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How Do You Move a City?
Zothecula writes "The town of Kiruna in Lapland, Sweden, is known for its Jukkasjårvi Ice Hotel and for hosting the recent Arctic Council summit. It also sits within the Arctic Circle, on one of the world's richest deposits of iron ore. Now in danger of collapse due to extensive deep mining, the city center is to be relocated."
Or ask Hibbing, Minnesota. From 1919 to 1921, the entire city moved about two miles to make way for what became the largest open-pit iron mine in the world.
1. Build settlers until the population is reduced to one.
2. Build one final settler.
3. Confirm that you want to disband the city.
4. Settle somewhere else.
Especially if they Built This City on Rock and Roll
Nice to see my hometown on Slashdot!
Personally, I view the move as a necessary evil.
I prefer the old Town Hall to the plans for the new one, the relocation plans are realistic but will locate the town in a valley, (we're currently on an mountain) and I doubt the competency of the municipal politicians who are supposed to represent the citizens side in the negotiations with the (in my oppinion) much more powerful and skilled mining company.
We will get a cool cable railway though town, though. Unless it gets scrapped due to budget concerns. (Hint: it will.)
There are also worries that Kiruna will become a new Malmberget, a neighbouring community that has been split up by mining activities by the very same company.
Houses might lose their value (Googletranslated) and risk standing alone next to the ravine in the years between ones and ones neighbours relocations.
Not moving isn't really an option, as the mines employ a huge share of the towns population, either directly or via subcontractors.
There's more information about the competition at the Swedish Association of Architects website:
Town Hall competition, Googletranslated
City Center competition, Googletranslated, PDFs in english to the right.
(Note that the winning team are cited as sources in TFA.)
Posting as AC as I didn't get an account ten years ago and missed out on those lovely low number IDs.
And the neighbouring villages name is Jukkasjärvi. It is a Finnish/meänkieli name, and they don't even use "å"! (Except in Swedish loanwords.)