TY, Baker
>>18502293 (PB)
> sizable public land base to be used as the basis of "Freedom" Cities.
Have you seen any of it? Visited it maybe? Tried to live there? Maybe grow some food?
Most of that land is worthless to live upon. There's no water, and the soil is all rock and sand. The mining is great, and the cattle grazing is pretty good, but the vast majority of public lands are not suitable for building cities.
That's why nobody built cities there before.
I'm not saying they can't be inhabited, but it won't look like what we understand to be a city, and only the hardiest of people will be able to pull it off.