A Scanner Darkly

Elgin is a city in Bastrop and Travis Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 5,700 at the 2000 census. By 2005, the population grew to an estimated 8,689. Elgin is also known as The Sausage Capital of Texas and the Brick Capital of the Southwest due to the presence of three... operating brickyards in the mid-twentieth century . Elgin is located 19 miles miles east of Austin and 15 miles north of Bastrop. Most of the city lies in Bastrop County, with an expanding portion into Travis County. Bastrop County also borders Williamson, Lee, Caldwell and Fayette counties. Elgin is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 290 and State Highway 95. Most of north Elgin is predominated by blackland prairie soil, suited for growing cotton, maize and corn. The City of Elgin owes its existence to a major flood of the Colorado River in 1869. Originally, the railroad was to have run from McDade, ten miles east of Elgin, southwest to the Colorado River at a point somewhere between Bastrop and Webberville, then to Austin following the river.
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Irvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the 66 square miles city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the... California Department of Finance estimates its 2012 population to be 223,729. It has annexed in the past an undeveloped area to the north, and has also annexed the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, most of which is planned to be converted into the Orange County Great Park. Because of its good schools, jobs, and housing, the city was chosen in 2008 by CNNMoney.com as the fourth best place to live in the United States; in September 2011, Businessweek listed Irvine as the 5th best city in the US. In June 2010, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that Irvine had the lowest violent crime rate among cities in the United States with populations of more than 100,000, and in August 2008 the Census Bureau ranked Irvine as having the seventh highest median income among cities in the United States with populations of more than 65,000.
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