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.
Told you it’s rich doom preppers who will build a literal walled garden.
Yep, it’s a return to feudalism and vassalage. A fortress for themselves and their servants (billionaires don’t do their own cooking and cleaning, they are important people afterall).
They know they need reasons for people to pledge fealty and they think public transport, apartments and clean energy is enough of a drawcard for their workers. The sad part is that they have eroded workers rights so far that they may well be right. Many other places in the world, these perks are much more normal.
Lol again with this? Wealthy fucks have been trying this since the 1700s. It never works.
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!
Correct, most people don’t approve of the oligarchy building another haven for the ultra-rich on farmland.
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.
Encircles an air force base. Why would anyone want to live encircling an air force base?
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!”
Why do I have the feeling this is going to turn into some sort of cyberpunk distopia quickly?
So working public transportation = utopia ?
How can one country be so disconnected from reality?
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.
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.
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.
