altering of our civilization will impede our efforts and abilities to go on
doing good for ourselves and the world."

~~~
crooked-v
> that was greater than 50% of the total population for the city?

So... where, exactly, is this supposed to be analogous to?

~~~
ng12
San Diego was over 90% non-Hispanic whites up until the 50's, now they
represent roughly 45% of the population -- and that's excluding many of the
major Hispanic enclaves south of the city proper.

