Nat Mendelsohn had a dream. A city that was going to rival Los Angles, in three hundred and twenty square kilometers of Mojave dessert paradise, centered around a beautiful — though not native to the dessert and artificially watered, of course — park, complete with a 105,218 square meter artificial lake. Seen on a map it might seem as if perhaps Mendelsons dream came true, for hundreds of miles of named streets cut through the dessert area known as California City, ending in cul-de-sacs, and looking much like a large suburban community has been built. It is by this metric of its geographical size, that California City can lay claim to being the third largest city in California and 34th largest in the nation. However, on closer inspection one quickly notices something missing: houses. There is absolutely nothing lining these streets, no houses, no electric grid, nothing. The roads form an empty ghost-grid, a mirage of suburbia still waiting to be filled. (via California City: The Unbuilt Suburb | Atlas Obscura)