Why does the US have huge cities in the desert?

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Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Phoenix, etc. I can understand part of the appeal (like Las Vegas), and it’s not like people haven’t lived in desert cities for millenia, but looking at them from Google Earth, they’re absolutely massive and sprawling. How can these places be viable to live in and grow so huge? What’s so appealing to them?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I lived in Albuquerque for about 6 years and it at least has a river running through town (the Rio Grande). Near the river it’s pretty green, though it definitely gets pretty dry beyond some distance that includes most of the city. What really confuses me is why water-intensive farming/industry goes to cities in the desert with limited water supply. Albuquerque had a big Intel fab that was practically single-handedly depleting the water table because it used so much water.

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