Silicon Valley elites revealed as buyers of $800m of land to build utopian city

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.

deweydecibel,

Lol again with this? Wealthy fucks have been trying this since the 1700s. It never works.

KevonLooney,

CA is already only for wealthy people.

Steeve,

Lemmy users: We need more housing, walkable cities, public transport, and renewable energy

Developer: Plans to build more housing in a new walkable city with public transport powered by renewable energy

Lemmy users: Not like that!

DragonTypeWyvern,

Correct, most people don’t approve of the oligarchy building another haven for the ultra-rich on farmland.

Steeve,

Where do you get the impression this is built “for the ultra-rich”? Why would they be taking public transport over their personal jets and private cars? Why would they live in an urban area with tens of thousands of other residents instead of their personal mansions on acreage? This is definitely an investment for upper-middle to upper class residents.

As for farmland, article itself says “bad soil that only contributes 5% of the county’s agricultural production”. When you need housing, housing needs to go somewhere.

Your government isn’t going to build the cities the climate needs, if tech investors want to with their own cash I say go for it.

DragonTypeWyvern,

History.

Steeve,

Right, why think critically and make an intelligent argument when you can just hand-wave “history” lol

DragonTypeWyvern,

Said the guy who hears “wealthy consortium of capitalists” and thinks “wow save me daddies,” lul.

Steeve,

Whatever you say strawman, keep up with your scorched earth policy of gatekeeping who’s allowed to fight climate change.

Swedneck,
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I get that impression from this little thing called the title of the post

Steeve,

Didn’t make it past the title huh

Mirshe,

While I don’t fully disagree with you, these towns being funded by the ultra-rich, usually by people who already have shady business practices, are looking awfully like company towns. Amazon’s already trying to build company-provided housing near a lot of their hubs, which is bad in that now your healthcare AND your shelter are directly tied to your employment. Imagine if they get their way with building a whole micro-city that runs on that idea - where every last bit of wealth an employee might spend goes STRAIGHT back to your company. Their utilities get dealt with by Amazon-built power and water plants. Their food is provided by Amazon grocery stores or deliveries. Your healthcare is provided by Amazon, and your housing is at the whim of your employer. All of this is provided at jacked-up prices, of course, so you’re effectively just a debt slave until you die or the company decides to kick you to the curb.

Steeve,

It’s being built by an investment firm though, doesn’t look to be company housing, just looks like an investment to me.

someguy3,

Encircles an air force base. Why would anyone want to live encircling an air force base?

jimmydoreisalefty,

They will all serve and work for the military.

Military based economy.

More pro-war people, proxy wars for everyone.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod,
Semi-Hemi-Demigod avatar

I bet they'll act like people who move next to a farm and complain about the smell.

"Hiiii, we're your neighbors down the road. Do you think you could not fly your little airplanes around? They're awfully loud. Thanks bunches!"

geodesic,

You joke, but the towns of Portola Valley and Woodside (south of SF) are so wealthy and powerful they literally rerouted some plane routes by pulling strings of the FAA because they didn’t like the noise.

Almostarctic,

What a waste of good farmland! I can’t believe that people do not value the thing that actually sustains us.

FReddit,

It’s a hideous area. And much of it will likely be underwater in ten years – just about when they get the final approvals.

Swedneck,
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

it’s going to end up soulless and miserable, no doubt

just a series of mansions connected by roads, completely forgetting any sort of amenities or ability to produce things locally, because rich people think “mom and pop store” is when get your parents to bring things along on their private jet.

WaxedWookie,
  • City built by tech bros
  • Utopian

Pick one.

LeatherRebel,

how about we build a guillotine on the land instead

HiddenLayer5,

Can’t wait to owe my soul to the company store

Copythis,

Are we talking San Francisco northern California?

Or actual northern California? (above Sacramento)

GladiusB,
@GladiusB@lemmy.world avatar

East of SF like 1 to 1.5 hours depending on traffic.

Copythis,

Okay good… Rich people keep moving to my area where most people aren’t as well off.

They keep coming into our small towns and open up little Vinyard places. It’s like that episode with SodoSopa, but in real life.

It’s cool to see, but it makes the cost of living impossible!

SeeingWhereThisGoes,

Night city didn’t work out so great in Cyberpunk 2077

wanderingmagus,

Don’t create the torment nexus meme

VentraSqwal,

This is also giving me BioShok vibes.

Blackmist,

In my day they were called New Towns.

They’re all shit holes now.

kameecoding,

as Adam Something on YouTube puts it, ultra rich people + construction equals dumb shit.

ZzyzxRoad,

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.

YurkshireLad,

They’re building more data centres and California has a water shortage?

ChicoSuave,

California ended it’s water shortage in 2022

Staccato,

Now how long will it take the ecology to recover from the extended drought? Hydrologic recovery is only the first step.

YurkshireLad,

Ah thanks, I missed that fact.

DragonTypeWyvern,

5% of California’s agriculture isn’t “bad soil.”

AllNewTypeFace,
@AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space avatar

Every generation gets the Galt’s Gulch it deserves

flucksy_bango,

I’m just disappointed they aren’t building it underwater.

JdW,

deleted_by_author

    •
    madcaesar,

    Why not?

    Because they leeched off of our infrastructure to get where they are, and now they want to take their cake and eat it alone…

    We provided their cities, infrastructure, education, healthcare, educated and financial stable customers, and now that they’ve hoarded all the money, they want to build themselves a new city without the normies…

    Fine, but they can also build their own army to protect them, their own water treatment centers their own garbage disposals, their own education network, and if they want to interact with the rest of the country we’ll tax them at 500% the rate because of the douchebag tax.

    Immersive_Matthew,

    Might as well call it Night City from Cyberpunk 2077.

    karmiclychee,

    They could just pay their fucking taxes so we can have trains

    SoleInvictus,
    @SoleInvictus@lemmy.world avatar

    But think of all the jobs they’ll “create”!

    (/s so hard)

    Swedneck,
    @Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

    That’s not even limited by taxes, it’s limited by 4 fucking companies owning most of the tracks, and them being given free reign to run freight as shittily as possible, not maintain the tracks unless actively forced to, and giving precisely 0 fucks about passenger service.

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCBI3lPt3o4

    circuitfarmer,
    @circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    The US likely cannot fix its rail issue without nationalizing the rail system. As a country, it has yet to admit that there are some many problems capitalism a) does not fix and b) actively makes worse.

    karmiclychee,

    Ugh, there’s that doom ulcer again

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