Silicon Valley elites revealed as buyers of $800m of land to build utopian city
Silicon Valley elites revealed as buyers of $800m of land to build utopian city
Group Flannery Associates, backed by prominent investors, quietly buy 55,000 acres of farmland in northern California
After weeks of local speculation, the purchasers of 55,000 acres of northern California land have been revealed. The group Flannery Associates – backed by a cohort of Silicon Valley investors – has quietly purchased $800m worth of agricultural and empty land, the New York Times has reported. Their goal is to build a utopian new town that will offer its thousands of residents reliable public transportation and urban living, all of which would operate using clean energy.
I fucking hate that they used the term "empty" land. The poll question posed to residents asked them if they would be more in favor if they knew it was "bad soil" that only contributed to 5% of CA agriculture, as though making money is all that land is good for.
Yes, Fairfield, CA is kind of a shit hole. But NorCal open land is absolutely beautiful, like all of California. Every single fucking time I go there, which is pretty frequently, there are new mcmansion housing developments and business parks and data centers that are starting to be built or have just finished. There are protected wetlands between Sacramento and the east bay (far east) where migratory birds come back every year. Just because they don't build on the fucking wetlands doesn't mean this constant building isn't going to affect what little nature is left. I'm so fucking sick of seeing my home paved over for profit and I feel so powerless to do anything. Because I am powerless.
As if that weren't enough, we all know this is going to be some walled-off rich-people city where they can escape from us proles, right? Sick shit.
58There has to be more to this story...
If the distinguishing features are public transportation and clean energy, they’re probably not building it to live in themselves. And while there’s a big demand for more housing in the Bay Area generally, Solono County is a bit of a commute for current workers.
It feels like they’re building this as a company town for some yet-to-be-announced new business project that they want to be isolated from existing urban areas.
(edit) I guess I don’t mean "urban areas" so much as areas where employees would have contact with other Silicon Valley firms and culture.
36Just a bunch of rich fucks trying to con other rich fucks and hope to leave whoever is holding their junk bonds in the lurch.
27Can't wait to owe my soul to the company store
20Might as well call it Night City from Cyberpunk 2077.
18I'm getting real California City vibes.
13how about we build a guillotine on the land instead
7What a waste of good farmland! I can't believe that people do not value the thing that actually sustains us.
5It's a hideous area. And much of it will likely be underwater in ten years -- just about when they get the final approvals.
3They are John Galt
3- 1
And why not.
I have no great love for the rich and ultra rich, but I can understand fully they want to create a nice place to live with their families. And with 100s and laws and politicians of all stripes to deal with, making exisiting places significantly better in a manageable timeframe is just not feasable. Having a city outside cities is no different from them living on their mansions and superyachts. They are always in it from themselves, that is who they are, and that is what they are doing here.
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