Would they ever move a state/provincial capital?
Seems pointless these days with modern technology and to uproot government workers but who knows, just throwing it out there.
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Apparently, half the US states have moved their capitals at least once, but it hasn't happened since 1910, when Oklahoma City became its state capital.
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This happened A LOT back in the olden days, but nowadays these things seem pretty set.
Interesting question: when was the last time a US state moved it's capital? EDIT: craigs apparently got the answer. So it's been over a century, I doubt we'll see it again. |
Exactly. And a few more places (Pensacola, for example), would be much more prominent if they had been chosen or remain. So much status comes from it.
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Given sprawling modern state bureaucracies, I'd think it would be so cost prohibitive outside some unforeseen natural calamity.
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Hasnt Alaska been trying for years to move the capitol from Juneau to Anchorage?
Juneau is a gorgeous city, but difficult to reach... |
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Juneau can't even be reached by road or rail for ever It hasn't been the largest city for about a century. Juneau sounds cool but is it no way where a capital should be Anchorage is really the only real minor city in the entire gigantic state that is Alaska. |
Some of the states and provinces with multiple cities have decentralized the government to spread jobs around (all of Ontario's birth, death and wedding certificates are processed in my city, for example) so they've kind of done that, but the process of actually relocating the legislature itself to another city, short of a catastrophe that destroys the existing one, is an expense that is nearly impossible to justify today.
But on that note, Canada's parliament is currently sitting in a different location than its parliament buildings while that undergoes a total restoration. The house of commons is sitting in the renovated (and covered) courtyard of a neighbouring building while the senate is sitting several blocks away in a renovated train station. I actually think the new buildings are much nicer than the old one was but it's not permanent, only for a decade or so while the existing building is essentially rebuilt from the inside out. Juneau is Alaska's capital because the US needed justification for that region being part of the US. The UK claimed it for BC at the time. In the end it was the privy council in the UK itself that gave the US everything they'd asked for. |
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https://miami.cbslocal.com/2019/08/0...state-capital/ I'd assume, at least AK too? |
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For example, if Ontario's capital was Thunder Bay, it might make sense to pay (as a one off expense) whatever it takes to move it to the GTA once and for all, and then there'd be a bunch of recurrent operational savings (and probably economic gains due to efficiency) from the fact the capital is where the people are. If it pays for itself in 10 years or less, it's a good move. |
Canada's capitals are pretty much universally in the province's largest or second largest city.
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I doubt any will move within my lifetime unless there is some type of disaster, but I think it would make sense for a couple to be moved to the big city. I think New York's capital should be in the city, and Illinois's capital probably should be in Chicago. Those two states are so overwhelmingly tilted to the largest city that it seems extremely inefficient to have the capital located in another place.
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https://live.staticflickr.com/3742/1...dfba81fc_b.jpg Illinois State Capitol by Larry Senalik, on Flickr safe to say, illinois' capital won't be going anywhere anytime soon. |
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Albany makes perfect sense as it's close enough to NYC but also reasonably close to the rest of the state, including Upstate/Western New York. NYC might as well be in New Jersey geographically from much of the state.
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Plus, it's only two and a half hours to Albany from Penn Station. Less than Chicago to Springfield. |
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It made sense to put the capital in Albany when it looked like New York State might eventually look more like California, with two or three major population centers. What eventually happened is that NYC became the major population center and left the other parts of the state behind. |
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https://cmrue.files.wordpress.com/20...g?w=1200&h=800 |
Doubt any Australian state or territory would move (in this case, I'm only talking about the Northern Territory & Darwin, not the Australian Capital Territory that houses both the national capital and.... the territorial capital because everyone in the ACT lives in Canberra!). As it is, Canberra is a bastard-love child of Melbourne & Sydney because neither Victoria or New South Wales could decide if Melbourne or Sydney could be the national capital post-federation in 1901 (despite Melbourne being the national capital for 26 years while a site was chosen, a territory created and what we now call Old Parliament House was being built in Canberra).
Similar to the Canadian examples above, there's been varying degrees of bureaucracy decentralisation within metro areas, and to some extent regional cities, but I don't see any advantage of moving Parliaments elsewhere - as it is, the overwhelming majority of people who have seats in each state parliament are commutable distance from their electorates - thanks to each state capital being the largest city and therefore hosting the most amount of seats in each state parliament. Moving a parliament to a regional city would mean the majority of reps wouldn't be spending as much time in their local communities. |
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