People bought up land in Willow to try to make a fast buck. They ended up with basically worthless land.
Phoenix is the only reasonable place to have the Arizona state capitol. It is centrally located and the vast majority of the state’s population lives in the metro area.
Jefferson City is centrally located and on the Missouri River so it seemed like a pretty good choice at the time. Then the railroad went through there and it seemed like a really good choice. But 30 miles away Columbia got the university, then the big highway, then the Interstate and now it’s twice as big as Jeff City AND more convenient to KC and St. Louis, and not much if at all less convenient to anywhere else, so I say move it.
And not that it’s my state, but Illinois should move the capital to Bloomington. The downstate politicians would never let it be moved to Chicago,
Australia is much more centralized than the US; every state & territorial capital is also it’s largest city and seems to be home of the majority of the population.
Fair to whom? Is there some reason that rural people need to be both over represented per-capita in the state senate and then have the capital in a place that is less convenient for the majority of the population?
I love my birthplace, workplace and closest big town – Frankfort.
Zsofia is right about Columbia’s convenient location. That said, Columbia has a couple of things not in its favor.
- It is located on an ancient beach (the Fall Line). The sandy soil reflects the sunlight. When combined with a complete lack of a breeze, this factor makes for some oppresively hot and miserable days in the summertime.
- Something in the air makes people stupid when they enter the city limits. Seemingly rational, well-meaning people turn into blithering idiots when they go there, particularly if they are conducting the state’s business.
- People in Columbia can’t hold their liquor. At all. Saturday night in Five Points has more drunken idiots per square foot than any place in America outside of Boston.
Interestingly enough: Columbia was the second choice for the state capitol. The early pick was Fort Motte, located about 30 to 45 minutes away, depending on whether you drive like a Columbia resident or a Sane Human Being. Fort Motte today is a small, sleepy rural place with next to nothing there, and Columbia is, well, Columbia.
The capital of Ontario is Toronto. It is the centre of gravity of Ontario: it has the largest population, hospitals, banking, media, research, law, traffic jams, train system, etc, etc, in the province. And it’s smack-dab in the middle of the largest population area. Logical choice for the capital.
This doesn’t stop people a thousand kilometres away in far parts of the province from complaining that Toronto is too far away for accurate and responsive representation of their concerns to the provincial government.
No problems with Santa Fe as the capital for almost 400 years.
Jackson is in an OK location I guess. It is a little too far south to be centered in the middle of the state, but MS isn’t square anyway. It’s in a good location now, since two interstate highways meet there (I-55 and I-20).
It was originally founded as a trading post at LeFleur’s Bluff, along the Pearl River, considered a good location due to its proximity to the Natchez Trace.
It’s good that California’s capital isn’t San Francisco or LA, which already dominate the state too much anyway. Possibly Fresno or someplace would be a bit more central, but CA is just too big. Everything north of Sac gets forgotten no matter what you do (hey folks, did you know there’s a big ol’ chunk of California north of Sacramento? It’s where half your water comes from!), so it’s probably just as well that it’s as far north as it is.
Harrisburg, PA is probably about as good a choice as anything. Its not right in the center of the state. Its close to a larger share of the population in Eastern PA, but far enough from Philadelphia that Western PA doesn’t secede.
The city itself is OK. In the region, you’ve got Hershey and Pennsylvania Dutch Country.