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.

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!

Khalic,

So working public transportation = utopia ?
How can one country be so disconnected from reality?

Uranium3006,
Uranium3006 avatar

Propaganda

MasterBlaster,

Maybe it’s a utopia that also has clean energy and public transportation.

Either way, I don’t trust the agenda. If they’re legitimately trying to help, something good might come of it, but it won’t be a utopia as humans will human.

Hopefully some valuable lessons will be learned without too much suffering.

Khalic,

It’s like advertising running water. Utopias are supposed to be IDEAL cities. We’re talking no hunger, no disease, etc. Not just a few bus stations, something present in any major city.

Kage520,

Not enough bus stations in every city. I’m like 5 miles in Florida heat away from the nearest bus station. I am only 2 miles from the nearest grocery store, so I’m not exactly rural. Public transit here is a joke.

Khalic,

That was the gist yes, only americans think this is an acceptable situation.

MasterBlaster,

Florida is one of those places hostile to anything that helps citizens using tax money.

After all, that’s socialism, which is evil. /s

It also has one of the most regressive tax systems in the country.

Philadelphia has an okay transit system, though it is neglected, as does NYC.

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.

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

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

LeatherRebel,

how about we build a guillotine on the land instead

HiddenLayer5,

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

young_broccoli,

They misspelt distopian.

Something_Complex,

Why improve current cities where people want to live when you can build the cyberpunk future distopian citry right here in your desert backyard.

sharkfeek,

You also misspelt dystopian.

young_broccoli,

Oh god... Its an epidemic!!!

DragonTypeWyvern,

Both are correct, because there is no universal spelling standard in English.

Even if there was, it would be run by nerds and you can beat them up.

In seriousness, both are correct, but dys is more correct. Dis is the Latin prefix, dys the Greek (from the Latin, language is fun), but utopia is Greek as well.

Dis was nonetheless a common enough spelling before dys became the generally preferred.

young_broccoli,

In spanish we use "dis"

sharkfeek,

Do you have a source? I looked it up just in case it was a regional or outdated spelling, but all I could find was “Dustopia”, the original spelling of “dystopia”, first appeared in Lewis Henry Younge’s Utopia: or Apollo’s Golden Days in 1747.

DragonTypeWyvern,

My source is the personal experience of having to listen to linguists too much, and having read enough English works and journals prior to the popularization of standardized spellings under the likes of Webster.

They just did whatever they fucking wanted, sometimes, it’s actually the worst.

olympicyes,

I’ve never seen “dis” used, and even if we were using Latin prefixes wouldn’t that mean “benetopia” would be as correct as “eutopia”? It’s pretty clear that OP spelled it wrong which was very funny in context.

DragonTypeWyvern,

Funny you bring that up, because “cacotopia/kakotopia” (re: spelling is largely aesthetics) was actually the first iteration of the idea.

I see no problems with anyone wanting to be fancy and dropping a “Benetopia” in any future manifestos.

FReddit,

Genius. This area is a barren shit hole and a lot of it will be under water within 10 years.

shasta,

Yeah I really don’t understand the location. Anywhere in California is a dumb idea. They will still have to deal with wildfires, drought, earthquakes, high tax rates. Why not Idaho? It’s probably even cheaper.

FReddit,

I agree. I live in California. Over the last five years, 70% of my county has been overrun by wildfires.

There’s a lot of natural beauty here. But if there’s a God, God hates this place.

Idaho seems like a more logical choice.

Plus I’ve worked at TFB. The vibe I got is that folks there don’t have a lot of respect for people who don’t have real jobs.

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.

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