Can Nusantara really help sinking Jakarta?

[TheVat]

You may have heard some of the grandiose claims about Indonesia building a new national capital, at higher elevation in the jungle, which will somehow help the Jakarta situation. I have to wonder. Jakarta is home to 40 million people, many in poverty, much of their land sinking eventually below sea level. Nusantara might, if they're lucky, house the government and 2 million, by 2045. Which socioeconomic segments of Jakarta do you think might get to move to this shiny futuristic paradise?

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/16/g-s1-117409/indonesia-capital-nusantara-future-faces-doubts-present

Here's a crazy thought: what if all those billions for Nusantara had gone gone to moving Jakartans from the lowest-lying areas, to adjacent land, and generally working on existing infrastructure and pollution issues, and creative problem-solving of subsidence?

Couid this whole goat rodeo be a terrestrial metaphor for the tech bros and their Martian dreams?

 

[exchemist]

You may have heard some of the grandiose claims about Indonesia building a new national capital, at higher elevation in the jungle, which will somehow help the Jakarta situation. I have to wonder. Jakarta is home to 40 million people, many in poverty, much of their land sinking eventually below sea level. Nusantara might, if they're lucky, house the government and 2 million, by 2045. Which socioeconomic segments of Jakarta do you think might get to move to this shiny futuristic paradise?

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/16/g-s1-117409/indonesia-capital-nusantara-future-faces-doubts-present

Here's a crazy thought: what if all those billions for Nusantara had gone gone to moving Jakartans from the lowest-lying areas, to adjacent land, and generally working on existing infrastructure and pollution issues, and creative problem-solving of subsidence?

Couid this whole goat rodeo be a terrestrial metaphor for the tech bros and their Martian dreams?

Whilst I admit to being intrinsically sceptical of grandiose plans that don't seem to acknowledge the organic growth of cities occurs due to their natural location, Brasilia has sort of worked, hasn't it?