Heading: (California - California City)
Author:
Title: The California City Plan... Streetmap of Central Area - A Fabulous Recreation-Land
Place Published: No place
Publisher:
Date Published: c.1960
Description:

Map & promotional broadside combination. 74x57.5 cm.

Promotional map for the planned city of California City, located in the northern Antelope Valley in Kern County, California. California City is known for having the third-largest land area of any city in the state of California. It was a master-planned community, created in the post-World War II boom years with grand aspirations, that failed to grow and fill the lots, blocks, and streets that were laid out in the remote Mojave desert. Today, much of the workforce of Edwards Air Force Base, which is located 18 miles southeast of the city, is made up of city residents. No copies are listed in OCLC, and we could find no listings of other maps of California City as well.

California City, which incorporated on December 10, 1965, had its origins in 1958 when Columbia University sociology professor and real estate developer Nat Mendelssohn purchased 82,000 acres of Mojave Desert land with the aim of master-planning California's next great city. He designed his model city, which he hoped would one day rival Los Angeles in size, around a Central Park with a 26-acre artificial lake Growth fell well short of his expectations and by the time Mendelssohn sold his shares in the town in 1969, only 1,300 people had moved in. Today, vast grids of crumbling paved roads which define residential blocks extend well beyond the developed area of the city, giving California City the appearance of a ghost town.



Although areas of California City have not developed as expected, California City has grown from 3,200 people in 1985 to over 14,000 in 2018. Although one of California's smaller cities in terms of population, California City is the third largest city in California by land area.

Some darkening in a few places, very good.