If we moved the nation's capital

[politicus]

An alternative would be to take the full consequence of the fact that America's future lies in the Pacific and move the capital to the West Coast. San Diego is the most attractive of those cities and within reasonable distance of Texas.

[Simfan34]

An alternative would be to take the full consequence of the fact that America's future lies in the Pacific and move the capital to the West Coast. San Diego is the most attractive of those cities and within reasonable distance of Texas.

San Diego is on the border with Mexico.

If we somehow needed to move the capital, I think we should do what we did the first time and build an entirely new city. 

Hence East St. Louis.

[politicus]

An alternative would be to take the full consequence of the fact that America's future lies in the Pacific and move the capital to the West Coast. San Diego is the most attractive of those cities and within reasonable distance of Texas.

San Diego is on the border with Mexico.

And? Do you fear an invasion?

[The Mikado]

No one wants to live in f[inks]ing Kansas City. You realize that hundreds of thousands of people (and their families) have to willingly live in and around whatever city is selected, right?

No one would want to live in Washington either if it wasn't the nation's capital.

Are you saying a 16 hour flight is harder than a 4-5 day train ride you'd get from a much closer city 1900?

[Middle-aged Europe]

The president's hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

Indianapolis

[Vega]

Absolutely Philadelphia. Nothing else really comes close.

Oh god no. That would be awful.

[justfollowingtheelections]

No one wants to live in f[inks]ing Kansas City. You realize that hundreds of thousands of people (and their families) have to willingly live in and around whatever city is selected, right?

No one would want to live in Washington either if it wasn't the nation's capital.

Are you saying a 16 hour flight is harder than a 4-5 day train ride you'd get from a much closer city 1900?

WTF are you talking about?  First, you're replying to the wrong message.  Second, my point is that it is really difficult to fly from Honolulu to any city on the East Coast.  It's both incredibly expensive and time-consuming.  And forget Hawaii.  Flying from California (our biggest state) to the East Coast is also very expensive.  The point remains that having the capital on the East Coast is a bad idea in 2014.  I disagree with suggestions such as Denver or a city on the Pacific Coast because it would be too far from the East Coast, but if the capital was to move, a more central location should be chosen.

And that's actually what was done when the location of the current capital was chosen (the mean center of population in 1790-1800 was in the area where DC is).

[Indy Texas]

New York City.

This would be awful, please no.

East St. Louis. Close to center of population, historic significance  (border of the "West"), in need of revitalisation.

St. Louis, MO: as Varavour said, the symbolism of it being where the "East" and "West" of the country meet, the iconic gateway arch, and the economic advantages of moving a lot of public and private sector economic activity to an otherwise stagnant area. East St. Louis, IL would likely benefit as well from spillover effects.

[GLPman]

If history is the most important consideration, then Philadelphia.

If geographical access is the most important consideration, then St. Louis.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Bulldoze Cairo, IL, and build DC 2.0.

[Simfan34]

No one cares about Hawaii except the Hawaiians, who at 1/300th of the population should not be the tail wagging the dog.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Who says we need only one "capital".  We could easily decentralize the bureaucracy and make more use of teleconferencing more when Congress feels the need to grill some members of the executive.  That was done to a limited extent during WW2 tho except for the Social Security Administration remaining in Baltimore, that was largely undone once the war was over.  Move the Treasury department to New York, Commerce and Labor over to Chicago, (If at all possible put Labor as close to where Haymarket Square was.), Energy to Houston, etc.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

KC. Stick them right by the house of prayer.

[Comrade Funk]

Philadelphia. Party like its 1795

[Vega]

What would happen to D.C. if we moved the capital to another city? Would it just become part of Maryland or Virginia? Considering the whole point of it was to host the capital.

[Ban my account ffs!]

What would happen to D.C. if we moved the capital to another city? Would it just become part of Maryland or Virginia? Considering the whole point of it was to host the capital.

That's why this is purely hypothetical.  It would be devastating for the entire region if we were to actually move the capital.

[Simfan34]

I was assuming DC vanished or something.

[pbrower2a]

If you want to move your capital, find some sh*thole, which could really need the influx of money. Detroit is not a bad choice, but neither is a lot of other poor areas. New York would be a terrible choice, don't you people think they're obnoxious enough without being the official centre of USA.

Detroit is on a national border.

St. Louis, Missouri -- the definitive dump. 

[Orser67]

States with remote capitals have more corruption, and I imagine that trend would hold for the federal government (although probably less so). Because of that I'd want the capital to be a population center. I guess I'd go with Chicago (large city near the center of population) or Philadelphia (fairly large city near the old capital; already has a lot of history).

[Angel of Death]

If you plan a route between the northeast and the southwest of the contiguous United States and another between the southeast and the northwest, they would cross at St. Louis.

[Frodo]

I don't really see why we have to move the nation's capital anywhere other than where it is.  If the idea is to bring the government closer to the people it serves, why not simply decentralize the federal bureaucracy, and move agency headquarters out to the states? 

[Intell]

Boston, seems like a good choice.

[Brittain33]

Someplace with a good quality of life, room to grow, centrally located, and positioned well for climate change. The clear answer is Minneapolis-St. Paul. 

[Redalgo]

I imagine it would be nice to start from scratch, with workers housed in a town in Wyoming or Colorado commute to a vast, subterranean facility built into tunnels carved out from under some mountains in the Rockies. Give 'em their own infrastructure detached from the outside world - protecting the capital from cyberattacks and weapons of mass destruction. Then set up a separate system of CCTV, audio bugs, or something along those lines to provide the public with digital access to public spaces, offices, etc. in the facility as a tradeoff for not being able to easily visit in the way we presently can in the DC area. If there are too many agencies to realistically move we could simply relocate the vital ones and leave the rest be.