Yeah for the short story I write the idea down for was about a high desert town in a western state. no-where in particular, but that gritty, off the grid, sandy desert western culture. somewhere between abbey and le guin, but in a modern context . a story about community having to make real decisions about things like infrastructure.

I put the idea down a couple years ago when I was reading some local politician responding to criticisms about wasting public money and potholes and them basically being like "the budget is public. show me the waste? yall want more done? pay more taxes.", when the reality of managing anything is costs and benefits in the context of limited resources. like the communal management of resources would have come about basically as an app this community was using to keep track of and develop the land they bought to home stead but it evolves from there.